Supporting SEN across the curriculum

Support for SENCOs

Supporting across the curriculum

The area of staff development can seem daunting to SENCOs − especially those who are fairly new to the role and not overly confident. It is however, the way forward in achieving successful inclusion and creating a supportive learning environment throughout the school. No matter how good your intervention programmes might be, the benefits will not be maximised unless all teachers take an interest in children and young people with SEN, and seek specific solutions to barriers to achievement within their particular lessons.

There is a lot of good practice that is 'generic' and can be used by all teachers and teaching assistants; for example, using different ways to check pupils' understanding of instructions and making sure they know what you want them to do. The exact approach to achieving this will vary, however, according to children's ages, their level of difficulty − and the learning context. Checking understanding of a literacy task with a group of six-year-olds with communication problems may be quite different from checking understanding with 12-year-olds in the dance studio. This type of issue can result in colleagues feeling luke-warm about the prospect of whole school CPD sessions focusing on meeting special needs − especially in secondary settings. The PE and sports teachers tend to 'glaze over' when presented with tips on teaching spellings for example.

The solution to this is contextualisation. This can be achieved by starting off a CPD session with all staff and then breaking up into year/phase groups or subject departments/faculties; or providing different sessions for different groups − as part of scheduled meetings, or built into a training day. Teachers are most concerned about the children and young people they teach now (or know they will be teaching next year), so it's useful to prepare information about relevant areas of difficulty, with suggestions on appropriate strategies, and then encourage colleagues to personalise their approach accordingly. In schools where each subject department has an 'inclusion' or 'SEN' rep, or a designated TA, the whole process is often more straightforward − as long as staff do not relinquish responsibility to that person!

For pupils with significant needs, an IEP can work well − adapted for different subject areas. Many of you will be visiting feeder schools this term and collecting information about incoming pupils, as well as reviewing the provision for existing pupils, so you'll be well placed to flag up for colleagues those learners likely to need 'something extra'. The process could be started off with a task such as that outlined below.

Shaun Smith will be transferring to our school in September. He has difficulties with ……………………………. and ……………… The SENCO/pupil support team will provide ………………………… In addition, we will set up a circle of friends to support Shaun and ……………. Some useful classroom strategies for meeting Shaun's needs and reducing barriers to achievement include……………….. In practical work and PE he may need………………. Please indicate below any other challenges you anticipate for Shaun, within your class/subject area ….. Are there any special resources you know of that may be useful? What preparations need to be put in place to ensure that Shaun makes a successful start in his new school?

Remember to use the experiences of staff (teachers and TAs) who have taught/are teaching particular pupils; they will have tried different strategies and found out what works. They will be ideally placed to help colleagues with ideas and avoid them having to start from scratch with individuals. There is a 'health warning' attached to this however, because some colleagues may have had less-than-successful experiences with a particular pupil, resulting in a negative attitude. It goes without saying that starting a new term/school year with a clean slate, is very important for some children and young people − especially where their difficulties have impacted on behaviour.

As we have covered areas of literacy and numeracy during the Spring term, we will consider six different curriculum areas over the coming weeks, so look out for your ezine and make sure you, at the very least, copy it for colleagues. In some cases, you may be able to use the ideas to help put together a training session for staff sometime during this term − or next Autumn.

Subject areas to be covered this term include:

• D&T

• science

• PE

• humanities

• music

• art.

SEN News

A new research study from the University of Hull and Xtraordinary People (funded by DCSF) reveals that up to two million children have dyslexic-type learning difficulties. This has prompted a call from Ian Litterick for more government funding:

'If the government is to take real action to prevent dyslexic children slipping through the academic net, it is equally essential to give them assistive technology tools such as computers and text-to-speech software, as it is for teachers to intervene early with special tuition. Currently, only 11% of dyslexic students awarded a Disabled Students' Allowance, have had the chance to use assistive technology before going to university. The government needs to seriously consider the impact that this penny pinching is having at the beginning of the educational experience. How many more children will be condemned to a life of low self-esteem, low achievement, truancy, difficulty gaining employment and, in all too many cases, probation and prison before they are given the tools that they need to succeed early enough?'

Ian Litterick is executive chairman of iansyst Ltd and member of the British Dyslexia Association's New Technologies Committee (BDANTC)

www.dyslexic.com

This e-bulletin issue was first published in April 2008

About the author: Linda Evans is the author of SENCO Week. She was a teacher/SENCO/adviser/inspector, before joining the publishing world. She now works as a freelance writer, editor and part-time college tutor.