Theory

Every teacher is a teacher of SEND

“Every teacher is a teacher of SEND.”

You may have heard this quote before; it is well known within the English education system. It comes from the SEND Code of Practice (2014), and it is a reminder that the class teacher is responsible and accountable for the progress and development of all pupils in their class.

However, if there is a pupil in your class who requires a greater level of support, feeling knowledgeable and confident enough to know how to support their development can be a worry for new teachers.

One of the contributing factors which leads to the feeling of being unprepared is the uniqueness of the individual pupil; children with the same diagnosed learning need may require very different support. That said, your knowledge and confidence will develop with experience as you progress through your career. You will add to your mental model of how to teach pupils who require a greater level of support, and your expertise will grow exponentially. While you are still at this early stage, it is essential that you seek support from colleagues and adhere closely to the advice of special education professionals. You are responsible for the progress and development of all your pupils, but this does not mean you are alone.

Reflection

Think of a pupil that you have observed or taught that has one of the four areas of needs explored last week:

• communication and interaction needs such as Asperger’s Syndrome
• cognition and learning needs such as dyslexia
• social, emotional and mental health difficulties such as an attachment disorder
• sensory or physical needs such as visual impairment

Consider the following questions and record your response in your notebook:

• how prepared do you currently feel to identify strategies that would support this pupil with their learning?
• who could you seek support from within your setting?

You may wish to talk to your mentor more about this at your next mentor interaction.

Personalising support

As mentioned in previous sessions, high-quality teaching is positioned as the foundation of all SEND provision. Section 6.37 of the Code of Practice clearly states:

High-quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have SEN. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.

(DfE, 2015)

Access to high-quality teaching is the right of every pupil and building high-quality teaching strategies into your everyday practice should be the first step taken to support all pupils to succeed. Therefore, as an early career teacher, working to develop your understanding and application of effective teaching strategies will help you to meet most of your pupils’ individual needs without creating unnecessary workload.

You will use the cycle of assess, plan, do and review to support all your pupils. However, this process is likely to become more personalised as pupils’ needs increase, to ensure they receive the targeted and specialist support that they require to achieve meaningful success. It may be that pupils are given additional support through interventions. Where this is the case, it is important to remember that ‘interventions’ (particularly any that require a pupil to leave the classroom) should support the work that is being done in the classroom, and not replace it. As stated in the SEND Code of Practice:

Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.

(DfE, 2014)

Seeking support

It is important to remember that you are not alone in working to overcome pupils’ barriers to learning. The SEND Code of Practice states:

Schools should regularly and carefully review the quality of teaching for all pupils, including those at risk of underachievement. This includes reviewing and, where necessary, improving, teachers’ understanding of strategies to identify and support vulnerable pupils and their knowledge of the SEN most frequently encountered.

(DfE, 2014)

Seeking advice and support from your colleagues and, the SENCo, will support your knowledge and understanding of SEN strategies and help your pupils to overcome any barriers to learning.

Education, Health and Care Plan

Pupils who are deemed as needing ‘specialist provision’ would be eligible to access external agencies and services, such as physiotherapy or speech and language therapy. Pupils who require specialist support are likely to include pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

Since 2015, pupils with SEND have been classified as either having an EHCP or requiring ‘SEN Support’. EHCPs are awarded by local authorities and set out the additional support a pupil requires for their needs to be met. SEN Support can be provided by the school or external agencies.

Although anyone can request that the local authority carry out an assessment on a child, in the school setting EHCPs are most often requested by the SENCo or a parent.

The number of pupils with an EHCP has increased over the last three years. It is therefore increasingly likely that you may teach a pupil with an EHCP in place, so what is the role of the teacher in the plan?

Your role in the EHCP

Whether it is in preparation to apply for an EHCP, or whether a pupil has already been granted one, your role as a teacher is to provide information and evidence on the progress and needs of the pupil. The graduated approach will be a key tool in gathering this information and support you to assess the impact of the strategies that have been put in place.

There is an annual review of EHCP to determine the progress of the pupil, the effectiveness of the strategies, and whether the EHCP is still needed. If you teach a pupil with an EHCP, you will be asked to attend or contribute to the review meeting to provide valuable information about the developing needs of the pupil. Both the pupil and their parents or carers will also be invited to attend this meeting to share their views on how effective the current strategies are and any barriers that are present.

How can research support you?

There is a wealth of research around SEN provision that could be used to support you to adapt your teaching practice and develop strategies to overcome barriers to learning. However, you must approach any research with a critical eye. A large amount of research focuses on interventions that worked in one setting yet may not be robust enough to be replicated in yours.

The strong turn towards evidence-informed practice over the last few years has meant that there is now a robust, peer-reviewed evidence base that helps us understand how children learn best and what this means for education. This broad evidence base highlights that there isn’t currently the same rigour in research around SEN provision. There are, however, significant efforts being made to rectify this.

