Teaching Expertise

Emotional literacy in teenage boys: raising achievement

Fostering emotional literacy in teenage boys is that aim of the programme developed by educational psychologist Tina Rae and SENCo Lisa Pedersen. Here they describe it

We developed a programme called Boys’ World for a group of boys in a pupil referral unit (PRU). Its aim was to ensure that boys had access to experiences that encouraged them to develop the skills of emotional literacy within a solution-focused forum, which rejects the notion of compulsive competition.

The programme was delivered over 12 sessions and, after its trial, we felt that the issues and content covered were pertinent to all boys. After working with further small groups of boys, we have now compiled a 12-session programme suitable for either small groups or whole classes of boys at high school level.

Each Boys’ World session includes an introduction, a brainstorming activity, a quick icebreaker, circle talk, a problem scenario, a range of activity sheets for students to complete, and a final plenary session. The main objectives are to:

  • encourage students to become more aware of the importance of supporting each other and the benefits of forming strong and positive links with other males
  • develop students’ understanding of emotional literacy and the importance of being aware of their feelings and managing them effectively
  • raise students’ self-esteem and confidence
  • develop students’ awareness of what it is to be healthy, and the way in which engaging in risky behaviours can mitigate against both mental and physical wellbeing.

As with all such programmes, it is important to ensure that appropriate support is provided for individual students who require it once the sessions have been completed. It may be helpful to provide some weekly tutorial support for targeted individuals should they request it. It will also be helpful to encourage the boys to continue with problem-solving group work, providing a support network for each other, which can be further supported by adults within the school.
In the longer term, we hope that school staff will become more aware of the need to promote the self-esteem and emotional literacy of boys in particular, and of the need to guard against stereotyping, which can lead to aggressive behaviours and mental ill-health. Maintaining and fostering this kind of emphatic and solution-focused problem solving will hopefully go some way to achieving such a goal.

Twelve sessions to build emotional literacy in teenage boys

The Boys’ World programme for high-school boys aims to develop their confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness. Each session follows a similar structure and includes: a short introduction, a brainstorming activity, a quick activity in pairs, circle talk, a problem scenario to consider as a group, activity sheets and a plenary. Over 12 sessions, the following themes are explored:

1. Identity
Students are asked to focus on what factors influence their identity. Students discuss the influence of music, media and sports and identify different aspects of themselves.

2. Appearance
Is there such a thing as an ideal-looking person? Are people penalised for not conforming to stereotypes? In this session, students are asked to explore their feelings about appearance and the influence their appearance can have on others.

3. Girlfriends
This session explores the different relationships that boys have with girls and how these differ from same-sex relationships.

4. Friendships and peer pressure
The types of peer pressure that boys can feel are explored, as is the impact of gangs. The purpose of the session is to improve a boy’s ability to cope with these peer pressures.

5. Sex
The aim of this session is to develop a positive attitude to their bodies and understand what safe sex means.

6. Problem solving
This session explores the skills students currently have for solving problems and how they can develop these skills. Students are also helped to think about how their body, thoughts and feelings change when a problem arises and how they can identify these changes.

7. Talking about feelings
Do boys talk less about their feelings than girls? This assumption is explored in this session, along with the strategies that the students currently have to discuss their feelings.

8. Drugs awareness
The uses of both legal and illegal drugs are explored, as well as the effects on mind and body.

9. Tolerance
What does being tolerant mean and when are people not tolerant within our society? Students’ responses to others are explored, and there’s discussion of  how we can combat different kinds of intolerance.

10. Crime and punishment
Why do people commit crimes? Does punishment always work? In this session, students are asked to consider how a victim of a crime, the perpetrator and an observer might feel about different types of crime.

11. Future goals
Students are asked to imagine their preferred futures in this session to develop SMART targets.

12. Evaluating progress
This final session evaluates what students have learned about themselves and how they now feel about the topics they have covered during the course.

Worksheets for each of these sessions can be found in Developing Emotional Literacy with Teenage Boys, by Tina Rae and Lisa Pedersen. The toolkit (which includes a CD-Rom) is published by Sage Publications

For practical advice on how to inspire your male pupils at school, for both early years and secondary, take a look at Teach to Inspire Boys.

Finding the time: the challenge of CPD in SEAL

The adoption of a whole-school approach to developing social and emotional learning (such as the SEAL programme) has major implications for schools and the professional development of the adults who work within them. For the first time, all teachers within a school (not just ‘specialists’) are being expected to deliver some form of SEAL curriculum. We know that if SEAL is to deliver the benefits that the evidence base suggests it can, all adults need to be involved in modelling, encouraging and scaffolding ‘incidental’ learning in this area (for example, encouraging children to use ‘peaceful problem-solving’ to sort out disagreements, to use their calming-down strategies, to keep going when they are frustrated or disappointed, to make wise choices). Yet how many of us working in schools were lucky enough to be offered opportunities to develop our own skills in these areas, or taught to support the development of these skills in the children and young people that we teach through our own education or training? Certainly not this author!

