Towards a Curriculum for All

A Practical Guide for Developing an Inclusive Curriculum for Pupils Attaining Significantly Below Age-Related Expectations

Dorchester Curriculum Group

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781134134496
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Designing an inclusive curriculum for all pupils is not easy. The practicing teachers who have written this book offer clearly laid out ideas and objectives for learning that goes beyond the National Curriculum. It incorporates a holistic approach to the development of a relevant curriculum for pupils and students who experience profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).

Part 1
Philosophy and beliefs

Chapter 1
Identifying pupils who experience PMLD

This chapter explores the nature of the difficulties experienced by pupils with PMLD.

Before offering our understanding of what it means to be a pupil who experiences PMLD, we emphasise that we consider definitions of categories or classifications of pupils to be problematic. We regard, and approach, all the pupils with whom we work as pupils first. In other words, whatever the shortcomings of the following definition, we seek, in these materials as well as in our daily practice, to interact with pupils primarily as learners and individuals, as children and as people.

That said, we acknowledge the need for a shared language. For the sake of our discussions and in order to give a sense of focus to these materials, we have borrowed and adapted the definition of profound and multiple learning difficulties used by SCAA (1996a, p. 8):

Pupils who experience PMLD are not a homogenous group. The range of pupils we considered in preparing these materials includes pupils who may appear, in some ways, to be functioning at the earliest levels of development; to have profound intellectual impairments; and to experience complex combinations of difficulties. They may, for example, have additional physical disabilities and/or sensory impairments. Some of these pupils may be ambulant. Some may have medical or para-medical needs in addition to their learning difficulties. Some may experience temporary or permanent regression or the loss of skills, capabilities and awareness because of their medical circumstances or through degenerative conditions. Some of these pupils may also behave in ways that challenge staff, parents and other pupils or which result in their own isolation, making it difficult to involve them in positive educational experiences. Many of these pupils will rely upon some form of adult support to enable them to interact with their environment.

All of the pupils we considered in preparing these materials experience difficulties with communication. However, in some instances, the difficulties may in reality be experienced by staff, who may need to find individual ways of developing interaction with pupils and facilitating the processes of communication, (see Part 2). These learners may often require the most intense levels of staff support in order to secure access to learning experiences, progress and achievement.

The nature of the personal challenges experienced by pupils who experience PMLD means that a range of professionals - including therapists and specialised support teachers for pupils with hearing and visual impairments - should work as a team with school staff, parents and the pupils themselves, to reduce and overcome barriers to learning. These professionals are collectively referred to as the trans-disciplinary support network.

It is important that the needs of the families of pupils who experience PMLD are recognised and respected. The trans-disciplinary support network for pupils may involve a range of staff having different perspectives, such as social work, health care, therapy and education. Although ostensibly working together for the good of the pupil, often these professionals may appear to the family to be presenting conflicting information or views as to the pupil’s needs or priorities. The priorities of the parents, with regard to the care and/or education of their child/student, may sometimes also be at variance with those of the professionals. It is vital therefore that staff invite and respect the views of the parents as integral to the effectiveness of the trans-disciplinary support network. Since schools can be the place where these views are discussed, they should be able to offer suitable opportunities and a quiet space in which to do so.

However, we urge caution in linking provision to pupils’ ‘diagnostic labels’ using placement, prior placement or statements about provision as a means of assessing pupils. Just because a pupil may be labelled as experiencing PMLD, this should not limit their opportunities for learning.

There are pitfalls in the process of describing pupils as ‘having PMLD’ and we challenge the notion of fixed labels and separate groupings. As with descriptors of other forms of special educational need, this label should be viewed as temporary, as problematic and as subject to regular review. Although profound and multiple learning difficulties are most usually not transient phenomena, it is not helpful to treat pupils to whom this label is attached as if they have been permanently categorised. They may, for example:

• consistently gain new skills, knowledge and understanding;
• show new responses in new circumstances;
• discover or be taught new ways of communicating;

and therefore require professionals and parents to reconsider previous expectations and prognoses. We teach with the assumption that all learners can and do learn within a continuum of learning, and that lowered expectations and restricted views of pupils’ potential, based upon crude classifications, are to be avoided at all costs. As such, it is possible for a pupil who has been identified as experiencing PMLD to move further along this continuum of learning.

In our experience, unless pupils have been given the opportunities for learning within an environment where staff have high expectations for pupil achievement, they cannot rise to meet challenges, because staff do not believe in their capabilities and equality of learning.

Chapter 2
Including pupils who experience PMLD

In this chapter, we consider ways in which pupils who experience PMLD may be included in the most appropriate learning environments.

Pupils who experience PMLD should not be taught in fixed, mixed-age ‘special care’ classes or in permanently separate groupings. For example, in order to foster effective learning and positive attitudes among staff, parents and classmates, all pupils, including those who experience PMLD, could be registered as members of a tutor group with their age peers. All pupils, again including those who experience PMLD, will benefit from wide-ranging learning encounters shared with their age peers. These shared learning experiences will need to take place in learning environments which are suitably equipped and adapted, and that have appropriate levels of support from staff with relevant expertise.