A useful website to access is the ‘What Works?’ SEND gateway, which is supported by NASEN (National Association for Special Educational Needs). The information and interventions on this site have been peer-reviewed and subjected to a panel process in order to be included. The resources are broken down into each of the four broad areas of need, and then further categorised into universal, targeted and specialist support.

The Department for Education has commissioned research into what effective practice in school looks like in order to develop understanding of how to improve outcomes for pupils with SEND (Carroll and others, 2017). The report found some good quality evidence on effective interventions to support pupils’ cognition, mental health, communication and interaction needs. It also highlighted how important good assessment is to support teachers to correctly identify individual needs, and the importance of proper training for anyone who is delivering an intervention.

When looking at SEN interventions more broadly, there are common themes that emerge that seem to support positive outcomes:

• the effective deployment of a teaching assistant.
• the importance of engaging all stakeholders, especially parents

In session 4, you looked at ways to work effectively with your teaching assistant. Let’s look at this in relation to SEN provision, as well as the importance of stakeholder relationships.

Support from other stakeholders

A stakeholder in education is someone who has an interest in the success and welfare of the school and its pupils. Stakeholders include those who work in the school (e.g. teachers, support staff, governors and specialist services) and those outside (e.g. parents and doctors). The inclusion of stakeholders in the support network around a pupil can play a major part in the successful outcomes experienced by that pupil. The information, advice, and specialist guidance that some stakeholders can provide can change the entire nature of the support and provision given to a pupil.

However, it is often forgotten that the pupil themselves is the most important stakeholder. Their voice matters too, and they should be encouraged to share which approaches they feel are working. It is essential to gather the views of the pupil and their family if the graduated approach is to work effectively. It will help to build a more holistic picture of the pupil so that you become more aware of the needs of the individual across different contexts.

In the video below, listen to Kelly Challis from the Driver Youth Trust, as she explains how engaging with stakeholders can make a huge difference in your ability to support a pupil with SEND.

Working with Stakeholders – Kelly Challis

Video transcript

The adaptations you make to your everyday class teaching can have a great impact on the progress of the pupil. For example:

• ensuring key vocabulary is pre-taught can help ensure that learners are better prepared when they come across it in lessons
• Or providing scaffolding for the learner during tasks can mean that they don’t experience the fear of the blank page but have support to start their response 

When adaptive teaching does not have the desired impact, suitable interventions should be set up. Interventions need to be effective and evidence based, and progress must be tracked and shared. In some instances, additional assessments may be needed and carried out by the SENCo or potentially other educational professionals. This assessment data needs to be clearly understood and shared with all appropriate stakeholders so that next steps can be planned. 

A stakeholder in education is someone who has an interest in the success and welfare of a school and its pupils. This includes those who work in and outside the school, for example teachers, support staff, parents, governors and specialist services. Each of these people have an important role to play in supporting the pupil to make progress towards their individual goals. These goals may vary greatly, from being able to access elements of the curriculum, to feeling comfortable and safe in the classroom setting. However, it is often forgotten that the young person with SEND is also an important stakeholder and their thoughts and feeling should be listened to and included in any plans. Pupil profiles can be useful in giving a learner the opportunity to make their voice heard. This can help school staff build relationships with them and understand things from their perspective. This information can also inform planning, classroom layout, timetabling and support in order to enable learners to participate in all aspects of classroom learning.

A graduated approach will help you to monitor the impact of stakeholder support on the development of the pupil. At each step of the way along the assess, plan, do, review cycle, consideration needs to be made as to which stakeholder needs what information, how it will be gathered, and how and when this information must be shared. There needs to be clear processes in place for when to work with specialists, both those within the school and externally. 

Most importantly the learner and their family need to be at the centre of the whole process. It is essential to gather their views if the graduated approach is to work effectively. Involving the pupil and their family can help build a more holistic picture of the pupil so that you become more aware of the individual in different contexts. This insight can become invaluable for working out what can work with the pupil.

High-quality teaching, a graduated approach for SEND, and clear communication channels will ensure schools are on the way to effectively meeting the needs of all their learners. However, if all stakeholders work together and communicate clearly, there will be even a greater impact on young people with SEND, which will support them to achieve better outcomes and realise their true potential.

Below are videos that share guidance and advice from key stakeholders. Each stakeholder explains why they feel it is essential to be included in the pupil’s support network. They each share their personal experiences and key learnings of what they feel makes a good stakeholder relationship.

Select one video (or transcript) to view that you feel most aligns with your developmental needs. You may wish to view more than one video (or transcript) if time permits.

1. SENCo Jenny Matthews explains that she feels communication is key in her role.

Video script - 1

Communication is key.

When working to support pupils with special needs or disabilities, we work with a variety of other stakeholders. During my time as a SENDCo I have worked with local GPs and specialised doctors and nurses from a variety of departments such as the child development centre. Regular external agencies I work with include the ear, nose and throat department, audiology team, cleft palate team, school nurses, ophthalmologists, autism assessment team, the visual impairment and hearing impairment team and speech and language therapists and language development workers.