For these reasons effective staff development in the area of SEAL is one of the most crucial factors in successfully implementing and embedding SEAL However, it is often the staff development component that is the most neglected in practice. Of course, there are many reasons for this: so many priorities jostling for attention; too little time available; and, for some, the slightly uncomfortable feel of some of the subject matter itself, focusing as it does, at least partly, on our own skills in this area as well as on the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of teaching.

Given the importance of CPD, how can it be delivered in a way that is manageable, practical and effective? In this article a case study is presented which outlines a model of local authority and within-school CPD in SEAL which schools have evaluated as effective and manageable. It aims to tease out the most useful learning in the hope that this will be useful to other schools and authorities planning a programme of CPD in this area. Sample CPD strategies for primary and secondary schools are also offered.

The case study
The case study described took place in a small local authority in Wales, and involved approximately 40 schools, a mixture of infant, primary and secondary, a special school for children with a range of learning difficulties and a pupil referral unit.

Our starting point was to be clear about what we meant by effective CPD. Through discussion, we agreed upon the following definition:

Effective CPD is that which promotes a positive attitude towards the subject matter, fosters staff confidence in the area and develops the competence appropriate to participants’ roles in order to bring about sustainable changes in practice which have a positive effect on children and young people’s learning and development.

It was agreed that given the difficulty in finding the time and space for professional development (in any area) and the need for schools to allocate time for this if SEAL was to be effectively implemented, we would need to follow a number of principles. A review of the literature in the area offered some starting points, which we formulated in the following way:

CPD in this area should:

  • At the level of the local authority: involve two members of staff from each school and include one senior leader (in order to ensure that a whole-school focus was adopted which located social and emotional learning at the heart of the teaching and learning agenda, rather than as a ‘bolt-on’ or with relevance only to SEN or pastoral staff).
  • At the level of the school:
    • be ongoing and strategically planned (ie not a one-off session but a structured programme over time)
    • be differentiated according to the differing context and roles of the adults in the school
    • have clear aims and practical objectives for each planned session within each stage
    • involve regular reviews with feedback from staff
    • acknowledge that process is as important as content and that all professional development opportunities should model a safe and empowering environment
    • include structured collaborative working within partnerships and networks
    • enable interested staff to access opportunities for pursuing further professional development and accreditation, up to Master’s level.

The process
The local authority agreed to fund three professional development days for two members of staff from each school in the authority, including one member of the senior leadership team (SLT) and one who would be involved in the operational implementation of SEAL. On agreeing to be involved in the initiative the schools committed to including the implementation of SEAL in their school development plans, to ensure that it would have an appropriately high profile and that adequate resources would be allocated.

The training days took place approximately two months apart. This enabled schools to take a staged approach in implementing SEAL, and provided school leaders and coordinators with a range of ‘tools’ – information, activities and PowerPoint presentations – to draw upon when planning and delivering their within-school programme of CPD. The provision of practical support aimed to avoid the ‘reinvention of the wheel’ syndrome, while providing flexibility in recognition that the needs and contexts of schools would be different.

During the training days schools were asked to commit to (and were supported in developing) a strategic action plan for CPD which included the elements listed in the sample CPD strategies for primary and secondary schools (below). Over a period of two academic years, reflecting the different stages of CPD: the initial ‘sell’ (the innovation stage); developing the skills to try it out (the implementation stage); and embedding SEAL (the institutionalisation stage) – ensuring that if the SEAL coordinator or champions left, SEAL would continue in the same way, just as literacy provision would. They were further supported in this by the local authority SEAL representative (the author), who visited each school to support and monitor progress in staff development as well as with other aspects of the implementation and embedding of SEAL (such as ensuring that it was mapped to the PSE and, in some cases, RE curriculum and linked to initiatives already going on in the school).

In addition, schools were encouraged to work collaboratively, and network days were organised for them to share practice and successes, as well as to provide a school-to-school problem-solving forum, with the intention that such sessions would continue, managed by the schools themselves. More recently, lead schools have been identified to provide informal support to schools within their areas, with plans to formalise these arrangements in the pipeline.

Staff in the lead schools identified were offered the opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills in the area through attending a five-day Certificate in SEAL course (optional accreditation at 60 Master’s credits by the University of Northampton), as a key strategy for building capacity and ensuring sustainability within the authority and schools, through providing a ‘core’ of expertise and inspiration.