Supported learning environments

However, pupils who experience PMLD, like other learners, also require some experience of specialist learning environments and interest-specific groupings. Pupils who experience PMLD may need to work together in specialist groupings and as individuals, for varying numbers of sessions in the teaching week, in areas which are specially adapted, equipped or staffed in order to facilitate certain procedures or approaches. These areas may be resourced, for example, with:

• staff with specialist expertise, including physiotherapists and learning support staff;
• specialist equipment, including facilities for multi-sensory work; a range of information and communications technology; and resources in support of pupils’ physical development;
• facilities to enable pupils to be moved safely;
• specially adapted equipment for personal hygiene routines;
• private areas for therapeutic interventions, including physiotherapy;
• storage space for large scale items of equipment such as wheelchairs, standing frames or side-lyers.

Areas like these in schools may be described as ‘supported learning environments’, ‘support units’, ‘resource bases’ or even classrooms! Separate and purpose-equipped facilities may be required for younger pupils and older students. Pupils who experience PMLD may begin their learning day in these environments and use them across substantial parts of the timetable, or visit such environments briefly on an occasional basis in order to gain access to certain essential procedures. The purpose of these environments is to support access and participation for pupils who experience PMLD to inclusive learning opportunities in the mainstream of the school. The boundaries of these specialist environments should therefore be permeable, allowing pupils to move flexibly between various inclusive and specialist contexts for learning.

Under these circumstances, it is essential to have a member of staff who has a clearly designated responsibility for co-ordinating the educational, paramedical and pastoral needs of pupils who experience PMLD. This co-ordinator will maintain an overview of provision for pupils who experience PMLD through involvement in both the planning, implementation and monitoring of individual education plans and the development of inclusive schemes of work. When the inclusion occurs in a special school this role may be seen as the equivalent of the SENCO and/or Inclusion Lead Teacher in a mainstream school. The co-ordinator will also organise the flexible deployment of specialist support staff so that they move between specified activities in order to provide targeted support for individual pupils or groups of pupils in specific circumstances.

A range of contexts

As well as making use of a supported learning environment on a flexible, individually targeted basis, pupils who experience PMLD should be taught in a range of different contexts. In order to meet the varied needs of pupils who experience PMLD and their peers, there should be whole school agreement to provide appropriate group and individual timetables (see Chapter 7).

It is our intention within this book to illustrate how pupils who experience PMLD can be included with their peers within a range of settings, and integral to this are the values of entitlement, empowerment and enablement.

1. Entitlement All pupils are entitled to equality of opportunity, and pupils who experience PMLD have just as much right to high quality shared learning experiences as other pupils. The success of these shared learning experiences will ultimately be dependent on the quality of interactions within the learning environment.
2. Empowerment All pupils are pupils first, and have a basic human need for realising their self-worth and raising their self-esteem through sharing success. Pupils who experience PMLD are no different and the authors suggest that inclusion for these pupils would be a process of empowerment towards greater awareness of the world around them.
3. Enablement All pupils have the potential to learn from quality interactive learning experiences. Inclusion for pupils who experience PMLD has the potential to enable them to access their learning environment and interact with their peers.

The creation of a whole curriculum, differentiated to include sensory and environmental elements, becomes increasingly important when planning an inclusive learning environment which values the presence and involvement of pupils who experience PMLD (see Part 3).

Shared ethos and approach

The hidden curriculum is that part of the curriculum which is not subject controlled, and which interfaces with the school’s equal opportunities policy. As suggested by Brennan (1985), it involves the whole school in shared practice that allows the pupils to be valued as developing individuals, which reflects the school ethos and values through the attitudes of all staff members. It allows education to be more meaningful for the whole person extending beyond the academic into the wider range of skills and qualities needed for life beyond school.

A child-centred approach, as opposed to predominantly subject-centred teaching, allows for pupils’ strengths to be celebrated and for raising their achievements. Individual education plans (IEPs) must be embedded in the curriculum planning to enable maximum pupil progress and participation. Opportunities for pupil celebration should be maximised across the whole school curriculum, and should be intrinsic and immediate as well as founded throughout the school: ‘Success, progress and achievements are relative to the individual and the reward system of the school would need to reflect this’ (Dessent 1987).

The identification of the skills needed for pupils who experience PMLD to develop their self-advocacy is very much integral to the hidden curriculum. For further discussion on self-advocacy and empowerment see Tilstone and Barry (1998).

The way in which the school organises its inclusive approach is a ‘potent indicator of its values system’ (Dessent 1987). The school needs to be clear about what model of inclusion it is using and what purpose it serves for all the pupils, not just for those pupils with the highest levels of academic achievement. The hidden curriculum is not always easily absorbed by children who experience PMLD, as there may be emotional and highly individual issues which will need to be made explicit and may need to be taught.

The changing role of special schools

There is a strong consensus of opinion that the education of pupils with special educational needs is a key challenge. A Programme for Action: Meeting Special Educational Needs (DfEE 1998a) makes clear that although there will be a continuing role for specialist provision, special schools will also be expected to act as a source of expertise, advice and professional development. Special school staff are actively developing this role within their local education authorities and are keen to work closely with mainstream colleagues to share and benefit from good practice.

The review of the Code of Practice indicates that mains...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributor profiles
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: Philosophy and beliefs
• Part 2: Creating opportunities for learning
• Part 3: Constructing the whole curriculum
• Part 4: Practical materials
• Appendices
• References
• Index