The Special School's Handbook

Key Issues for All

Michael Farrell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781134116027
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

Giving an up-to-date picture of the work of special schools, this practical and informative book provides an invaluable and timely companion for anyone teaching or planning to teach in special schools in the United Kingdom.

Using case studies of good practice to provide clear suggestions on how special schools may be further developed, the wide-ranging chapters address topics such as:

• adapting the curriculum to give special schools more flexibility
• implications of Every Child Matters and multi-professional working
• organisational changes in special schools
• the changing roles of staff in the modern special school
• ways of assessing the progress and achievement of pupils
• working with parents.

With a no-nonsense, non-academic approach, and with each chapter featuring think points and suggestion for further study, The Special School's Handbook contains a wealth of invaluable information, resources and advice and is a handy reference book which staff can dip in and out of at their leisure.

Chapter 1

Innovative organisation

This chapter examines various approaches to organisation and structure that a special school can develop in collaboration with other schools and with the local authority. I look at the collocation of special schools and mainstream schools; dual registration/placement; extended schools including ‘full service’ schools and children’s centres; federations that include special schools; and the specialist special schools programme (along with the leading-edge partnership programme). The chapter explores organisational issues surrounding the development of generic special schools. In both the opportunities provided by the closer location of special and mainstream schools and in organisation of generic special schools, I suggest that account is taken of the progress and development of pupils.

Collocation

A special school and a mainstream school may be ‘collocated’ on a campus, or even more closely positioned within the same complex of buildings, allowing opportunities for pupils to learn together, as the example of Vale School in Haringey demonstrates (see Box 1.1).

If the principles of optimal education (Farrell, 2006f: 14–26) were to apply, the areas of the curriculum pupils experienced would be monitored so that the pupil spent the optimum amount of time in the mainstream and the special school to encourage the best academic progress and personal and social development. This could range from all the pupil’s time being spent in special school, all of it being spent in mainstream school or varying proportions in each, but the proportions of time would be based on evidence of the pupil’s progress and development.

The ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme aims to replace or renew all secondary schools by 2016 to 2021, subject to future spending decisions. One outcome of the programme is that special schools and ordinary schools may be brought physically closer (www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/resourcesfinanceandbuilding/schoolbuildings/sbschoolsforthefuture). Such

Box 1.1 VALE SCHOOL, HARINGEY

Collocation

Vale School, Haringey is a co-educational day community special school for 85 pupils aged 2 to 19 years having physical disabilities and has purpose-built ‘resource bases’ (accommodation and facilities) on the same sites as two local schools, Lancasterian Primary School and Northumberland Park Community School (a secondary school). At both sites, Vale School has its own classrooms, therapy areas, offices and other facilities. It also has the opportunity to include some children part-time or full-time in the mainstream classrooms, both sites being accessible to wheelchairs. There are also opportunities at another local infant and junior school allowing up to 16 pupils aged 5 to 11 years to be included full-time in mainstream classrooms with the support of Vale teachers, therapists and visiting professionals from other agencies.

Vale has access to various professionals including physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, dietician, school nurse and peripatetic specialist teachers for visual impairment and hearing impairment. Staff in consultation with parents determine the extent of inclusion in mainstream classrooms, pupils’ progress being a significant factor in determining where pupils are taught.

Various professionals support the Vale resource base for pupils aged 2 to 11 years at Lancasterian School where pupils require the specialist base for most of their learning. The Vale resource base at Northumberland Park School houses the administration, secondary and post-sixteen departments, offering opportunities for pupils to obtain qualifications including the ASDAN (Award Scheme Development Accreditation Network) Youth Award Scheme, GCSEs and (if they use a communication aid) the City and Guilds Effective Augmentative Alternative Communication Certificate. Vale School also provides advice and consultancy to mainstream schools to support teachers educating pupils with a physical disability.

Box 1.2 THOMAS BEWICK SCHOOL, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

‘Building Schools for the Future’

Thomas Bewick School, Newcastle upon Tyne is an LEA-maintained community special school educating 64 children and young people aged 3 to 19 years with autistic spectrum disorder. It is organised into foundation stage, primary, secondary and sixth form departments as well as a weekly residential unit accommodating up to 10 children, allowing a 24 hour curriculum. Among less usual forms of accreditation, the Mencap Gateway Award is being piloted at Key Stage 3.