Sample CPD strategy for use within primary schools
There are three stages of CPD that need to be followed:

  • The innovation stage: setting up a working party to meet regularly and plan strategically and operationally, consisting of SLT representative; SEAL coordinator(s); PSE coordinator; Healthy Schools coordinator; and staff emotional health and wellbeing coordinator, with others contributing to work in this area. (This group operates throughout each of the three stages).
  • The initial ‘sell’. Whole-school awareness and introduction session for all staff (including support staff – TAs, lunchtime supervisors, admin and caretaking staff where possible) with the active support of SLT. The aims of this session are to ensure that staff share an understanding of why the school is ‘doing SEAL’, what it is, how it works and what the potential benefits are for pupils, staff and the school.
  • Staff meeting to launch a pilot theme – giving opportunities to voice concerns, look at resources and begin planning within directed time.
  • Staff review meeting after a term’s pilot to agree how to take the programme forward. Revisiting of issues and concerns raised previously, and discussion about ‘what went well’ and ‘what we need to change’.

The implementation stage
Staff meetings planned in for the six remaining themes over a two-year cycle (using the ‘purple set’ materials) with a brief review of each theme. These meetings included an introduction to the ‘whole-school resources’ (posters, processes such as peaceful problem-solving, emotional barometers, group checklists and so on) relevant to the particular theme. They also enabled staff to consider how initiatives and approaches that the school was already using (eg critical skills, values education, thinking skills, playground buddies) fitted into the overall SEAL approach.

  • Training in peaceful problem-solving, calming-down techniques, encouraging the use of social skills and so on for lunch-time supervisors and other support staff.
  • Providing the necessary CPD opportunities for schools to provide a continuum of provision at Waves 1, 2 and 3, and to implement Family SEAL.

The institutionalisation stage

  • Staff inset or meetings focused on making SEAL cross-curricular and developing links to related programmes and initiatives such as Forest School, and out of hours learning.
  • A programme of governor and parent awareness/development sessions.
  • Induction in SEAL opportunities for new staff.
  • An ongoing programme of staff inset focusing on continuous improvement in creating an emotionally secure environment (including staff skills) and to promote staff and pupil EHWB.

Secondary schools
In discussion with secondary colleagues, it was agreed that the stages of the primary model, and many of its elements, were appropriate to the secondary context, but that as a result of their size, staff numbers and more complex structure, some modifications to the model were necessary. In order to ‘get SEAL going’ it was felt that following a whole-school awareness/exploration session on the importance of this area for teaching and learning (which left some maths and science teachers sceptical, but enthused teachers in English, drama, PE and many other departments!), that the most manageable place to start was in implementing the explicit SEAL curriculum in Y7 at the implementation stage. The main changes to the primary model included:

  • An initial Y7 team meeting for staff who would be ‘delivering’ the Y7 explicit curriculum (generally tutors, PSE staff and the MOS in charge of transition arrangements) to introduce the first themes, with plans to introduce and review the remaining themes termly.
  • A rolling programme of discussion between the SEAL team and department heads focusing on how they could reinforce and help to embed the skills being taught within subject lessons, agreeing mechanisms for learning to be cascaded within departmental meetings to all subject teachers.
  • The planned involvement of other ‘key players’ (eg pastoral leads, the SEN department, learning mentors and outreach workers) to ensure that the explicit curriculum was built upon and dovetailed with similar work going on for groups and individuals.

Outcomes
The model outlined within this article has been found to be manageable and effective by the schools involved, with over 90% of schools within the authority having accessed the local authority training and in the process of implementing their CPD SEAL strategy in school.

The impact of the model is currently being evaluated in an (interim) report by the author for the authority. Perhaps more usefully, schools have been generous in sharing their own learning from the process and their tips are listed in the box below.

Tips for planning and delivering CPD in SEAL

  • In the initial ‘sell’, aim to get a critical mass on board – you won’t convince everyone!
  • Draw on local expertise – get an enthusiatic head or coordinator from a neighbouring SEAL school to come and talk.
  • At the initial stages, expect and plan for resistance – sometimes it’s best not to counter resistence with facts and figures, but to note the points made, ask the person to ‘suspend their disbelief and give it a
  • go’ and promise to discuss them again if they are still a problem after a trial period.
  • Making hard copies of the resources available to staff at the theme introduction meetings (at least for the first couple of themes) makes a real difference – when people are asked to ‘look on the disk’, a sizeable proportion just won’t get round to it!
  • Give time within inset or staff meetings for staff to familiarise themselves with the materials and plan together.
  • Model valuing staff and making the process emotionally safe. Think Maslow’s hierarchy and make SEAL training different! Provide good quality sustenance, a comfortable atmosphere, maybe some music and a ‘check-in’ at the beginning. Check if people are feeling OK at the end of the session, and offer an opportunity to debrief Eastenders-style: ‘if you have been affected by the issues raised…’
  • Encourage the development of openness and trust by using warm-ups and fun activities – many are provided in the materials themselves.
  • Use experiential activities – the purple sets and secondary training materials provide a wide choice.
  • Consider the emotional risk involved in activities to individuals – prepare people in advance if you know that a particular area might be difficult for them (eg a session on grief or bullying).
  • Remember that SEAL PD is professional development – be careful not to allow it to cross over into group therapy (do not start a session, as one coordinator did, with the words, ‘We obviously can’t teach children to be emotionally literate until we have sorted out our own emotional baggage’!)