It is imperative to engage with these services to ensure the pupils are able to access the correct provision and learning environments to enable them to succeed. For example, we have several pupils in the school who are hearing impaired. The hearing impairment team regularly visit the school to advise on top tips for those pupils in different lessons, from the lighting, seating position and correct use of radio aids. We are able to use the knowledge we have gained to help other pupils as soon as they begin to attend our school, to ensure the pupil is able to engage in all lessons as soon as they walk through the door.

Communication is key when working with other stakeholders. There may be times when you need to do a bit of detective work and knowing who to contact and having good relationships means a faster result for the child.

Including parents/carers, and the pupil themselves, in the process is key to being able to contact the right people. By having all the information from all the individuals involved in the pupil’s life, you will be able to get a fully rounded picture of any support that needs to be in place, which will ultimately mean the pupil is able to progress in their education.

It is important to be aware that some parents/carers will have very little experience with the SEND process and external agencies. Likewise, they may have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared with and learned from. Regular meetings should be held with parents/carers to ensure knowledge and information can be gathered, as well as working together to ensure the child’s voice is included. An open-door policy will also help parents/carers in feeling empowered to approach staff with any information rather than waiting for time-specified meetings.

1. Parent Liane Bunn talks about the challenges her family faced when transitioning her son from nursery to primary school.

Parent view – Liane Bunn

Video transcript

Bill is 4 1/2 years old and has been deaf in the left ear from birth. He also has intermittent hearing loss in the right ear. Alongside this, he also been diagnosed with a sensory processing disorder which, for Bill, can present in different ways. When overstimulated by the environment, or overtired and ‘triggered’, he can have shutdowns that sometimes look like seizures or periods of absences. He can become unresponsive, limp, slack-mouthed, or demonstrates repetitive behaviours he is unaware of (like an arm or leg moving up and down). 

As it is quite unpredictable how he will react to different stimuli it can be difficult to understand Bill’s needs, as they can differ from moment to moment.

The nursery Bill attends is well set up for children with hearing loss and sensory impairment – it is one of the reasons we selected it. This means that there are many strategies staff use through the day (such as signing or giving visual cues) that benefit all of the children, even if they haven’t been identified as needing it. Because these strategies are in place, Bill is comfortable at nursery and tends to not have the bigger episodes of shutdown while he is there. This has resulted in the nursery saying that they were happy that Bill would be able to slot right into his new school and not need extra support or adaptation made. As his parents, we felt this was optimistic to say the least, so I contacted the school where he will begin in September. 

Bill’s older brother attends this school already and so I was able to explain a little of our situation. They were instantly very reassuring. They offered a meeting before the school applications had even closed, so that they could understand more about Bill and what his needs  might be. They explained that if Bill transitioned well, with no extra support, then that is wonderful. However, if we collectively felt that he may need some support, they would much rather be proactive and have plans in place. They asked about what strategies the nursery uses that we feel helps Bill, and also what we do at home. We were able to share several strategies such as supporting his hearing loss by using Makaton. Bill is very familiar with the signs, and in a noisy classroom Makaton really can help him to understand and process what is being asked. He often misses the beginning and ends of words, so using Makaton means he understands much better what is going on. 

Bill is a completely different child when he recognises where he is, who he is with, and what is going to happen. When things happen he isn’t expecting, it can really be a struggle. He can also struggle to pick up new skills until he has been shown them several times. He needs to be allowed to watch until he feels comfortable to join in. Therefore, strategies like visual timetables, cue cards for routines, and countdown timers to signal change overs, really help him prepare and process what he is being asked to do. The cue cards are especially good for supporting his memory of how to do something, or the sequence it needs to be done in. 

Another strategy that was particularly effective was that the nursery assigns each day of the week a colour, feel, and smell to help the children to learn and process each of these gradually. It is a gentle introduction to new senses that has become part of the routine of his day. The next time he encounters them he won’t be so surprised by them, and this could avoid any sensory overload happening. 

The school have said they will ask the nursery for the details of each of these and will be able to implement at least some of them very easily, without disruption or additional cost. They explained that some of these things already help a number of children in the school and they gave us the further suggestions of using weighted toys and knee pads for circle time. The understanding of these needs and the implication of these strategies will, I am positive, prove to be a great help to Bill. It felt wonderful that they had taken the time to listen to our concerns, and engage with us in discussing strategies that would support my son. 

As his parents we couldn’t feel happier about the approach the school have used. We feel completely relaxed about this transition and very much like any ideas or thoughts will be listened to. The difference between this and the feelings we have been left with from nursery at times is unquantifiable. The transition to school can be a scary enough time, but when your child has additional needs that aren’t always obvious, and you think your worries, concerns and knowledge of your child are being ignored, it is even harder.

1. Teacher educator Henry Morgan explains how he included his pupils in the assessment of their own learning needs.

Video script – 3

Graduated approach, pupil voice.