Staff are trained in nationally accredited courses: the Picture Exchange Communication System; TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Austistic and related Communication-handicapped Children); and Team Teach. Several teachers are studying for the part-time distance-learning course in autism through Birmingham University and others are attending postgraduate courses (Master of Arts) at Northumbria University. Staff have completed in-house training in autism awareness and in curriculum development in relation to autism (both taught by Northumbria University); Makaton; effective communication; and autism and ADHD. A full-time speech and language therapist is based at the school.

Part of Newcastle LEA’s involvement in ‘Building Schools for the Future’ is the development of a new school building for Thomas Bewick where it will share a campus adjacent to Beech Hill (a mainstream primary school) and All Saints Church of England College (a mainstream secondary school). The new special school, scheduled to open in March 2008, will educate up to 90 pupils from preschool age to 19 years. It will provide a base to support early multidisciplinary assessment, identification and assessment for preschool children and will have a resource centre to support families. The school will support additionally resourced centres and individual pupils with autism who are taught in mainstream schools, by outreach. Through links with the University of Northumbria and Newcastle University, the school will operate as a centre for educational research and development. It will also provide in-service training for teachers, teaching assistants, parents and staff from agencies other than education.

In preparation for the new school, a working group was formed of parents, governors and senior teachers and a consultant (ex-adviser) working on behalf of the school. Consultation took place with parents and pupils about what they would like in the new school. The school looked at forms of new buildings found in the centre of Newcastle and made an exhibition of findings and preferences in Newcastle Central Library. It also held consultations with parents and others.

The working group required many meetings with the architects and design teams to talk about what the school needed for pupils with autism. Since it is an all-age provision, the school asked that the building would have contrasting phase provision for the pupil’s journey through the school so that there was a clear difference in each phase of their learning from early skills and knowledge learning on to learning to be an independent adult. It was also required that areas in the school were secure and safe for the pupils. There was always the emphasis that the school style was to be a confident statement and not a building hiding away. Also important was the need for pupils to work in the community and have every opportunity for inclusion in other settings – attending college, work placements, etc. The other areas for extra provision are sensory rooms, which are age appropriate in each of the phases. There will also be soft play areas; withdrawal areas in each classroom; two-way windows for professionals and parents to observe their child; a hydrotherapy pool; flexible drama and performance areas, a café to be run by students in conjunction with the catering services; and horticulture areas to be run in conjunction with grounds maintenance services.

Three designs were submitted and the final one was decided by the local authority following the school’s own evaluations.

arrangements require careful planning by both the special school and others as the example of Thomas Bewick School, Newcastle upon Tyne illustrates (see Box 1.2).

Dual registration

Given that a special and a mainstream school have developed an understanding of each other’s provision, including their respective curricula and teaching methods, the dual registration of certain pupils with SEN becomes practicable. Careful consideration is given to the amount of time a particular pupil might spend in each setting, and what curriculum subjects are followed in each place of learning. Decisions might be made taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of each school in a variation of ‘optimal education’ (e.g. Farrell, 2005: 101–3). For example, if a particular special school has very limited facilities and resources for information and communication technology, it might be beneficial for some of its pupils to attend a better-equipped mainstream school for such lessons, all other things being equal.

Box 1.3 ASPLEY WOOD SCHOOL, NOTTINGHAM

Part-time placements in mainstream schools

Aspley Wood School, Nottingham (www.aspleywood.nottingham.sch.uk), is a co-educational community special school for 40 pupils with physical disabilities and complex learning difficulties. It has a British Council International School Award; a Schools Curriculum Award (2000 and 2002); a School Achievement Award (2003); a Sport for All Award; and has Investors in People recognition. As well as teachers and teaching assistants, the school has its own therapists and nurses and is visited by social workers, a music therapist and a teacher for the deaf. Outreach to mainstream schools educating pupils with physical disabilities includes helping the LEA allocate funds to mainstream schools for equipment or special seating.

Some Aspley School pupils have part-time placements in their local mainstream schools. To set up and maintain these placements requires careful collaboration between teachers, therapists, parents, teaching assistants and the pupils. Factors to be taken into account include: accessibility of mainstream premises; transport arrangements; the alignment of timetables; intimate personal care procedures in the mainstream setting; feeding requirements; friendship groups; moving and handling training; any specialised seating/tables required; access to the curriculum; and communication between all parties. There is ongoing monitoring and support of placements, which are regularly reviewed.