Using the Seconday SEAL materials
Secondary SEAL proposes a four-step process to staff development that incorporates it with curriculum planning – saving time and making the whole process more meaningful.

Step 1
Exploration and development of understanding for each theme through staff development.

Step 2
This involves considering how the skills might be learned most effectively both in terms of where in the curriculum and pedagogical approach.

Step 3
Involves the collaborative development of learning opportunities, possibly involving example learning opportunities from SEAL as a starting point or published material.

Step 4
This is seen as an essential part of the process. It involves trying out the opportunities and reflecting upon the effectiveness of the learning that took place.

Read the introductory booklet. Remember to download any information you need from the National Strategies website as resources may be archived when the Strategies’ contract ends in 2011.

Julie Casey is senior director of the SEAL Consultancy

Useful resources

  • Primary purple sets
  • Secondary SEAL staff development
  • Antidote, 2003, The Emotional Literacy Handbook – Promoting Whole School Strategies, David Fulton Publishers, London
  • Devaney et al, 2005, Sustainable Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Chicago
  • Morris E and Casey J, 2006 Developing Emotionally Literate Staff – a Practical Guide, Paul Chapman Publishing, London
  • Weare K, 2004, Developing the Emotionally Literate School, Paul Chapman Publishing, London (second edition now available)

Restorative justice: behaviour and relationship management in schools

Restorative Justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to behaviour and relationship management in schools

Restorative Justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to behaviour and relationship management in schools. The idea is based on ancient tribal practices as a form of repairing harm caused by inappropriate behaviours that damage the communities that we live in, by bringing together those involved to discuss and talk through the issues that lead to their conflict.

Through the principles of Restorative Justice people take responsibility for the impact of their behaviour on other people, by providing a forum that allows a fair process of communication. This process can be through structured questions about the incident and the impact caused leading on to an opportunity for choices to be made to repair the harm and allow closure, providing resolution to conflict.

Restorative Justice has been used in schools to reduce offending, victimisation, bullying and truancy from school. The ethos of RJ is about:

  • Building and nurturing relationships by listening to unmet needs
  • Repairing harm done to relationships through inappropriate behaviours
  • Considering everybody’s needs in the process
  • Recognising responsibility for behaviours
  • Encouraging accountability for those behaviours (actions)
  • Developing emotional literacy by providing a safe forum for people to express difficult emotions
  • Promoting active citizenship in our school communities

The ways in which this could take place can be placed on a continuum of informal to formal.

Restorative Enquiry (Informal) In the classroom when incidents happen use terms such as: ‘that behaviour is making me feel/affecting me… you can make a choice to change your behaviour or (consequence)’.

This detaches the behaviour from the individual, explains what they are doing and how they are causing harm and to who, and allows a choice to repair that harm by changing the behaviour.

Ask the structured questions (below) on an enquiry basis to the wrongdoer.

Restorative Discussion

Here you can use the structured questions (see below) when an incident has occurred involving two people.This highlights the incident and allows resolution by the people involved through taking ownership for the incident and offering solutions, leading to closure for both.

This is often used when incidents happen in front of a teacher/adult in a school setting.

Small impromptu Conference (Formal)

Where there is conflict you can play a role in mediating between the people involved in an incident. Allow a forum for those people to be heard and provide an opportunity for resolution. Often used in bullying incidents or staff and student conflict.

Full Restorative Conference (Formal)

This is a more structured conference where the wrongdoer has admitted to the incident that caused harm and has agreed to take part in a meeting about what happened, who was affected and be offered solutions to repair harm caused.

In a school setting this is often used in a fixed-term exclusion. It can involve parents, senior teachers and other members of support groups (alongside your school’s punitive system) as an option to repair harm and allow closure.

Why RJ?

To raise awareness of restorative justice we need to gain an insight to why people do the right things. If you asked yourself this question punishment will be low on the list, if present at all. At the top would be moral, ethical and social issues, yet in our school behaviour systems we often use punitive punishments such as detentions, referrals, letters home and exclusions. All these systems are about doing things to our students with high levels of control. These often, in my experience, do not work. Young people will tell us that it is not fair and often have little understanding to what actually caused the harm, therefore reinforcing the relationship breakdown that lead to the punishment with the addition of unmet needs. Using the principles of RJ alongside these systems, we value the importance of working with the young people with high levels of control and support.