I taught a pupil who was diagnosed with dyslexia and obsessive-compulsive disorder with elements of autism. Here, I needed to put the pupil and their needs at the centre of the graduated approach. 

This included engaging with them in open conversations about which strategies worked well for them and which ones did not and discussing how they like to be approached in the lesson. 

Once I had this information, I cross-referenced it with other information that I had on the pupil, for example any information from multi-agency meetings, the SENCo, and previous information gathered from their parents. 

Once I had done this, I approached and spoke to their parents myself to look into what had and what had not previously worked for their child. 

Then I set about using a low-stakes testing method to find out where they were in relation to their peers – this is something I often use with my whole class as part of high-quality teaching. This represented the assess phase of the graduated approach. 

From here I could plan how to best support them over the following academic year by providing extra support to address key misconceptions or topics that were particularly difficult for the child. For example, as the pupil had difficulty understanding perceptual reasoning, when teaching shapes, angles and area, I knew they would require more concrete examples. 

When reviewing the strategies, I spoke with the pupil regularly to see if my lessons were having an impact. I also looked at carefully selected data to measure if there was progress. 

Including the pupil’s voice in this process meant that the pupil felt they could have an open conversation with me when things were not working for them. This helped to make the pupil feel safe and supported, which in turn led to emboldened confidence – the key ingredient to getting any pupil with additional needs to give your lesson a go.

A common theme running through all the videos is that of ‘clear communication’. Whether this be between parents, pupils or educational specialists, good communication is a key feature of successful stakeholder relationships and ultimately the success of the pupil.

Reflection

Consider the following questions and record your reflection in your notebook:

• who could you communicate with within your present school about pupils with SEN?
• what transition points within school and between schools can you identify where communication might be especially important?
• how could you include the pupil’s and parent or carer’s views in planning strategies for learning?

Case Studies

In the previous session, you were introduced to the graduated approach. You were then asked to consider a pupil in your class who had a barrier to learning and reflect on what you had already done to support them to overcome this barrier.

Below are several case studies of teachers who have used the graduated approach to support a pupil with SEND. The case studies are organised into the four broad areas of need. Select one video below to watch that you feel would be most beneficial to your practice.

Sensory and physical needs

Autism spectrum condition case study - Early Years

Autism spectrum condition case study – Early Years

Video transcript

The child I am going to talk about is a pupil with autism. He joined our school in Nursery, just after his second birthday, and  he entered my Reception classroom with an Educational Health Care Plan to support him. To ensure I effectively supported him with his learning when he transitioned from nursery to reception, I used the graduated approach.

Assess

During the assess phase, I started by trying to gain an understanding of the pupil as an individual to understand what their learning needs might be. To do this I made use of any available data – I spoke to the previous class teacher about how they had supported him in Nursery, whether there had been any interventions, timetable changes or any other resources used to support him. I looked through his EHCP to identify what his targets were and spoke to the SENCo for further guidance on how I could support him to achieve these targets through adaptive teaching.

Plan

From the assess phase, it became apparent that the pupil was struggling with different sensory experiences and became discomforted when touching different textures. Therefore, during the planning stage, I focused on planning for strategies that would support and develop his ability to cope with different sensory experiences. After speaking with the SENDCo, I planned to provide the pupil with 3 different activities each week to support his sensory targets. The activities I planned for him to do were touching rainbow slime, painting using his fingers and playing with farm animals that were in a tray of foam.

Do

To implement these activities in the classroom, I put the activities in what we call his ‘challenge boxes’. This is a tray in the classroom that is set up just for him. In the tray, there was one activity for him to access at a time. These activities were sometimes carried out with me, and sometimes with his 1:1 learning support assistant, although, he was encouraged to access and complete these activities independently. Once he had completed one activity, it was replaced with a different one. He was encouraged to complete the three activities several times over the course of the week.

Review

During the review phase, I met with other stakeholders to discuss the progress the pupil had made in our school. We do the ‘review’ element at the end of each half-term to see how the pupil has developed, which helps to inform their next steps. The pupil had met his target, so we used any new data we had to begin the cycle again and set new ones.

These targets were focused on progressing his sensory needs further. For example, one of his new targets was freezing dinosaur eggs, which I had planned to implement myself. These were in his challenge boxes for him to access and I encouraged him to access these throughout the morning session.

The process of assess, plan, do, review, is continually used to shape the support around the changing needs of the pupil as they progress throughout the year and their school journey. It has helped him to make good progress towards his targets and his confidence to touch new objects in the classroom and at home has grown. He says he feels happy in school and this is reflected in his behaviour.