Staff from the special school may support the pupil in mainstream and provide opportunities for colleagues from the mainstream school to observe good practice in the special school and model suitable approaches. Communications between the two schools may be facilitated through a joint pupil diary. Where a special school has several pupils on dual role with different mainstream schools with teachers and other professionals from the special school involved, it is essential that communications are effective and well organised.

The child’s statement of SEN would record the fact that the pupil has placements in two schools. Evaluating dual placements may involve monitoring and evaluating the progress of individual pupils according to where they were educated, for what subjects, for what amount of time and so on. An example of a school with long experience of dual registration and placement (Hexham Priory School, Northumberland) is given in Chapter 10.

The example of Aspley Wood School also illustrates some of the considerations to be taken into account (see Box 1.3).

Extended schools and children’s centres

Evidence from the USA suggests that extending the time of the school day in mainstream schools does not necessarily lead to improvements in pupils’ learning (Ellis, 1984). However, the extended school concept does not simply have to be limited to making the day longer but can involve making the time that the school operates more flexible and also ‘extending’ what the school does.

An extended school has been described as ‘one that provides a range of services and activities often beyond the school day to help meet the needs of its pupils, their families and the wider community’ (DfES, 2002: 2). Under the Education Act 2002, governing bodies can provide facilities and services benefiting families and the community; arrange with other partners to provide services on the school premises; and can charge for services (see also www.continyu.org.uk). The management of larger programmes might be delegated to, for example, early years development and childcare partnerships.

The current encouragement for the development of extended schools including so-called full service schools and children’s centres have relevance for special schools in that there are already examples of special schools offering extended services. (See, for example, Box 1.4.) Any school considering such a development can begin by consulting the legal, practical and financial advice available on the Internet, for example at Teachernet (www.teachernet.gov.uk).

Extended schools are considered an important element in achieving Every Child Matters outcomes, providing as they do services and activities, often beyond the school day, for pupils and families and the community. A full-service school embracing principles of integrating children’s services might offer:

• childcare (e.g. working with early years development childcare partnerships to plan childcare services, Sure Start, Early Excellence centres);
• study support;
• community sports programmes and cultural activities;
• family learning (e.g. family literacy and numeracy);
• adult education and lifelong learning (e.g. neighbourhood learning centres);
• health services (e.g. liaison with the primary care trust and others; family health centres);
• social care services; and
• access to school facilities such as information and communication technology.

An example of the potential for developing sports programmes is Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL), a government strategy aimed at increasing the number of children and young people aged 5 to 16 years who take up and enjoy sports within and beyond the curriculum. This

Box 1.4 HADRIAN SCHOOL, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

Hadrian School, Newcastle upon Tyne is a community day school for 125 boys and girls aged 2 to 11 years with severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties and associated physical disabilities. The school has a wide range of partners including: Sport England, the School Sports Partnership, Northern Arts, Northern Stage, Friends of Hadrian School, Newcastle Business Partnership, Sightlines Initiative, Newcastle Toy Library, the University of Northumbria and various local schools and colleges.

The school runs an after-school club with a rolling programme of activities including: games; athletics and trampolining; hydrotherapy; cooking; information and communication technology; music; and art. The Newcastle Toy Library has a base in the school and hosts fortnightly activities on Saturday mornings including soft play and aromatherapy. The Play and Youth Service use the school every holiday period except Christmas for a play scheme for young people and children with SEN and their siblings. Local health authorities have staff based on the school site including physiotherapists and speech and language therapists. The LA employs and pays for an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist who work in the school part-time.

Trainees and students including nursing, teaching, BTEC and medical students use Hadrian as a training placement. The school is the venue for adult courses and workshops such as first aid and moving and handling. It delivers courses for teachers and others including moving and handling; rebound therapy (accredited and offered nationally) and National Vocational Qualifications for teaching assistants (accredited by the City and Guilds ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Illustrations
• The Author
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 Innovative Organisation
• Chapter 2 Clear Roles
• Chapter 3 Challenging Training
• Chapter 4 Distinctive Provision
• Chapter 5 Better Children’s Well-being
• Chapter 6 Ambitious Target Setting
• Chapter 7 Confident Multi-professional Working
• Chapter 8 Strong Home–school Partnership
• Chapter 9 Dynamic Pupil Participation
• Chapter 10 Secure Funding
• Conclusion Promoting the Special School
• Bibliography
• Addresses