Addressing Special Educational Needs and Disability in the Curriculum: Religious Education

Dilwyn Hunt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781134838202
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

The SEND Code of Practice (2015) reinforced the requirement that all teachers must meet the needs of all learners. This topical book provides practical, tried and tested strategies and resources that will support teachers in making RE lessons accessible and interesting for all pupils, including those with special needs. The author draws on a wealth of experience to share his understanding of special educational needs and disabilities and show how the RE teacher can reduce or remove any barriers to learning. Offering strategies that are specific to the context of RE teaching, this book will enable teachers to:

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• create a supportive environment which maximises learning opportunities;

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• plan the classroom layout and display to enhance learning;

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• help students of all levels to gain confidence in their reading and writing ability;

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• stimulate discussion and develop thinking skills through using stimuli such as religious art, music, artefacts and films;

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• successfully train and fully use the support of their teaching assistants.

An invaluable tool for continuing professional development, this text will be essential for teachers (and their teaching assistants) seeking guidance specific to teaching RE to all pupils, regardless of their individual needs. This book will also be of interest to SENCOs, senior management teams and ITT providers.

In addition to free online resources, a range of appendices provide RE teachers with a variety of writing frames and activity sheets to support effective teaching. This is an essential tool for RE teachers and teaching assistants, and will help to deliver successful, inclusive lessons for all pupils.

1 Meeting special educational needs and disabilities

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 special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) may have an education, health and care plan (EHC plan): 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 (DfE 2015)

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

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 only.

Whole-school ethos

Successful schools are proactive 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 2 and a sample departmental policy for SEND can be downloaded from www.routledge.com/9781138683778.

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, language and communication needs (SLCN) Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism (ASD)	Specific learning difficulties (SpLD) Moderate learning difficulties (MLD) Severe learning difficulties (SLD) Profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD)	Mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance abuse or eating disorders Attention deficit disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or attachment disorder	Vision impairment (VI) Hearing impairment (HI) Multi-sensory impairment (MSI) Physical disability (PD)

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 thrust of the Children and Families Act and Chapter 6 of the SEND Code of Practice is that outcomes for pupils with SEND 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 SEND 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 SEND 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 SEND what is important to them for their child’s future, they often answer ‘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 in long-term dependency on adults, however, or limited opportunities to develop social skills, both of which impact negatively on preparation for adulthood.

Excellent classroom provision

Later chapters provide lots of subject-specific ideas and guidance on strategies to support pupils with SEND. In Appendix 3 you will find useful checklists to help you support pupils with identified ‘conditions’, but there are some generic approaches that form the foundations of outstanding provision, such as:

• providing support from adults or other pupils;

• adapting tasks or environments;

• using specialist aids and equipment as appropriate.

The starting points listed below provide a sound basis for creating an inclusive learning environment that will benefit all pupils, while being especially important for those with SEND.

Develop pupils’ understanding through the use of all available senses by:

• using resources that pupils can access through sight and sound (and where appropriate also use the senses of touch, taste and smell to broa...