Cognition and learning needs

Barriers to reading case study – Primary

Video transcript

This pupil was in Year 3 and their barrier to learning was reading. They had not passed the phonics screening check in Year 1 but had passed in Year 2. Their attainment was below age-related expectations but not significant enough for a specific SEND diagnosis. So, although this pupil was making some progress, it was reading that continued to be the challenge. I used the graduated approach to identify the pupils’ needs, generate strategies to support them and evaluate these strategies based on the pupil’s progress. During the assessment phase I gathered as much information as possible. Through progress meetings, teachers had identified that the child had a 2.3 score for reading, which was significantly behind their age. As a result, further professional discussions about the pupil’s specific barriers to reading were required. We also met with parents to discuss further support, before an in-depth gap analysis was carried out by the English lead to support the teacher with next steps in the pupil’s learning. This analysis identified that whilst decoding was not an issue the pupil was not reading for meaning. Although they could confidently segment and blend, they were not making meaning from reading in sentences. During the plan phase, the teacher used the information obtained from assessments and parents to decide what actions to take place. It was identified that the pupil would need support and interventions to help them decode unfamiliar words using segmenting and blending. They would also need support to develop their comprehension of what they were reading. To support the pupil to meet their decided outcomes, specific interventions were put in place such as:

• Reading to an adult every day with a specific focus on segmenting and blending unfamiliar words
• Receiving a reading intervention that focused on the pupil’s ability to develop comprehension strategies such as re-reading sentences if they don’t seem to make sense
• Teacher providing focused support in the lessons such as working with the pupil in a guided group at least once a week
• Lesson visits from an SLT member to engage the pupil in discussions and promote a love of reading and book choices
• Reading strategies were shared with his parents and it was asked that he read to them daily

During the review phase, we identified that the impact of this support on the pupil was positive. The pupil had become more confident at reading, the parents were more engaged in the child’s learning and the gap between the child’s ability and age-related reading expectations had narrowed. As cycle of the graduated approach continued, the pupil was tracked through assessment, their needs were met through carefully tailored intervention and teaching following on from the assessment, and there was ongoing monitoring from SLT through daily lesson visits, pupil voice and tracking. The regular review of their progress allowed us to shift the support to meet their changing needs.

Video script - Graduated Approach, Cognition and Learning

Peter is in year 9. He does not have a specific diagnosis. However, he has a significant delay in his cognitive (thinking skills/thought processes) ability and this translates as a major barrier to his learning on a daily basis. Peter learns at a significantly slower pace than his peers, despite robust quality-first teaching. As such, he requires interventions, above and beyond that which is provided to his peers.

The barriers Peter faces with his cognition and learning difficulties encompass the entire curriculum, including literacy and numeracy delay, difficulties with his working memory, and his processing ability is impaired. Specifically, Peter struggles with the speed in which he can process information, difficulties with manipulating information using his working memory and global barriers relating to his literacy delays. It means in real terms accessing any part of the curriculum can be difficult for Peter.

Secondary to this, Peter often demonstrates associated issues with lacking engagement, attention and concentration and his frustrations with his difficulties often manifest themselves in behavioural concerns.

Peter continues to face challenges in his learning, despite receiving high-quality teaching; as a result he requires additional strategies, or different provision, in order to meet his needs.

Assess – using the graduated approach, judgements need to be made using all of the data we hold on that particular pupil. For Peter the data pointed to there being significant difficulties faced by Peter whenever language was the barrier to his learning. That means the language barrier needs to be addressed even in subjects like maths, where the barrier needs to be removed to allow him to ‘see’ the maths.

Judgements about the progress Peter makes alert you to any barriers that may be getting in the way of them making comparable progress to their peers. At this stage Peter was referred, via the SENDCo, to the educational psychologist for further investigation as the gap between the progress he was making continued to widen, despite receiving interventions such as the Accelerated Reading programme and having some literacy-focused in-class support from a teaching assistant.

Plan - This part of the cycle involves discussing, planning and agreeing what will be put in place as an outcome of the assessment information gathered. The planning should involve the pupil, parents and staff from the school who know the pupil well. Where other professionals are working with the child, they should also contribute to planning. The initial step of the planning process includes agreeing targets for the pupil in order to focus attention on key areas and give them a clear idea of what they need to do to improve their work. Personalised support was planned for Peter to address his identified outcomes; specific teaching strategies were communicated to his teachers via his Learning Plan outlining the approaches and resources that must be used in his lessons to meet his needs. At this stage these included:

• Teaching material in small chunks and providing memory joggers and visual checklists
• Providing additional scaffolding/word banks for extended writing
• Pre-teaching of new vocabulary
• Using a laptop for extended writing tasks
• Using a multi-sensory approach to literacy Do - The Code of Practice makes it clear that it is the responsibility of class and subject teachers to implement the plan on a day-to-day basis.

Review - A timescale for reviewing the plan, and details of how progress will be monitored, also needs to be identified. When the review meeting between the pupil, parents and any relevant professionals takes place, it is helpful to consider the following questions:

• What progress has the pupil made? Have they achieved their agreed targets and what is the evidence for this?
• What impact has the support/intervention had on progress?
• What are the pupil’s, parents’ and professionals’ views on the support/intervention?
• What changes need to be made to targets or provision next term? The assess, plan, do, review process is a cycle – the idea being that this process is continual. If the review shows a pupil has made really good progress, this may mean they no longer require the additional provision made through SEN support. If this is the case, the pupil is likely to be taken off the SEN record and, instead, will be monitored to ensure progress is sustained through inclusive high-quality teaching. This is a continual process unless the pupil narrows the progress gap between them and their peers sufficiently.