In my experience it works! And young people will tell you that it is far harder to admit to what you have done and accept that it has caused harm. RJ allows participants to take ownership of what they have done, initiate repair and offer solutions in a fair process.

The Restorative Questions

The following questions allow a restorative process to take place and can occur anywhere from the classroom to the playground.

  • What happened?
  • How did it happen?
  • What part did you play in it?
  • How were you affected/who was affected?
  • What do you need to make it right?
  • How can we repair the harm?

Obviously these are not set in stone and more child friendly speech can be used, but these will start the process and get results.

Why does it work?

  • Repairs harm
  • Holds wrong-doers accountable, preventing denial
  • Empowers victims by seeing the wrong doer accept the impact of their behaviour
  • Allows closure
  • Allows agreement
  • Allows ownership of behaviours

And finally…

RJ is a very powerful tool. It utilises people emotions and feelings so has to be done with care as it can cause damage if done badly. At the end of the day, behaviour is the silent voice of the child or adult and RJ allows that voice to be heard in a supportive manner.

Further reading materials that I recommend are:

Why Restorative Justice? By Roger Graef

Just Schools – A whole School Approach to Restorative Justice by Belinda Hopkins

Internet:

www.transformingconflict.org

www.realjustice.org

Harriet Wall is an Advanced Skills Teacher in Citizenship and Restorative Justice. She works at a school in North Oxfordshire where she manages a Learning Support Unit and co-ordinates PSHCE. Harriet is also a consultant and trainer of behaviour management and RJ.

This article first appeared in Teaching Expertise, September 2004.

Making the links to promote wellbeing in schools

Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan local authorities were commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government to run a project in response to the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR). The focus of the project was the assessment of behavioural, social and emotional difficulties and early intervention. It was named Working on Wellbeing. Those involved in the project were very clear from the start that if it was to be effective it would need to capture the imagination of all those involved, to recognise and value the work that had gone on before and to start from the aspirations and goals that the groups of schools had for their children and young people.

Collaboration was a strong element of the project – between schools, across agencies and between local authorities. The Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend local authorities wanted to use the project to share practice between the two authorities so that they could extend their practice by learning from each other’s strengths and through collaborative developments.

Eleven schools were involved in the project: five primary schools and one secondary school in the Porthcawl school cluster and five primary schools that volunteered from Barry. Each school identified a target class for the assessments and intervention – Year 4 and 5 classes in the primary schools and Year 8 in the secondary school. Two project teachers were appointed and have been key to taking the project forward in the two local authorities.

Process

The project developed a process that firmly linked the goals of the schools for all children and young people with an assessment of social and emotional experience, identification of the support needed and action. The process can be summarised by the five-step model in the diagram.

Developing the SEL framework (step 1)
The first step of the project involved a school-based enquiry into the qualities that individuals need to be a ‘good’ citizen within the localities involved. These were identified through a simple schoolwide activity and were judged as to whether they were ‘good’ for the community and/or ‘good’ for the individual: only those that met both these criteria were listed and used in locality-wide discussions.

At a development day representatives from the schools involved used the qualities listed to explore and decide what skills a child might need to learn to develop each of them. These skills were grouped and developed into the locality’s distinct social and emotional learning (SEL) framework.

This step of the process was an essential starting point as it engaged the school communities and helped them to contribute to developing their vision, take ownership of the work and understand its core purpose. One school displayed the qualities in the school’s entrance hall as a constant reminder to all its members of their aspirations.

Reviewing the current position (step 2)
Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan local authorities were already actively involved in considerable activity to support the social and emotional development of children and young people. Therefore, the next step of the process involved a systematic review of the provision that was currently available against the SEL framework that was established in step 1. Work with a specially created ‘provision-mapping tool’ also provided an opportunity for staff to reflect upon the skills that each of their interventions was designed to develop and find out if there were any gaps or overlaps in provision.

Alongside the completion of the provision-mapping tool each school carried out a learning needs analysis (LNA). The focus of the LNA is to help in developing the expertise of school professionals in supporting the needs of children and young people with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties. Using the prompt sheet, the strengths of the workforce were identified alongside the areas requiring further professional development. This then formed the basis of the learning needs analysis. An action plan was drawn up for the school outlining specific areas for development.

Assessment was a core part of the project but it was important to ensure that the tools selected really found out what was considered important by the school communities involved. The schools chose to use survey tools developed by Robin Banerjee.

