Meeting Special Educational Needs in Secondary Classrooms

Inclusion and how to do it

Sue Briggs

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317521044
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

There are greater numbers of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) now attending mainstream schools. This fully updated and revised edition of Meeting Special Educational Needs in Secondary Classrooms is written by an experienced teacher, adviser and SEN consultant and explains the challenges that these children face. This is a practical book full of guidance for teachers and teaching assistants who support children with SEND in mainstream secondary classrooms.

Now fully updated to include the requirements of the 2014 Children and Families Act and SEND Code of Practice, this book:

• covers all aspects of teaching children with SEND, including planning, teaching and learning
• promotes successful communication between teachers, parents and students
• contains photocopiable resources and templates.

With practical guidance on how to make the curriculum more accessible for children with SEND, this book will help teachers and TAs work together to support pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities more effectively.

Chapter 1

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Introduction

Inclusion in the secondary school context

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Inclusion looks different in every school. You need to find strategies that work for your subject team, in your classrooms with your pupils. Inclusion is not a fixed state – it’s a process that takes time to achieve. Rather than sudden change, it is a process of continuous school improvement. Inclusion has to work for each individual subject teacher in each classroom. By finding out what works for you and by ditching what does not, you can celebrate and enjoy the triumphs and learn from strategies that turn out to be less successful. Teachers are not expected to put everything in place overnight, but they should begin to look for new ways of including children with a diverse range of needs. The ideas and suggestions that follow are intended to support school leaders, faculty team leaders, and subject teachers, as together they develop their own inclusive practice.

Throughout this book the term ‘pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)’ is used. A pupil has special educational needs if he or she:

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

• has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.

The term ‘parent’ is used throughout and is intended to cover any additional main care-givers.

The legislative framework

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced changes important for all teachers about the education and inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Part 3 of the Act heralded the first major revision of the SEN framework for thirty years. Central to Part 3 of the Act is Section 19. This section sets out the principles underpinning the legislation and outlines the expectations of local authorities, schools, and health and social care services. It is about how these organisations work with parents of children and young people with SEND. Section 19 states:

In exercising a function under this Part in the case of a child or young person, a local authority in England must have regard to the following matters in particular –

(a) the views, wishes and feelings of the child and his or her parent, or the young person;

(b) the importance of the child and his or her parent, or the young person, participating as fully as possible in decisions relating to the exercise of the function concerned;

(c) the importance of the child and his or her parent, or the young person, being provided with the information and support necessary to enable participation in those decisions;

(d) the need to support the child and his or her parent, or the young person, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help him or her achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes.

(SEND Code of Practice, 2015, 1.1, p. 19)

This is a radical departure from how previously many statutory organisations have interacted with parents, and demands changes in organisational systems and culture, and professional attitudes towards children, young people and their families.

In addition to the clearer focus on the participation of children, young people and parents in decision making at individual and strategic levels, the other significant changes to the SEND framework include:

• for children and young people with more complex needs, a co-ordinated assessment process and Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans replacing statements of special educational needs;

• a strong focus on higher aspirations for children and young people with SEND, and, rather than the previous focus on provision, on improving outcomes;

• an expectation of close co-operation between health, education and social care, including joint planning and commissioning of services;

• a duty on local authorities to have a Local Offer of the services ordinarily available for children and young people with SEND and their families;

• in schools, a single category of SEND (SEN Support), replacing School Action and School Action Plus;

• a ‘best endeavours’ duty on schools: schools must use their best endeavours to make sure that a child or young person with SEN gets the support he or she needs – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s SEN.

(SEND Code of Practice, 2015, 6.2, p. 92)

This best endeavours duty is a key duty for governing bodies and this legal duty is directly with them rather than the headteacher of the school, as governors are responsible for the appointment and performance management of school leaders. Importantly, the ‘best endeavours’ duty is proactive in that it requires the governing body to ensure that the school is making the special educational provision that pupils need – governors should be sure that this is really happening rather than simply taking the word of the headteacher or SENCO. The duty applies not only to those with an EHC plan, but to all children with SEN, and is an important legal safeguard for children without an EHC plan.

• schools are required to publish an SEN Information Report on their websites;

• the framework covers all children and young people with SEND from birth to age 25.

The Equality Act 2010

Sitting alongside the Children and Families Act 2014, the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 remain in place. This is especially important because many children and young people who have SEN may have a disability under the Equality Act. The definition of disability in the Equality Act is: ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’.

‘Long-term’ is defined as lasting or being likely to last for ‘a year or more’, and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. The definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and, just as crucially for schools, will include children with long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer.

As the SEND Code of Practice (DfE, 2015, p. 16) states, this definition provides a relatively low threshold and includes more children than many may realise. Children and young people with some conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is often a significant overlap between disabled children and young people, and those with SEN. Where a disabled child or young person requires special educational provision, they also will be covered by the SEN definition.

