Being and Inclusive and Adaptive Teacher

Luke Kandiah

Nov 9, 20234 min read

Becky Clarke SENCO

Inclusivity and adaptivity

What do we mean by Inclusive?

- A curriculum that involves everyone, access is open to all students.

Aiming to provide equal opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised.

What do we mean by adaptive?

- A curriculum that responds to the presence of SEND students in classes and adapts to the learning of students.

Purple Pathway is an alternate learning path at Maiden Erlegh (my SE1) low attaining Maths and English. This is one way that the greater school is adaptive and inclusive to students that struggle more than others.

Being adaptable is essential.

SENDCode of Practice

Early years providers, schools and colleges should know precisely where children and young people with sen are in their learning development. They should have high ambitions and stretching targets for them. - SEN Code of Practice.

They should also:

Promote positive relationships, active engagement and wellbeing for all pupils.

Ensure all pupils can access the best possible teaching

Adopt a positive and proactive approach to behaviour, as described in the EEF's improving behaviour in Schools guidance report.

Creating a positive and supportive environment for all pupils means placing support for pupils with SEND at the heart of school priorities - being inclusive by design. This approach to pupils with SEND should be reinforced in the language, activities, routines and strategies across the classroom as well as whole school settings.

The SEND Code of Practice is clear: 'Every teacher is a teacher of special educational needs.'

Asking students to share what their partner said, allows quieter children to have their answers shared without needing to feel exposed by having to share it themselves.

Positive relationships and active engagement for all pupils

Effective teaching and learning requires positive relationships and interactions between teachers and pupils.

Research has suggested that teachers attitudes towards the inclusion of pupils withSEND are reflected in the quality of their interactions with pupils.

A systematic review exploring approaches to effectively including children with SEND in mainstream classrooms found that teachers with positive attitudes towards the inclusion of children with SEND had better quality interactions with pupils. These teachers saw themselves as resposible fo the learning of all pupils and. had longer interactions with SEND students.

Adopt a positive and proactive approach to behaviour and learning

There is strong evidence that a proactive, positive and supportive approach to behaviour will benefit all pupils and can reduce amount of challenging behaviour they exhibit.

Encourage and reward positive behaviour.

Assessment

Schools should aim to understand individual pupils learning needs using the graduated approach of the 'assess, plan, do, review' approach.

Assessment should be regular and purposeful rather than a one-off event, and should seek input to better facilitate learning.

Literacy screening, pupil voice questionnaire, collect data and review for implementation plans.

Encourage other teachers to adhere to the plans and strategies that you apply.

-2 -1 0 1 2

(Asking teachers to mark how successful or unsuccessful students applied to themselves to the focus goal on a scale of -2 to 2.)

Rather than assigning a diagnosis, the important aspect is becoming adaptive and inclusive to facilitate the best lesson.

Children may find social interactions difficult, familiarity could be really important to bring the most out of every child.

Sometimes pigeon-holing students can have averse and limiting effects on students.

How does a child with ADD cope with lessons (Attention Deficit Disorder)

Students with ADD feel safe and secure if they know what to expect. With regular routines and rituals, they become more familiar with what they need to do. The more you can keep to routines and rituals, the better. Any change simply creates distraction, uncertainty and confusion.

Allow time, don't hurry. If tasks are rushed, students develop a learned helplessness.

Introduction to SEND at School Level

Nicky Watson

The SEND code of Practice

The graduated response to SEND

You should alert the SENCO when Wquality first teaching is not working efficiently with a particular child. A meeting would be set up between the teacher, parent and SENCO to put the child on the SEND register.

Quality first teaching

Pupils with special educational needs or disabilities are likely to require additional or adapted support; working closely with colleagues, families and pupils to understand barriers and identify effective strategies is essential.

Quality First Teaching (QFT) means: High quality inclusive teaching together with a continuous whole school process for assessing, implementing, tracking, monitoring and reviewing your child's progress.

Now the students feel part of the team, they want to achieve just as much. EEF

Supporting every pupil to succeed academically is a significant challenge for teachers and teaching assistants. The EEF’s research evidence suggests there is a set of five core practices that can support all pupils, including those with SEND, to do just that.