My Class provided information about the pupils’ relationships within a class or tutor group, levels of peer acceptance and rejection and behavioural reputation within the group – whether they were seen as cooperative, disruptive, shy, aggressive or a leader. My Feelings provided information about the pupils’ positive and negative social experiences at school, feelings of anger, sadness/depressive symptoms, worry and anxiety and self-perceptions. Finally, an additional survey (My School) was developed using the elements of the SEL framework to identify the social and emotional ethos of the school. It was completed by all members of the school community to identify strengths, areas for development and differences in perceptions held by pupils and staff.

Planning actions (step 3)
Collaborative planning was the key to the project – providing an opportunity to draw together information and data collected at whole-school, class and individual level. Analysis of the completed provision maps showed where there were general gaps in provision, and analysis of the My School, My Feelings and My Class surveys provided a profile of needs in the school and LA. For example, both clusters of schools identified a need for comprehensive whole-school provision but were at very different starting points. The schools in Porthcawl had no systematic whole-school programme of work on SEAL in place. Following an analysis of the survey results, staff decided to use Primary and Secondary SEAL to focus on developing a sense of belonging; building a community of learners; rights and responsibilities; problem-solving; and managing worries and anxieties. Most schools in Barry had already received support to develop SEAL, and they chose to build a new scheme of SEAL work.

Working with colleagues from the project team, school staff members carefully examined and reflected on the survey assessment results. This helped them to: 1) gain a deeper understanding of the children and their social experiences at school; and 2) identify key areas of focus for individual pupils and groups of pupils with particular needs (eg support for a number of ‘invisible’ quiet children who were highly rejected and experienced high levels of negative emotion). Interventions were identified with reference to the completed provision map to ensure that they actually addressed the SEL skills that had been identified as relevant. Where appropriate interventions were not available within the school, staff could use the data to decide which new approaches they should introduce from those available across the two local authorities.

Examples of intervention

Implementation of planned actions (step 4)
The information collected by the schools and the in-depth meetings that followed enabled project teachers to offer effective and focused intervention to the schools, classes/groups, and individuals. A major emphasis was placed on sustainable practices, so the project teachers worked in a consultative and collaborative way with school staff to build new ways of working that could continue after the conclusion of the project.

Review (step 5)
Review is an essential part of the project. The children/young people repeated the My Class and My Feelings surveys after six months and this indicated that the project has already had a positive impact with significant reductions in victimisation/negative school experiences, anger, anxiety, depressive symptoms and negative emotions.

This short article can only provide an outline of the project and how the local authorities involved attempted to make some very powerful links between the schools’ vision, assessment and intervention. In the words of one of the teachers involved – ‘It has helped us to join it all together.’ It is hoped that the process will be incorporated into the ongoing work of schools and support services.

The authors of this article are Dr Robin Banerjee, University of Sussex; Nichola Jones, group manager, Inclusion Bridgend; David Davies, principal educational psychologist, Vale of Glamorgan; and Deborah Michel, codirector of the Centre for Wise Education

Improving social skills using sport

Social skills such as teamwork can be effectively demonstrated and taught using sport. Jody Specht discusses this cross-curricular method

The Bexley School Sports Partnership (SSP) was set up in 2002 with the initial aim of reaching and exceeding the national target of young people taking part in two hours of PE and sport a week. Over time, the remit and focus of the partnership has changed, as we have come to use sport as a tool for making fundamental changes to young people’s lives.

Responding to schools
This came about because schools in the partnership reported that they had many pupils with very poor social skills: they were unable to work as a team or with a partner and could not share with each other.

This led us to set up an adventure-based learning (ABL) programme, which sought to teach the basics of communication and cooperation in a fun and creative manner. Using adventure is a specific technique in experiential learning, where the outcome of the experience is uncertain and may contain physical, social and psychological risks.

Facing risks
Direct participation in action requires us to face our fears of risk. In dealing with challenges, we have the opportunity to turn perceived limitations into abilities and achievements. In the process, we learn a great deal about our relationships with others and ourselves.

Experiential learning is based on people being ‘active and doing’ rather then being ‘passive and done to’. Having the chance to practice the skills they are learning leads to them being more likely to maintain these changes in other areas of their lives.

Learning becomes ‘experiential’ when a person is:

  • involved in an activity
  • looks back at it critically
  • determines what was useful
  • uses this information to perform another activity.

Providing an experience alone does not create ‘experiential learning’. The activity comes first. The learning comes from the thoughts and ideas created as a result of the experience.

The project uses adventure and experiential learning activities to engage pupils, but the learning takes place through pupils:

  • experiencing success
  • evaluating their successes (and failures)
  • transferring these skills to the next activities.

The ultimate aim is that young people will transfer these skills back to the classroom.

Programme
Each programme lasts approximately six weeks, with group sizes ranging from six to 22. Schools select the young people they wish us to work with, and inform us of each child’s developmental needs.

