Addressing Special Educational Needs and Disability in the Curriculum: English

Tim Hurst

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315535838
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book provides practical strategies and resources that have been proven effective in teaching English to pupils of all abilities, making English accessible, challenging and exciting. The author outlines important key principles that should underpin teaching and learning so that all pupils, including those with special educational needs, can enjoy the subject and make outstanding progress.

The ideas and guidance draw on a wealth of experience, providing classroom activities and free online resources, which can be combined with different teaching approaches. A range of appendices provides teachers with real-life case studies and examples and templates for supporting pupils with SEND. Offering strategies that are specific to the context of English teaching, this book will enable teachers and their teaching assistants to:

• develop pupils' understanding by engaging multi-sensory approaches;
• ensure all pupils are able to participate fully in lessons and achieve success;
• design and use individual plans for pupils with SEND;
• assess and adapt content and resources when differentiating materials for pupils with a wide range of learning needs;
• use formative assessments to measure learning and inform planning.

An invaluable tool for whole-school continuing professional development, this fully revised text will be essential for teachers and their teaching assistants seeking guidance specific to teaching English to all pupils, regardless of their individual needs. This book will also be of interest to SENDCOs, learning support units and senior management teams as well as to teacher-training professionals.

1
Meeting special educational needs

Your responsibility

New legislation and national guidance in 2014 changed the landscape of educational provision for pupils with any sort of ‘additional’ or ‘special’ needs. The vast majority of learners, including those with ‘moderate’ or ‘mild’ learning difficulties, weak communication skills, dyslexia or social/behavioural needs, rarely attract additional resources: they are very much accepted as part of the mainstream mix. Pupils with more significant SEND may have an EHCP: this outlines how particular needs will be met, often involving professionals from different disciplines, and sometimes specifying adult support in the classroom. Both groups of pupils are ultimately the responsibility of the class teacher, whether in mainstream or special education.

High quality teaching that is differentiated and personalised will meet the individual needs of the majority of children and young people. Some children and young people need educational provision that is additional to or different from this. This is special educational provision under Section 21 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Schools, and colleges must use their best endeavours to ensure that such provision is made for those who need it. Special educational provision is underpinned by high quality teaching and is compromised by anything less.

SEND Code of Practice 2015

There is more information about legislation (Children and Families Act 2014; Equality Act 2010) and guidance (SEND Code of Practice) in Appendix 1.1.

Definition of SEND

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.

(SEND Code of Practice 2015)

Table 1.1 The four broad areas of SEND

Communication and interaction	Cognition and learning	Social, emotional and mental health difficulties	Sensory and/or physical needs
Speech,	Specific learning	Mental health	Vision impairment (VI)
language and	difficulties (SpLD)	difficulties such
communication needs (SLCN)		as anxiety or	Hearing impairment (HI)
	Moderate learning	depression,
	difficulties (MLD)	self-harming,	Multi-sensory
Asperger		substance abuse	impairment (MSI)
Syndrome and	Severe learning	or eating disorders
autism (ASD)	difficulties (SLD)		Physical disability (PD)
		Attention deficit
	Profound and	disorders (ADD),
	multiple learning	attention deficit
	difficulties (PMLD)	hyperactivity
		disorder (ADHD) or
		attachment disorder

As shown in Table 1.1, the SEND Code of Practice identifies four broad areas of SEND, but remember that this gives only an overview of the range of needs that should be planned for by schools; pupils’ needs rarely fit neatly into one area of need.

Whole-school ethos

Successful schools are pro-active in identifying and addressing pupils’ special needs, focusing on adapting the educational context and environment rather than on ‘fixing’ an individual learner. Adapting systems and teaching programmes rather than trying to force the pupil to conform to rigid expectations will lead to a greater chance of success in terms of learning outcomes. Guidance on whole-school and departmental policy making can be found in Appendix 1.2, and a sample departmental policy for SEND can be downloaded from our website.

Policy into practice

In many cases, pupils’ individual learning needs will be met through differentiation of tasks and materials in their lessons; sometimes this will be supplemented by targeted interventions such as literacy catch-up programmes delivered outside the classroom. A smaller number of pupils may need access to more specialist equipment and approaches, perhaps based on advice and support from external specialists.

The main thrusts of the Children and Families Act and Chapter 6 of the SEND Code of Practice are that outcomes for pupils with SEN must be improved and that schools and individual teachers must have high aspirations and expectations for all.

In practice, this means that pupils should be enabled to:

• achieve their best; additional provision made for pupils with SEN will enable them to make accelerated progress so that the gap in progress and attainment between them and other pupils is reduced. Being identified with SEN should no longer be a reason for a pupil making less than good progress.
• become confident individuals living fulfilling lives; if you ask parents of children with SEN what is important to them for their child’s future they often mention happiness, the opportunity to achieve his or her potential, friendships and a loving family – just what we all want for our children. Outcomes in terms of well-being, social skills and growing independence are equally as important as academic outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
• make a successful transition into adulthood, whether into employment, further or higher education or training; decisions made at transition from primary school, in Year 7 and beyond, should be made in the context of preparation for adulthood. For example, where a pupil has had full-time support from a teaching assistant in primary school, the secondary school’s first reaction might be to continue this level of support after transition. This may result...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Website materials
• List of appendices
• Series authors
• A few words from the series editor
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Meeting special educational needs: your responsibility
• 2 The inclusive English classroom
• 3 Accessing the examination curriculum
• 4 Using ICT to support learners
• 5 Monitoring and assessment
• 6 Managing support
• Appendices
• References
• Resources and contact details
• Index