Communication and interaction

Speech and language case study - Early Years

Speech and language case study - Early Years

Video transcript

This case study describes how we have used the graduated approach to support a pupil – referred to as Pupil A throughout this video – with communication and interaction needs. The system follows the four stages, often referred to as a ‘cycle’: Assess, Plan, Do, Review. (For further information about this cycle, often referred to as the ‘graduated approach’, see Chapter 6 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015.)

Pupil A is a 4 year old, Asian, summer-born boy, who started his Reception year after having a limited time spent in an education setting, from our feeder Nursery School. The pupil is also a second language learner, speaking Hindko at home. Pupil A does not have any diagnosis of specific language impairment (SLI) at this stage. His non-verbal skills are a relative strength. He displays signs of phonological disorder with features of verbal dyspraxia, which means he makes pronunciation errors, but again no diagnosis as his attendance was poor at nursery. Pupil A also has a hearing impairment and is involved with the hearing specialist teacher who supports with radio aids. He does not wear his hearing aids at home, which is impacting on his hearing loss. These concerns are severely impacting on his ability to make himself understood. He doesn’t have an EHCP at present, but concerns were raised by the SENDCo at the previous setting.

Assess

As the class teacher, I worked closely with the SENDCo to discuss Pupil A’s needs and created a baseline assessment by which progress will be measured. One of the significant issues we faced was parental engagement with learning at home, which became clear through, for example, non-engagement with home learning tasks, reading at home and attendance at meetings. A review of hearing aid use at home was also completed by the hearing impairment specialist which revealed the lack of use of hearing aids at home. This revealed that Pupil A, therefore, had a severely limited exposure to language, which was impacting on the amount of progress he was making. A sharing meeting was held between myself, parents, SENDCo and the hearing impairment specialist to discuss all of the issues outlined above. In this meeting, we also found that his parents felt Pupil A could speak in complex sentences in his home language so our commissioned Speech and Language therapist arranged for a language assessment in his home language.

Plan

The speech and language assessment provided a thorough assessment in Pupil A’s home language and showed that he was significantly below in his home and second language. Parents needed support in accepting that he had additional needs, even though mum had started comparing him to her 2-year-old. A plan of additional support was drawn up for him where both staff and parents agreed what outcomes they hoped would be made, and by what date. For example, one outcome was for him to be able to recall a number of nouns for common objects, e.g. television, banana, etc. by the next review date. A record of this plan was kept in the school and one was sent home.

Do

Pupil A was given extra support. Some of the interventions that were put in place were adaptations to my classroom practice whilst others were interventions carried out by specialists. We also involved his parents in this stage of the process. Some examples of the adaptations to practice made were:

• Using a visual timetable to support with routines.
• Pre-teaching of topics before it was introduced to the rest of the class.
• Allocating a quiet space with the support of the hearing impairment specialist.
• Providing daily Time to Talk interventions with a small group of children.
• The commissioned Speech and Language therapist focussed on Blank Level 1-2 questioning and quieter speech sounds such as ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘th’ and ‘r.’
• Asking parents to practise basic words with him.
• Asking his parents to ensure he wears his hearing aid at home and making them aware that this would be monitored.
• Each half-term, the hearing impairment specialist scheduled home visits to check the frequency of the use of hearing aids at home

Review

I as class teacher attended half-termly meetings with the team around the child including the SENDCo, Hearing Impairment Specialist, Speech and Language Therapist and parents. Here we reviewed his targets and quickly identified that Pupil A was struggling to make progress. In particular, he found it challenging to retain information. As an outcome of the meeting, it was agreed that the SENDCo, with the support of the class teacher writing a description of the needs of Pupil A, would engage the community paediatrician in order to enable us to explore any further underlying issues.

The graduated approach – the second cycle

During the review stage of the first cycle, it was found that Pupil A was not meeting his outcomes, so a second cycle began which included a more detailed assessment which led to an even more personalised plan to support Pupil A.

Assess

Through the involvement of the paediatrician, the Early Support Monitoring Protocol for Deaf Babies and Children (ESMP) was used to assess his development. This indicated that Pupil A, who was 4 years and 9 months old at the time, experienced a significant cognitive delay and was at a level of development of a child between 15 and 18 months of age.

Plan

During the second plan phase, it was recommended that Pupil A was offset and so that he could repeat his Reception year. The reasons why this was necessary were clearly explained to his parents and they supported this decision too. New outcomes were decided upon and the cycle continued.