The students are not led to see the teacher as the ultimate source of all answers and wisdom. Instead, they learn from each other, with the facilitator providing guidance when needed.
The facilitator aims to gradually give over control to the group. A leader of a newly formed group will be relied upon by the group for leadership. This allows the leader to model behaviour, set the tone of the session and gain respect. As a group develops, the facilitator’s role changes, allowing students the opportunity to become leaders themselves.

Meeting individual needs
Adventure-based learning is effective in making a difference to pupils’ social and emotional needs because it is not an area of school life where they are seen to fail. The programme ensures it meets individual needs, engaging pupils actively in their own personal development. The majority of the activities are active, so pupils can feel and see their success instantly, thus gaining instant gratification. Pupils develop the skills to understand that they can achieve anything, but they need to apply the right techniques at an appropriate time. For example, they cannot achieve a group task if they do not think of others or achieve a blindfolded task if they cannot trust and communicate effectively.

More confidence
The programme has played a part in breaking down the barriers faced by some pupils when accessing classroom learning. Facilitators have observed that pupils have become: 

  • more supportive of their peers
  • more confident in communicating their ideas
  • less aggressive.

We also have reports from classroom teachers of pupils:

  • taking more pride in their work
  • shouting and arguing less in class
  • behaving in less violent and attention-seeking ways
  • not giving up with frustration if they do not succeed first time.

The next step for the partnership is to train more school staff in facilitating adventure-based learning. We will evolve the programme continually, allowing more young people to develop their social and emotional learning through physical education.

CPD for SEN

This article discusses the GTC’s Making SENse of CPD resource, which includes a summary of research findings about the effectiveness of CPD for SEN, as well as the emerging themes in CPD for SEN

As reported in a recent edition of SENCO Update, the General Teaching Council for England (GTC) has developed a resource to support professional development for special educational needs of teachers in mainstream schools called Making SENse of CPD.

The resource draws on the work of schools that employ particularly successful strategies for SEN-related CPD and has the potential to be added to with further practice examples.

The resource has been developed as part of GTC work that aims to:

  • gain a better understanding of the professional development needs of teachers regarding special educational needs in mainstream schools
  • support mainstream schools to build capacity for relevant professional development
  • share experience and good practice in special educational needs.

The resource will be further extended with the publication, through the GTC’s Engage network, of an information bank aimed at early career teachers (see the panel opposite for a preview of this resource). This includes a specially created matrix linking the core standards to inclusion, SEN and disability which provides information and guidance for teachers. The resource itself will be available by the end of March.

Research findings
 In addition to the practical materials, Making SENse of CPD includes a briefing paper that summarises findings about the effectiveness of SEN. These findings are outlined in the box below.

Evidence for the paper was collected through literature searches and school visits. The literature search was undertaken in three sweeps. The first used search terms including: SEN; special education and teaching; teacher effectiveness and special needs students; career development; teaching skills and special needs; special education and mainstreaming.

A second sweep used the search terms: access to education; conductive education; individualised methods; outreach programmes; specialists; special schools and inclusion.

The final search used medical databases to search for learning difficulties and causes; dyslexia and causes; dyspraxia and symptoms.

Other emerging issues

In addition to the issues reported under the main themes in the box below, three other concerns or issues emerged:

1. The major concern arising within the schools visited is the apparent increase in SEN presenting within the mainstream. This is attributed to the closure of special schools and whether a mainstream school has the ability and capacity to cater for a broader range of need. The schools identify an increase in mental health issues, more autism, speech and language difficulties, and more ‘unspecified global delay’.

2. Within the literature other issues emerged which are not reflected within the schools that were visited. For example, teachers in the mainstream are more concerned with children and young people with behavioural difficulties than those with physical or sensory impairments. Significant curriculum differentiation is necessary to meet the range of needs presented. Some teachers appear to have major difficulty in achieving this.

3. The potential impact of greater survival rates for pre-term births and foetal alcohol syndrome on the incidence and type of SEN is not widely recognised in schools but does feature in the literature.

These last three issues resonate with those reported in a number of recent research studies and reports.

SEN support for early career teachers
The GTC Engage Network has created an online SEN information file specifically for early career teachers. The aim is to help early career teachers relate their immediate context and practice to the national professional context. It draws teachers’ attention to the Core Professional Standards, relevant research that can support inclusive teaching and the Inclusion Development Programme from National Strategies. It will also include examples of inclusive practice from early career teachers around the country.

The information file gives ideas to help recently qualified teachers to develop their inclusive practice within the new core standards (introduced in September 2007). A summary of the key elements of each theme within the core standards is included with related questions that teachers have asked. Relevant information and guidance on how teachers can begin to address these questions is also offered. It may also help teachers to identify a specific area of development related to SEN, to clarify this and seek appropriate information and support. 