This doesn’t apply to our school. We don’t have any disabled pupils. Oh yes, it does apply to your school. It applies to all schools, including academies and free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools, and also to further education colleges and sixth form colleges.

Importantly, the duties are anticipatory in that they cover not only current pupils but also prospective ones. Schools are required to have accessibility plans for disabled pupils that address three elements of planned improvements in access:

• improvements in access to the curriculum;

• physical improvements to increase access to education and associated services;

• improvements in the provision of information for disabled pupils in a range of formats.

Schools also have wider duties under the Equality Act to prevent discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity and to foster good relations. These duties should inform all aspects of school improvement planning from curriculum design through to anti-bullying policies and practice.

But we don’t have the specialist knowledge for these pupils. As part of their diverse school communities, secondary schools have always welcomed pupils with a range of special educational needs and disabilities. But schools sometimes for a number of reasons can be reluctant to include a pupil with more significant or complex needs. These reasons may include a perceived lack of expertise, worries about behaviour and, most commonly expressed, concerns about the effect that pupil might have on the education of other pupils in that class.

The SEND Code of Practice is very clear that where the parent of a pupil with an EHC plan makes a request for a particular school, the local authority must comply with that preference and name the school in the plan unless:

• it would be unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or SEN of the child or young person, or

• the attendance of the child or young person there would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, or the efficient use of resources.

(SEND Code of Practice, 2015, 9.79, p. 172)

Equally, schools cannot refuse to admit a pupil who has SEN but who does not have an EHC plan because they do not feel able to cater for those needs, or because the child does not have an EHC plan.

Won’t including a pupil with complex SEND mean more work for teachers, leaving less time for the other pupils? Isn’t that incompatible with the efficient education of the other children? Undoubtedly, there will initially be more work for teachers, especially in preparation and training, but once systems have been set up (and provided the whole school is committed to inclusion), in a short time the pupil with SEND will become just another member of the year group. Under the Equality Act 2010 schools are required to make reasonable adjustments for pupils with a disability, and that the preparation and training necessary to include a particular pupil is deemed to be a reasonable adjustment.

Teachers and teaching assistants are enormously resourceful and creative people, with more skills and knowledge than they realise. Pupils with SEND are just that – pupils – and each has his or her individual talents, strengths and needs. A colleague once commented: ‘It’s all a mind game really, isn’t it Sue?’ – and she was right. Focus more on the pupil’s abilities and his or her personality and less on the difficulties and ‘needs’, and you will find just how rewarding it can be to help a pupil with SEND to grow as a full member of the school community.

What is the responsible body for our school? The ‘responsible body’ for a maintained secondary school is usually the governing body, and for academies and free schools, the proprietor. The responsible body is responsible, and ultimately liable, for the actions of all employees and anyone working with the authority of the school, such as contractors or parent helpers.

Will a school always know that a pupil has a disability? It is not always obvious that a pupil has a disability. Such disabilities as autistic spectrum disorder, dyslexia or epilepsy may not be immediately obvious and, along with other ‘hidden disabilities’ may not be recognised or diagnosed before a pupil transfers to secondary school. This can be because the child is generally more supported in the primary context and may have had few changes of teacher and classroom.

Underachievement or behaviour difficulties might relate to an underlying physical or mental impairment which could be covered by the Equality Act. A responsible body would have difficulty claiming not to have known about a disability if, on the basis of the pupil’s behaviour or underachievement, it might reasonably have been expected to know that a pupil was disabled.

Try to avoid making assumptions about pupils based on a diagnosis, or reports from professionals. Each pupil is different and will respond to each situation in his or her unique way. By all means find out about the pupil’s condition, but look at the disability in the context of the child as an individual. The social model of disability sees the environment as the primary disabling factor, as opposed to the medical model that focuses on the individual child’s needs and difficulties.

Schools should take an environment-interactive approach. Interventions need to be centred on adapting the educational context rather than on ‘fixing’ the individual child’s needs. Where schools focus on adapting systems and teaching programmes rather than trying to force the pupil to adapt to the existing context, in terms of outcomes for the pupil the chances of success are far greater. For example:

Case study: Reuben

Reuben joined the school in Year 7 with a small cohort of children from his village primary school. Reuben has had difficulties with reading from his earliest days in primary school and at chronological age 12 years 6 months he has a reading age of 7 years 2 months. He has a tentative diagnosis of specific learning difficulties/dyslexia and is going through an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment that is expected to lead to an EHC plan.

Reuben’s school originally planned to use the additional funding to appoint a teaching assistant for 15 hours each week to support him by sitting with him to ‘differ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction: inclusion in the secondary school context
• 2 Understanding SEN support and education, health and care plans
• 3 Working with families: Section 19 in action
• 4 Planning and teaching the curriculum for inclusion
• 5 Support for inclusion
• 6 Social interaction and behaviour
• 7 The voice of the pupil with SEND
• 8 Transitions: inclusion challenges and opportunities
• Appendix: Inclusive teaching and learning checklist
• References and suggested further reading
• Index