Do

Using the graduated approach helped to identify Pupil A’s significant needs. The Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle needs to be fluid and flexible to ensure both the teacher and school can respond to the pupil’s needs. By keeping him back a year, we were able to help him meet new outcomes. Several of the interventions included in the initial ‘Do’ phase continued into the second cycle.

Review

Although Pupil A’s attainment remained behind his peers, his progress became much more rapid and sustained over time. The Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle is continually used as Pupil A moves through school to ensure the provision in place supports his evolving needs as identified on his EHCP, which was gained during Pupil A’s offset year in Reception.

Speech and language case study - Secondary

Script

Speech and language case study – Secondary

By Helen Bownes

Mikey is a year 11 pupil. He has historically had significant delays in his speech and language acquisition. He attended an additionally resourced primary provision for speech, language and communication difficulties. He was deemed appropriate, however, for attendance at a mainstream school with enhanced provision. He is currently a year behind his chronological age due to the fact that his progress was hindered by his complex difficulties. He no longer requires speech and language therapy. His speech however can still be difficult to understand for the unfamiliar listener.

In terms of barriers, Mikey’s difficulties with all aspects of language have resulted in him having difficulties with his cognition and learning that relates to literacy. He also finds it difficult to maintain his attention and concentration for sustained periods of time, especially when a task is challenging. There are also some elements of social communication and interaction that Mikey finds problematic on a daily basis.

Mikey continues to face challenges in his learning, despite receiving high-quality teaching; as a result he requires additional strategies, or different provision, in order to meet his needs. Mikey is very resilient and determined, he embraces all interventions put in place and support offered to him. His family are valued stakeholders in the entire process. They are realistic, supportive and provide endless encouragement from home. There are now currently no other external agencies involved in the provision for Mikey, although this may change as he transitions into his post-16 pathway.

Assess – using the graduated approach judgements need to be made using all of the data we hold on that particular pupil. For Mikey the data pointed to there being significant difficulties faced by him whenever language was the barrier to his learning. That means the language barrier needs to be addressed even in subjects like maths, where the barrier needs to be removed to allow him to ‘see’ the maths. By doing this it enables Mikey to experience success in areas that he is more accomplished at, once his primary barrier is removed. Mikey also felt when he chose his key stage 4 pathway that he wanted to complete more vocational courses and steer away from modern foreign languages, as he felt he would struggle to overcome the barrier of the speaking component.

Judgements about the progress Mikey makes alert you to any barriers that may be getting in the way of him making comparable progress to his peers. As Mikey started key stage 4, there was a shift to where the support was placed. There was an emphasis on teaching assistants in the core subjects, and the deployment of staff was shifted. Mikey had previously been reliant on a ‘velcro’ style of support; the need was to focus on him utilising more of a model of support that allowed him to develop the skills to become more independent and to support him in getting himself out of the learning pit where he previously might have been reliant on an adult. The heavy use of collaborative learning combined nicely with this shift in support. There was an overwhelming improvement in Mike’s ability to discuss topics and be involved in working with others as a result.

Plan – This part of the cycle involves discussing, planning and agreeing what will be put in place as an outcome of the assessment information gathered. The planning should involve the pupil, parents and staff from the school who know the pupil well. Where other professionals are working with the child, they should also contribute to planning. The initial step of the planning process includes agreeing targets for the pupil in order to focus attention on key areas and give them a clear idea of what they need to do to improve their work. In Mikey’s case there was an abundance of previous strategies and interventions which continue to support him fully in accessing mainstream educational provision.

Following this, personalised support was implemented for Mikey to address his identified outcomes, and specific teaching strategies were communicated to his teachers via his Learning Plan outlining the approaches and resources that must be used in his lessons to meet his needs. At this stage these included:

• Pre-teaching of new vocabulary
• Using of a laptop for extended writing tasks
• Using social stories to support social interaction
• Carefully planning when to work collaboratively
• Developing strategies to support independence and self-help when struggling with tasks
• Providing scaffolding and/or word banks for extended writing
• Providing visual cues and memory Do – The Code of Practice makes it clear that it is the responsibility of class and subject teachers to implement the plan on a day-to-day basis.

Review – A timescale for reviewing the plan, and details of how progress will be monitored, also need to be identified. When the review meeting between the pupil, parents and any relevant professionals takes place, it is helpful to consider the following questions:

• What progress has the pupil made? Have they achieved their agreed targets and what is the evidence for this?
• What impact has the support/intervention had on progress?
• What are the pupil’s, parents’ and professionals’ views on the support/intervention?
• What changes need to be made to targets or provision next term? The assess, plan, do, review process is a cycle – the idea being that this process is continual. If the review shows a pupil has made really good progress, this may mean they no longer require the additional provision made through SEN support. If this is the case, the pupil is likely to be taken off the SEN record and, instead, will be monitored to ensure progress is sustained through inclusive high-quality teaching. This is a continual process unless the pupil narrows the progress gap between them and their peers sufficiently.

