SEN Magazine Article For Education Lecturer
9 November 2011
Jenny Thompson, Senior, Lecturer/Faculty Disability Coordinator on the Education Studies Programme, has recently had an article published in Special Educational Needs (SEN) Magazine.
You can find the article, which looks at what mainstream primary schools can do to ensure effective inclusion for children with SEN, below or in the PDF attached.
In March this year, Children's Minister Sarah Teather unveiled proposals which would mean the biggest programme of reform in education and health support for children with SEN and disabilities in 30 years, since the 1981 Education Act which was the first move towards including children with SEN and disabilities in mainstream schooling. The Green Paper, Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability, demonstrates a commitment by the Government to improve the lives of these children by providing an inclusive learning environment for them.
The notion of inclusion highlighted in the report as a means of ensuring that these children are able to achieve to their highest potential is somewhat underestimated. In my experience as a teacher of children with SEN and disabilities, there are many factors which need to be considered in order to enable effective inclusion. It is also important to recognise that schools across the country face varying levels of challenges and effective inclusion varies very significantly from one school to another; in particular, those schools serving areas with high levels of social disadvantage will often be dealing with issues on a much greater scale than those in more affluent areas.
Inclusion is only effective if all children get what they need, not if they all get the same. Schools have to have high expectations of all children, not just those who are disadvantaged. The key aim is to support all children to reach their full potential and the role of the school here is to maximise the advantages and minimise disadvantages faced by all children. Effective inclusion aims to give all children the experience of achieving real and meaningful success in their school lives, by providing challenging experiences which meet their individual needs.
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Inclusion requires a flexible, dynamic response to the needs of individuals by developing learning and teaching approaches which are responsive to children's personal learning styles and prior attainment, ensuring that they are actively involved in their own learning. Effective inclusion is more likely to be brought about where schools are able to demonstrate a commitment to developing the whole child, including all of their talents and abilities as well as their personality, social attitudes and competences, and by taking into account the child's life outside of the school through active engagement with the child and their parents to identify their specific needs.
All too often, schools are in a position whereby they do not have the necessary support and resources required to provide effective support for children with SEN. While teachers are generally highly skilled professionals, they often have an unrealistic workload and are tasked with working through their lunch breaks and after school for no extra pay to provide the necessary support for children. Moreover, many teachers lack the specialist training and knowledge to diagnose complex SEN. Despite the fact that children are presenting with increasingly complex SEN in the UK, the training for new teachers in relation to SEN can be variable. Clearly, teacher training needs to better equip teachers to identify children's SEN and provide appropriate interventions to support effective inclusion.
School networks, where mainstream and special schools work in partnership, can also be crucial to help staff gain greater knowledge and understanding of specific needs which help them to respond more appropriately to each child. By developing these networks, inclusive education can be delivered through a variety of settings. It is important to recognise that promoting an inclusive approach to education does not imply rigidity and conformity amongst schools; it does, in fact, suggest the opposite, that schools should take very different approaches, depending on the nature of the particular communities they serve.
However, while most mainstream schools display a strong commitment to trying to meet the needs of all children, in some cases, placement of a child into good quality alternative provision such as a special school may be a positive move to ensure that their individual needs can be met.
It is clear that schools need to develop increasingly close and effective working relationships with other agencies if they are to maximise their effectiveness in promoting an inclusive educational experience. In order for these relationships to be successful, they need to be based on a shared understanding of the aims and objectives to be met and how each agency may contribute towards achieving these aims.
You can read SEN Magazine on their website - http://www.senmagazine.co.uk
