Meeting SEN in the Curriculum

ICT

Sally McKeown

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136771477
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book includes:

• an explanation of the Government's inclusion/SEN strategy
• guidance on Departmental Policy
• an explanation of SEN terminology
• advice on creating an inclusive environment
• choosing the right hardware and software
• helpful case studies highlighting different uses of computer packages
• meeting the needs of different learning styles
• downloadable resources.

CHAPTER 1

Meeting Special Educational Needs – Your Responsibility

Inclusion in education involves the process of increasing the participation of students in, and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools … (Booth and Ainscow, 2000)¹

Inclusion signifies different things to different people. For some it simply means the presence of a child with disabilities or learning difficulties in a mainstream classroom, alongside other children. But is that inclusion, integration or a pointless exercise in political correctness?

Nadia has learning difficulties. The class are learning how to make eye-catching posters. She sits next to Duane and watches while he changes the fonts and puts in borders. She asks him questions and keeps up a non-stop stream of chatter.

Frederica also has learning difficulties. She is keen to make a poster for a Jumble Sale at her church. Her Learning Assistant types in the text. Frederica has a handout with six pictures which show her how to edit the font and put a border round the text. She changes the font, font size and colour but gives up on the border.

At the end of the lesson, Frederica has learnt how to change the appearance of text; Nadia has learnt that Duane doesn't like her talking when he is trying to work.

The Index for Inclusion was distributed to all maintained schools by the Department for Education and Skills and has been a valuable tool for many schools as they have worked to develop their inclusive practice. It supports schools in the review of their policies, practices and procedures, and the development of an inclusive approach, and where it has been used as part of the school improvement process – looking at inclusion in the widest sense – it has been a great success. For many people however, The Index lacked any real teeth, and recent legislation and non-statutory guidance is more authoritative.

The SEN and Disability Act 2001

Billed by the Disability Rights Commission as ‘the biggest shake-up of the law in 20 years’, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) gave disabled pupils the right to an education free from discrimination. Now all schools must provide equality of opportunity for children with disabilities and non-disabled pupils.

The Disability Rights Commission states that:

Since September 2002 schools must ensure that disabled pupils are not treated ‘less favourably’ and not disadvantaged in every aspect of the life of the school: from teaching and learning to after school clubs; from school organisation to what happens in the dinner queue; from timetabling to the use of classroom support; from homework to anti-bullying policies; from admissions to exclusions.²

The Act amended the Disability Discrimination Act and created important new duties for schools:

• to take reasonable steps to ensure that disabled pupils are not placed at a substantial disadvantage in relation to the education and other services they provide. This means they must anticipate where barriers to learning lie and take action to remove them as far as they are able;
• to plan strategically to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum, make the physical environment more accessible and ensure that written material is provided in accessible formats.

The reasonable steps taken might include:

• changing policies and practices
• changing course requirements
• changing physical features of a building
• providing interpreters or other support workers
• delivering courses in alternative ways
• providing materials in other formats
• accepting alternative ways of recording

(See Appendix 1 for an activity to support your thinking and staff development.)

Implications for ICT provision

Schools have a planning duty to increase the extent to which pupils with disabilities can participate in the school's curriculum and, in many cases, ICT will offer a range of tools to support access, whether through access devices or through software. Where pupils of any age who have disabilities are expected to use the same machines as other pupils, then there must be a reasonable provision of machines with access technology such as switches, keyboard alternatives, key guards, tracker balls or joysticks. All pupils with impaired vision or literacy problems may reasonably expect to find that they have some access to enlarged text or a speech facility so that they can hear the text that other pupils read. Learners with dyslexia may have personal preferences for fonts, screen colour combinations, styles in Word and web browser options, and should have the facility to save them rather than set them up every time they use a computer.

Depending on the nature and extent of a pupil's disability or learning difficulty, a school may need to provide an initial assessment and develop an individual solution for the student. This legislation relates not just to the classroom but also to other facilities such as the library, gym or careers office, so staff may have to provide adaptations to ensure that the pupil can access any ICT provided anywhere in the school.

The Revised National Curriculum

The Revised National Curriculum (2002) emphasises the provision of effective learning opportunities for all learners, and establishes three principles for promoting inclusion:

• the setting of suitable learning challenges
• responding to pupils' diverse learning needs
• overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment

The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement suggests that staff may need to differentiate tasks and materials, and facilitate access to learning by:

• encouraging pupils to use all available senses and experiences
• planning for participation in all activities
• helping children to manage their behaviour, take part in learning and prepare for work
• helping pupils to manage their emotions
• giving teachers where necessary, the discretion to teach pupils material from earlier key stages, providing consideration is given to age-appropriate learning contexts

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has also introduced performance descriptions (P levels/P scales) to enable teachers to observe and record small steps of progress made by some pupils with SEN. These descriptions outline early learning and attainment for each subject in the National Curriculum, including citizenship, RE and PSHE. They chart progress up to NC level 1 through eight steps. The performance descriptions for Pi to P3 are common across all subjects, and are designed for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties who need to access the curriculum through sensory activities and experiences. There are two differentiated descriptions within each of levels Pi to P3, termed (i) and (ii) within each level. From level P4, the P scales describe performance related to subject-focused skills, knowledge and understanding. (You can read more about P levels in Chapter 6.)

The Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs

The Revised Code of Practice (implemented in 2002) describes a cyclical process of planning, target setting and review for pupils with special educational needs. It also makes clear the expectation that the vast majority of pupils with special needs will be educated in mainstream settings. Those identified as needing over and above what the school can provide from its own resources, however, are nominated for ‘school Action Plus’, and outside agencies will be involved in planned intervention. This may involve professionals from the Learning Support Service, a specialist teacher or therapist, or an educational psychologist, working with the school's SENCO to put together an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for the pupil. In a minority of cases (the numbers vary widely between LEAs) pupils may be assessed by a multi-disciplinary team on behalf of the local education authority, whose representatives then decide whether or not to issue a statement of SEN. This is a legally binding document detailing the child's needs and setting out the resources which must be provided. It is reviewed every year.

Fundamental principles of the Special Needs code of practice

• A child with s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors to the Series
• Contents of the CD
• Introduction
• 1. Meeting Special Educational Needs - Your Responsibility
• 2. Departmental Policy
• 3. Different Types of SEN
• 4. The Inclusive Classroom
• 5. Teaching and Learning Styles
• 6. Monitoring and Assessment
• 7. Managing Support
• 8. Supporting other Staff in School
• Appendices