Social, emotional and mental health

Attachment and hypervigilence case study

Video transcript

I taught a pupil who was diagnosed with an attachment disorder and hypervigilance. Along with some learning difficulties, this pupil also presented with some very challenging behaviour. They lacked confidence in themselves and would often be in low mood. If they felt anxious they could be quite hyperactive in class, and did find it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time.

The level of support around this pupil were highly personalised and the graduated approach was something I used to monitor progress carefully and support us in our judgements as to whether they were having any impact or not.

Assess

Before this pupil entered my class, to support with assessments, they actually visited my classroom several times with their current teacher. They took part in some of my lessons, got to know where things were in the room, and I took this opportunity to chat with them and find out more about them. I found out that they loved Maths, football, and wrote rap songs. I knew that this pupil had a great relationship with their current teacher, so their teacher and I spoke a lot about how they had developed this and general strategies that were working well. The pupil had been working with the CAMHS team, including an educational psychologist, so I made sure I read the reports from them and knew what recommendations had been given for supporting with their learning and behaviour. I had taught this child’s sibling the previous year, so I did already have a relationship with the family. If I didn’t have this relationship in place, I would have spoken to them very early in the year about what they have found effective and established some norms about how were going to communicate. Attachment disorder or hypervigilance weren’t things I knew too much about at the time, so I also did a lot of reading and finding  strategies on my own, as well as talking to the SENCo about what was working well in school.

Plan

The first question we would ask ourselves as we planned out a strategy or intervention was always ‘will this pupil feel safe in this situation?’ This didn’t mean that I as a teacher was putting them in a dangerous situation, more that if the pupil perceived something to be out of the normal routine without prior warning, they would have a heightened sense of awareness that would make them feel very anxious. Other situations that would lead to them feel anxious were if the corridor was too busy, if there was a supply teacher needed, if we did maths before breaktime – anything that was unexpected could lead to heightened anxiety levels. If this happened, they wouldn’t be calm enough to participate fully in their learning, and there was also a risk that these feelings of fear and uncertainty would manifest into challenging behaviours. So to counteract this we planned strategies that would allow them to be as prepared as possible about what was happening. Strategies in the plan were things like visual timetables, me giving clear explanations, writing instructions down for them, support with transitioning between the classroom and the playground from a TA, class countdown timers to support focus, and reward charts to praise good behaviour.

Do

Along with the strategies that I planned, I stuck to my routines for the day very tightly, I would share what was happening in the day using a visual timetable and if anything was going to deviate from this I would speak to this pupil to prepare them so that it didn’t leave them feeling uncertain. I also had to be very consistent with my expectations around behaviour and I had to follow through on any consequences. Me being very consistent meant that I was predictable in my behaviour and this pupil felt a level of comfort and trust around that. Having clear behavioural boundaries meant that if they were ever crossed, they knew what consequences to expect, so this stopped the pupil from entering a ‘fight or flight’ mode and any challenging behaviour escalating. Genuine and specific praise was also something that was very important for supporting with their self-image – which is something we worked hard to improve. They liked to know specifically what they had done that was good, and they thrived on being able to show other teachers good work or me calling home with positive news. We also set up a routine whereby once a week the pupil would support children in the younger year groups in Maths. This was to try and encourage self-confidence, but also to promote and reward calm and patient behaviour – which they needed to exhibit when working with the younger pupils.

Review

The strategies we put in place to support the pupil’s self-image and behaviour were generally effective. If they ever weren’t, it was quick to identify, as their behaviour would change. It meant that I was very responsive as a teacher. The work the pupil did with the younger children in Maths was particularly effective at improving their self-image, and they took a great deal of pride in preparing the resources to take with them to classroom.

We had termly reviews with the Ed psych, and we would discuss progress towards the emotional and behavioural goals that we had set for the pupil. Although their parents were at times difficult to engage, I would call home or grab them at the end of the day to give positive news. With the support of the Ed pysch, we also adapted the reward chart so that it could also be utilised at home.

I taught this pupil for two years and I learnt a lot about them and also my own practice. My biggest take-away was around the importance of getting to know the pupil and understanding their needs and what lies behind their behaviour. If a child has a social, emotional and mental health need, it is also important to recognise that that child may need their self-confidence and self-image boosted in order to support their academic progress and achievement.

Final reflection

At the end of the last session you began to reflect on how your actions to support a pupil aligned with the assess, plan, do, review cycle. You plotted your actions so far into a table.

Return to this table and consider your learning from this session. In response to the questions below, add additional information or actions to the cycle:

• were there any strategies from the case studies that would be useful to explore?
• can you effectively deploy any support staff?
• where have/could you have engaged with parents? How could you make the most of parent’s evening to share important information?
• have you sought support from the SENCo?
• have you spoken to the pupil themselves about their learning?
• are there any additional stakeholders that could support?

Prepare to discuss this plan at your next training session, as well as any strengths and challenges you faced with the approach in general.

Remember that you must keep the identity of the pupil anonymous.