Research School Network: Sliding doors – supporting pupils with SEND in the classroom By Dr Niki Kaiser, Director of Norwich Research School

When you go to a supermarket, the doors open automatically. You might be able to get through them without this, but it makes it easier for you. However, there are some people who, for whatever reason, find it very difficult to enter the store if the doors aren’t automatic. There’s support in place for those people who need it, and it happens to help you as well. This helps everyone!

This week at Notre Dame High School, Norwich we were lucky enough to have an INSET session led by Gary Aubin, in which he helped give life to the idea that good teaching of pupils with SEND is good teaching for all.

Why does it matter?

First, some context: Gary shared some sobering national statistics about pupils with SEND. Numbers of pupils identified with SEND are increasing nationally, and they have relatively poor outcomes by almost all measures. 

Pupils with SEND make less progress than their peers (from P8 scores), are more likely to be male, and are about twice as likely to be eligible for free school meals than their classmates. People with SEND are also over-represented in the criminal justice system, and are more likely to be unemployed (despite looking for work) later in life.

But also – why wouldn’t we want to do the best we can for every pupil we teach?

What are you doing already?

We took some time to think about good practice that we’d already seen within our own school when teaching pupils with SEND. It was encouraging to hear people talking about their colleagues, and what they’d learned from them. 

Things they’d seen included: 

• Lots of scaffolding 
• A positive environment
• Slowing the pace when needed
• Pausing, and allowing processing time
• Routines
• Patience
• Allowing pupils to rehearse answers.

The challenges

One of the most important things we can do for pupils with SEND is to make sure they have access to high quality teaching. But, even if we know this, it can be challenging to ensure this is the case at times. 

Firstly, ​“high quality teaching” can mean different things to different people, and it can be influenced by personal preference. Also, it’s very easy to begin teaching in a particular way but quickly abandon it with certain pupils, searching for a shortcut or an easier approach.

Secondly, it’s very easy to experience ​“death by strategies” and feel that you have to produce individual lesson plans, with a range of personalised resources, for each class you teach. This is, of course, unsustainable.

Assess, plan, do, review

Gary shared the key recommendations from the EEF’s guidance report: Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools.

This was a useful reminder that we need to take a holistic approach to our teaching of pupils with SEND. Data is a really useful starting point, but we should also rely on our professional judgement and observations within the classroom. 

Gary suggested we keep in mind ​“assess, plan, do, review”:

• Do they ​“get it”?
• If not, what shall I do about it?
• Do it!
• Did it work? (repeat as needed.)

He also reminded us that interventions – if and when needed – should be short, specific, and linked to the learning in the classroom. You really need to make sure it’s worth taking a pupil away from the class (and the expertise of their teacher) before intervening.

Working with Teaching Assistants (TAs)

Any teacher will tell you that a good TA is worth their weight in gold, and it is the teacher’s job to make sure they’re prepared and able to support them in the classroom. An ongoing conversation between teachers and TAs is incredibly important. 

Gary underlined how TAs are there to support independence, not to do everything for the children they’re supporting. Metacognitive prompts are a good way of helping pupils learn how to help themselves both at the time and in the future.

TAs don’t always have to stick with the same pupils within a lesson, and can also free up the teacher to help those pupils with the greatest need in a class. This is something I have forgotten in the past, and it was a useful point for reflection.

The 5‑a-day principle

Gary also reminded us of the ​“5‑a-day principle” for teaching pupils with SEND – a useful summary of what we mean by ​“high quality teaching”. All pupils should have access to this, and all pupils will benefit from it. 

If we can open those automatic doors for the pupils we teach with SEND, it will ultimately benefit all.