The government has launched a ‘period of co-creation’ for reforms to the system for special education needs and disabilities (SEND). These reforms will be set out in the Schools White Paper, expected early in the new year.
It might be tempting for teachers and school leaders to wait for these changes to the wider system to be published.
But educators are already working hard to support pupils with a wide range of needs. They are drawing on their expertise, learning from each other, and putting evidence into practice right now.
Teachers and leaders looking to refine their existing practice, or introduce a new initiative, do not need to start from scratch: as a sector we already hold valuable knowledge about strengthening inclusion in schools, and teachers and leaders are proactively leading the way.
Building on existing evidence
Some of the existing evidence about good teaching and school leadership can be used effectively to support inclusion.
Over the last decade, around 250,000 teachers and school leaders have accessed the ‘golden thread’ of professional development programmes – initial teacher training, the early career entitlement, and national professional qualifications. This is around half of all teachers.
These programmes provide a strong foundation of evidence about how children learn and what makes good teaching. They contain many valuable foundations for inclusive practice, such as adaptive teaching, the role of working memory in learning, and the importance of positive interactions between pupils and their teachers.
We can build on this strong basis, and connect it with the relevant knowledge from specialists – like speech and language specialists – to expand our professional knowledge, and anticipate and meet the needs of pupils.
Case studies of inclusion
There are an increasing number of case studies about how schools across the sector are building more inclusive schools.
Some have “doubled down” on high quality teaching, because that is important for everyone but even more so for children with additional learning needs.
At the Academy at Shotton Hall, this has meant teachers adapting their teaching so almost all pupils’ needs can be met in the classroom. It has involved more teachers leading targeted interventions for literacy and maths, rather than teaching assistants. This approach has supported pupils to achieve academic outcomes higher than national and regional averages, and has received positive feedback from families.
Similarly, at Star Academies, leaders have focussed specifically on how they anticipate, notice and respond to pupils’ needs early on. One of the ways they do this is creating a Star Map – a detailed profile of a pupil and their needs – for every pupil on the SEND register. Pupil needs can change over time, for many reasons, and in different ways. Star Maps are therefore reviewed regularly by a range of educators, which allows close monitoring of whether provision is helping these pupils to make progress. Pupils report positive experiences with this approach, reflected in higher-than-average academic results.
“My goal was about empowering teachers, pastoral staff, TAs to say: actually, everybody can notice what is happening with a child. They can observe what’s going on. And that can really support identification of barriers.”
– Elizabeth Murray, Director of SEND at Star Academies
There isn’t one right approach for every school. These examples, however, show us that there are existing examples of practice that we can learn from, and can think about whether and how they apply in our own settings.
While schools are taking different approaches to inclusive education, there are also common themes that emerge in how schools are supporting children carefully and thoughtfully.
Supporting educators to lead change
A key part of making our schools more inclusive is supporting teachers and leaders.
Schools are navigating a vast array of training, support, guidance and resources. This can make it hard to identify which is high quality, and which is most appropriate for a particular school.
That’s why it’s so important to have the opportunity to come together as practitioners to hear about and learn from each other’s work.
It’s also why, as a sector, we should prioritise consistent and high quality professional development for the teaching workforce. Through this we can broaden educators’ understanding of the pupils in their care, and support them to anticipate, notice and respond to their pupils’ needs really effectively.
Moving forward in this space can be difficult, but is possible, as so many schools are already showing us. The evidence, examples, and expertise we have as a sector is growing, giving us the tools and confidence to help us all support pupils at school now.
Hilary Spencer is CEO of Ambition Institute, one of the organisations who co-founded Inclusion in Practice. Ambition Institute has supported over 100,000 teachers and leaders to develop their professional practice. Hilary has held a range of senior positions in the Civil Service, including more than a decade at the Department for Education, head of Civil Service Learning, and leading the Government Equalities Office. She has worked on education policy in several different countries, helped set up an outstanding secondary school in Lambeth, and is an active Trustee.
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