Emerging themes in CPD for SEN

Creating and sustaining a positive vision and ethos of inclusion for all, including those with SEN and disabilities

  • In schools this is characterised by headteachers presenting a strong statement on the ethos of the school in terms of inclusion and having regard to the moral purpose of education. Evidence from the visits suggests that this ‘vision and ethos’ is realised through strong positive policies and practices, for example, the use of inclusive language in displays and documents, and evidence of distributed leadership and expertise across the whole staff in relation to SEN and disabilities.
  • Effective teaching and learning for all children and young people is seen as central to developing an inclusive school. A holistic approach, with clear communication between professionals, is used particularly for those with SEN and disabilities.
  • Similar themes emerge from the literature. For example, the significance of an inclusive school ethos is emphasised. Diversity is a fundamental determinant in planning for and delivering inclusion. Inclusion is hampered when rigid and inflexible systems for the deployment of staff, curriculum and timetabling were in use.
  • The literature states that inclusion requires a much deeper consideration of teachers’ roles, how collaboration and coordination within the school, and with other professionals and agencies, is implemented. This is particularly relevant within mainstream contexts.

Provision of effective, relevant, strategic and sustained professional learning and development for all staff working with children with SEN and disabilities

  • CPD for SEN is based on principles of effective CPD. The schools use a range of practices such as collaborative planning, observation, co-coaching, teacher enquiry and research. Training, professional learning and development is also inclusive of all staff.
  • A strong feature of these schools is the involvement of a wide range of staff, including teaching assistants (TAs), and the distribution of expertise across the workforce. Particular mention is made of the developing role of teaching assistants working in teams. They are well trained, supported and managed and hold relevant, specific expertise.
  • Further support for strategic approaches to CPD for SEN is achieved through effective and innovative strategies in using existing personnel and financial resources, as well as seeking out additional sources of support where possible. Multiple funding streams for different professionals exist but there is evidence that access to resources and professional expertise is still ‘tight’.
  • Successful strategies for information exchange within and between teams, both internal and external, are in use. Effective communication is, therefore, also found in these schools. All staff are informed and updated on all children’s needs. Particular needs are explained, strategies to meet these needs described and progress tracked.
  • There is an expectation that all staff have access to specialist knowledge and expertise (both internal and external). External expertise is valued highly. All schools mention local authority SEN advisers and advisory teams. Special schools that offer outreach support to mainstream schools were also greatly appreciated.
  • The teachers recognise that initial teacher training (ITT) programmes are crowded. They expect newly qualified teachers to have some experience of what an ‘inclusive school’ looks like in practice. Newly qualified teachers can then better understand their responsibilities to all children and young people, including those with special needs and disabilities.
  • However, for these teachers the skills, knowledge and expertise are best learned and developed ‘in context’ and ‘on the job’. Some suggested that newly qualified teachers should have knowledge of more common conditions, for example, autism. However, all staff must keep up to date with different conditions, as and when the need arises.
  • The literature argues that children and young people are bringing more pronounced emotional, social and behavioural difficulties into mainstream schools. Many teachers are concerned about this. All staff, including TAs, newly qualified and experienced teachers must develop their expertise to meet these challenges.
  • The ‘curriculum of CPD for SEN’ suggested in the literature for both ITT and CPD is therefore similar.
  • Teachers need to know about theoretical frameworks to enhance theory-practice links, reflective practice and enquiry; child development, learning theory and behaviour management. They also need effective support to deepen understanding of learning and behaviour difficulties and how they are linked, and help to resolve difficulties in practice. The literature also suggests that teachers should receive knowledge of specific conditions or groups from specialists, as and when it is needed.

Building the capacity and capability to offer a flexible, innovative and creative curriculum and pedagogy in response to specific identified needs of all children and young people.

  • Much of the CPD for SEN seems to be located in developing excellent teaching strategies for an inclusive classroom. Teachers who are confident and have agency are able to experiment and innovate and thus meet the needs of all children and young people more effectively. Different schemes are brought into schools to meet different needs. In the schools visited there were also examples of adaptive practice, and increased risk-taking by teachers and others. This was particularly strong at Key Stage 4.
  • The literature also provides evidence that creating an inclusive ethos is more likely where teachers understand and are empathetic to all children’s and young people’s needs, being able to see a learning task through the eyes of children and young people who have different learning needs.
  • Approaches to inclusion in the literature emphasise fluid pupil grouping, cooperative teaching and learning, individualised planning, collaborative problem-solving and differentiated approaches. Delivery of the curriculum is team-based, where others, including TAs, provided some teaching, guidance and instruction.

Find out more about the GTC’s work on CPD and SEN and the Making SENse resource file. The GTC welcomes further examples of practice and comments on the resource.