Teaching and Supporting Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Primary Schools

Jonathan Glazzard, Jane Stokoe, Alison Hughes, Annette Netherwood, Lesley Neve

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781526471024
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

This book begins by exploring what is meant by SEND in primary schools and goes on to cover everything trainees and teachers need to know about their statutory responsibilities in school. It then examines the range of needs they will encounter in primary schools with plenty of practical advice along the way. This third edition has been fully restructured and updated to include a new section on the key theories and theorists relating to SEND. Also new to this edition is a chapter focusing on the role of the SENCO in primary school. Finally, the book includes more practical support with coverage of current legislation and the Code of Conduct as well as checklists and information about useful resources and outside agencies.

Part 1 Understanding Special Educational Needs

1 What do we mean by ‘special Educational needs and disabilities’ in primary schools?

Chapter objectives

This chapter covers:

• the history of the special educational needs (SEN) system in England;
• the statutory duties on schools and Local Authorities (LAs);
• the key aspects of the 2015 Code of Practice.

Teachers’ Standards

This chapter addresses the following Teachers’ Standards:

Part 2: Teachers must understand, and always act within, the statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities.

Introduction

This chapter will introduce students briefly to the historical development of inclusive education. It will examine the current policy context in relation to SEN and it will discuss the Code of Practice for SEN (DfE, 2015).

History

During much of the twentieth century children with disabilities were viewed as being uneducable. Consequently, they did not have a right to an education. However, the 1972 Education Act gave all children the right to an education, however severe their disabilities. Following this Act, many local education authorities struggled, without guidance, to provide school education for children with SEN and most of the education took place in special schools (Warnock, 2005). In 1974, Margaret Thatcher, then Secretary of State for Education, commissioned the Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People to review the education of pupils with SEN. Mary Warnock led the inquiry and the recommendations from this were published in the Warnock Report in 1978 (DES/Warnock, 1978). The report recommended replacing the terminology of handicapped with special educational needs and recommended that, where possible, children with SEN should be educated in mainstream schools. Thus, the concept of integration was born. Integration focused largely on the assimilation of pupils with SEN into mainstream schools. Integration placed little or no onus on the school to make adaptations or adjustments to meet the specific needs of learners. Instead, learners with SEN were expected to adapt to a system of education that was largely unchanged.

The recommendations of the Warnock Report formed the basis of the 1981 Education Act, which introduced a financial safety net to support the most vulnerable children in mainstream provision. This was to be known as the statement of SEN. However, the 1981 Education Act made no provision for any additional funding to be allocated to local education authorities to implement the new procedures (Warnock, 2005). The effect of this was that parents fought with cash-strapped local education authorities to gain statements for their children (Warnock, 2005). Tribunals were established in the 1990s to adjudicate in the disputes. Warnock has more recently stated that she personally felt that she held a degree of responsibility for what turned out to be not a very bright idea (Warnock, 2005: 27) when making specific reference to the statementing process.

The signing of the Salamanca Agreement (UNESCO, 1994) signalled a policy shift from integration to inclusion and marked a global commitment to the principles of inclusive education. Nations signed up to the principle that ‘ordinary’ schools should accommodate all children, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This was an important policy development because the agreement placed an onus on schools to be more proactive in meeting the needs of learners with disabilities.

Alongside policy developments in relation to inclusive education, the late 1980s and the 1990s saw the growth of the competitive market in which schools had to operate. The Education Reform Act of 1988 introduced the National Curriculum. This was accompanied with the introduction of statutory assessment tests (SATs) in primary and secondary schools, and the publication of test results in the form of league tables. Additionally, a system of rigorous school inspections was established during the 1990s, and failing schools were named and shamed. Under-performing schools were placed in special measures and subjected to a process of reinspection and threat of closure unless results improved. It has been argued that the marketisation of education was largely incompatible with policy developments that promoted inclusion (Warnock, 1996; Armstrong, 1998; Barton, 1998). One reason for this is that the National Curriculum and statutory assessment processes did not meet the needs of all learners, resulting in winners and losers. The losers were often children with special educational needs who were able to make progress, but not necessarily able to achieve national expected standards of attainment.

The Labour government (1997–2010) continued to advance an agenda for inclusive education at the same time as making schools increasingly accountable for pupil performance. Through policy documents (DfEE, 1997; DfES, 2004), disability discrimination legislation and agendas such as Every Child Matters (HMSO, 2003) there was an emphasis on the need for schools to plan more proactively to meet the diverse needs of different learners and a clear expectation that schools should become increasingly inclusive.

