Meeting Special Educational Needs in Primary Classrooms

Inclusion and how to do it

Sue Briggs

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138898967
• eBook ISBN: 9781317482208
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

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 Primary 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 primary classrooms.

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

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

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.

1 Inclusion in the primary context

DOI: 10.4324/9781315708225-1

Inclusion looks different in every school. Inclusion is not a fixed state, it's a process that takes time to achieve. The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced important changes for all teachers about the education and inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 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 national curriculum inclusion statement reaffirms that teachers should have high expectations for all pupils and should plan lessons to ensure that barriers to achievement are overcome. The statement sets out two key principles of inclusion: setting suitable challenges; and responding to pupils' needs and overcoming potential barriers for individuals and groups of pupils. The national curriculum programmes of Study set out what pupils should be taught and should learn in each school year.

Inclusion looks different in every school. You need to find strategies that work in your classroom with your pupils. Inclusion is not a fixed state – it’s a process that takes time to achieve. Rather than a sudden change it is a process of continuous school improvement. Inclusion has to work for each individual 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 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, teachers and class teams as together they develop their own inclusive practice.

Throughout this book the term ‘pupils/children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)’ is used. A child 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 important changes for all teachers about the education and inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 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; and is about how they 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:

1. the views, wishes and feelings of the child and his or her parent, or the young person;
2. 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;
3. 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;
4. 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.

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

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

• covers all children and young people from birth to age 25;
• for children with more complex needs, a coordinated assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plans replacing statements of special educational needs;
• a strong focus on higher aspirations for children with SEND and improving outcomes, rather than the previous focus on provision;
• an expectation of close cooperation between health, education and social care, including joint planning and commissioning of services;
• a duty on Local Authorities to have for children with SEND and their families a local offer of the services ordinarily available;
• 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 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 Chapter 6.2, p. 92);
• schools are required to publish an SEN Information Report on their websites.

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, children with long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer.

As the SEND Code of Practice (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 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 will also 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 primary academies and free schools. Importantly, the duties are anticipatory in that they cover not only current pupils but also prospective ones. Schools are required to have accessibility plans that address three elements of planned improvements in access for disabled pupils:

• improvements in access to the curriculum;
• physical improvements to increase access to education and associated services;
• improvements in the provision of information in a range of formats for disabled pupils.

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 children. Primary schools have always welcomed children with a range of special educational needs and disabilities as part of their diverse school communities. However, schools sometimes, for a number of reasons, can be reluctant to include a child with more significant or complex needs. These include a perceived lack of expertise, worries about behaviour and, most commonly expressed, concerns about the effect that child might have on the education of the other children in that class.

The SEND Code of Practice is very clear that where the parent of a child with an Education, Health, and Care plan (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 child 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 child with complex SEND mean more work for the teacher, leaving less time for the other pupils? Isn’t that incompatible with the efficient education of the other children? Initially, there will undoubtedly be more work for the teacher, especially in preparation and training; but once systems have been set up (and providing the whole school is committed to inclusion), in a short time the child with SEND will become just another member of the class. Under the Equality Act 2010 schools are required to make reasonable adjustments for children with a disability and the preparation and training necessary to include a particular child is deemed a reasonable adjustment. Teachers and teaching assistants are enormously resourceful and creative people, with more skills and knowledge than even they realise. Children with SEND are just that – children – 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 child’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 child 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 primary school is usually the governing body, and for primary 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 child has a disability? It is not always obvious that a child has a disability. Such disabilities as Autistic Spectrum Disorder, dyslexia or epilepsy may not be immediately obvious. These, along with other ‘hidden disabilities’ may take time before they are recognised, and if necessary, diagnosed by a doctor. Underachievement or behaviour difficulties may relate to an underlying physical or mental impairment that 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 child’s behaviour or underachieve ment, it might reasonably have been expected to know that a pupil was disabled.

Try to avoid making assumptions about children based on a diagnosis or reports from professionals. Each child is different and will respond to each situation in his or her unique way. By all means find out about the child’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 need to take an environment-interactive approach. Interventions should be centred on adapting educational context rather than on ‘fixing’ the individual child’s needs. Chances of success in terms of outcomes for the child are far greater where schools focus on adapting systems and teaching programmes rather than on trying to force the child to adapt to the existing context. For example:

Case study: Jo

Jo is in Year 5. She has Down’s syndrome and learning difficulties. Although she made very good progress in Key Stage 1, the gap in attainment between her and her peers has widened and she is now working on the programme of study for Year 2. Since the start of Year 3 Jo has had all her lessons either in the Year 1 classroom or in the library, always accompanied by her teaching assistant. Jo’s learning targets focus on three areas: reading, speech and language, and social skills. While her reading has shown some improvement, her speech and language and social skills remain stubbornly immature, with few signs of progress. Could this be because the models of language that Jo experiences in school are those of younger children? And could her development of social skills be hampered by the lack of interaction with children of her own age?

The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement

The framework document of the National Curriculum (2013, Chapter 4, p. 9) sets out the expectations of schools for the inclusion of all children; for those whose attainment is well above expected levels and those who have ‘low levels of prior attainment or come from disadvantaged backgrounds’. It outlines how teachers can modify the curriculum as necessary in order to provide all pupils at each stage of their education with relevant and appropriately challenging work. The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement reaffirms that teachers should have high expectations for all pupils and should plan lessons to ensure that barriers to achievement are overcome.

The statement sets out two key principles of inclusion:

• setting suitable challenges; and
• responding to pupils’ needs and overcoming potential barriers for individuals and groups of pupils.

Setting suitable challenges

The National Curriculum Programmes of Study set out what pupils should be taught and should learn in each school year. Within this framework all pupils need to experience success and achieve their individual potential. Pupils with SEND are no exception, even though their individual potential may be different from others of the same age. To expect all pupils always to do the same work will ensure that some will find the work too easy, while for others the challenge will be about right; but there will remain a significant group in any class for whom the challenge is inappropriate and who will fail. If failure occurs regularly, then pupils stop caring and begin to lack motivation, become disillusioned, and are likely to be disruptive. It is a teacher’s responsibility to ensure that a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Inclusion in the primary context
• 2 Understanding SEN Support and EHC plans
• 3 Working with families: Section 19 in action
• 4 Planning and teaching for inclusion
• 5 Support for inclusion
• 6 Want to play? Social interaction and behaviour
• 7 Communicating with children who have SEND
• 8 Transitions: inclusion challenges and opportunities
• Appendix: inclusive teaching and learning checklist
• References and further reading
• Index