However, according to Goodley:

Educational environments, curricula content, teacher identities are all normatively associated with environments, standards and achievements that are at odds with the quirkiness of disabled learners. Schools continue to exclude children by virtue of their inaccessibility. Curricula promote standards that some with (or without) impairments will never reach … Teachers are assessed in ways that celebrate high achievement over the valuing of difference … disabled students continue to be singled out for specialized attention, are segregated from non-disabled peers through the presence of non-disabled adult supporters and remain unrepresented in images of schooling and educational attainment.

Goodley, 2007: 319)

Therefore, for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), it is important to reflect on the extent to which current curricula and approaches to assessment marginalise and therefore exclude children with disabilities.

Voice of a SENDco
Voice of a Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENDCo)

‘Inclusion’ – one short word. It is a word, however, that I struggle to define, despite its prominence in my current professional role. Should I be asked to substitute this with an alternative, my response would be ‘belonging’. Immediately other words spring to mind, including ‘acceptance’. It is profoundly evident that I have no clear understanding of the word ‘inclusion’ and that despite my strong beliefs that I wish to ‘include’ all children in my teaching, I am unable to offer an explanation as to the meanings of my practices. I offer no apologies for my poor understanding of this educational term. Through copious discussions with friends and colleagues, as well as my own readings, it has become evident that this one word, in reality, has several meanings. It is a word with several meanings to different individuals who may at the same time be working to enable and support its principles. There is little wonder that, despite working in an ‘inclusive’ environment, I continue to find it a frustrating and challenging experience.

There are aspects of some interpretations of ‘inclusion’ that I embrace wholeheartedly. To include children is to ensure that they are not simply a physical presence. I strive to make adaptations to my practices to ensure that all children can access all aspects of their education. I view the classroom as ‘ours’. It is a space that belongs to all of us, a space in which we can all grow and develop, and a space where we can all enjoy a strong sense of belonging. To simply belong, however, is inadequate in terms of explaining inclusion. ‘Acceptance’ is, of course, another term that will have different meanings for different people. It is, I now acknowledge, acceptance that is central to my own interpretation of ‘inclusion’. I believe that we are all capable of great things and that equally we all find some aspects of life and learning more challenging. The current agenda relating to inclusion does not, in my opinion, support acceptance. There is a strong force to drive all children towards a narrow measure of success, so narrow that it cannot be fully attained by all children. I truly strive to accept the differences between children.

Reflective Task

Discuss the following questions with a colleague on your course.

• Is the current emphasis on English, mathematics and age-related expectations in the National Curriculum instrumentally failing certain groups of learners and allowing other learners to excel?
• How can assessment systems in schools be modified to broaden out what is meant by success and achievement?

Current policy context

Current SEND policy continues to emphasise the need for children with SEND to achieve better academic outcomes. Outcomes include academic attainment, access to further and higher education, access to employment and independent living in adult life. There is a clear policy focus that emphasises the need for schools to close the achievement gap between pupils with and without SEND. Policy emphasises the need for schools and colleges to increase their expectations of learners with SEND and to prioritise improving outcomes for this group through high-quality inclusive teaching.

Current legislation

All educational institutions must be compliant with the Equality Act 2010 which identifies disability as a protected characteristic. The Equality Act places a statutory duty on all educational institutions to ensure that learners with disabilities are protected from direct or indirect discrimination. Additionally, educational institutions must be able to demonstrate that they have taken steps to promote positive relationships between different groups of le...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the authors
• Part 1 Understanding Special Educational Needs
• 1 What do we mean by ‘special Educational needs and disabilities’ in primary schools?
• Part 2 Theory
• 2 Inclusive Education: Theoretical Perspectives
• Part 3 Supporting Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
• 3 Understanding Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs
• 4 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• 5 Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia
• 6 Supporting children with autistic spectrum conditions
• 7 Visual And Hearing Impairment
• 8 Speech, language and communication difficulties
• 9 Identification And Assessment
• 10 An Inclusive Classroom
• 11 Practical strategies for supporting and teaching children with special educational needs and disabilities
• 12 School Experience
• 13 The role of the SENDCo
• Concluding Comments
• References
• Glossary
• Index