champions

Engaging with parents
Twelve top tips for inclusive teaching
1 Present material in a variety of ways including visuals like mind maps.
2 Ask open questions to allow for creativity.
3 Offer students different ways of taking part and recording.
4
Give out brief handouts outlining key points, on coloured paper, before the
lesson.
5 Check that instructions and advice are understood.
6 Simplify your language.
7 Write instructions on the board or in handouts.
8
Clearly highlight concepts and key words. Write in large clear letters and
leave definitions visible.
9 Comment constructively and positively.
10
11
Provide checklists, information sheets and reminders to help organisation
of work.
Provide a varied format to your lessons; plan breaks for thinking, sharing,
moving and writing.
12 Develop study skills and organisation.
well, although, even then, pressure of
work can leave little time to digest it all
properly. But a secondary school teacher,
who maybe has 40 pupils with individual
plans across the school, is certainly not
going to wade through each and every one.
The same applies to pupil profiles that
contain 12 or 13 strategies, which I have
seen in some schools.
So what you want is: ‘These are the key
things, don’t forget to do this, this and
this. If you want to find out more, here is
where to go.’
Making the plan accessible
Finally, you need to find a way of making
the plan readily accessible to everyone
who needs it – if it sits in a file in the
staffroom, the chances are that it will
rarely be opened. One answer is to put
a code in SIMS, so that whenever the
teacher takes the register, they can click
on it to reveal the short document and
remind themselves of the key things they
need to bear in mind.
‘Ah yes, I must make sure that this child
is sitting near the front. I must be careful
Thorough
preparation, inclusive
teaching and high quality
training are the three
essentials
not to stand against the light making it
impossible for the pupil with a hearing
impairment to lip read.’ Just one or two
things in every class, but then it is vitally
important that everyone really does put
them into practice.
Quality first inclusive teaching
The other crucial issue that must be
addressed is making sure that every
teacher is a quality first inclusive teacher.
If there are some who are not, some
carefully targeted CPD and support from
management and leaders can help staff
realise that it’s not so difficult to meet the
needs of a neurodiverse group of pupils.
Many schools use a simple ‘top tips
for inclusive teaching’ to encourage
every teacher to meet the needs of most
students in every lesson (see left).
Embedding good practice
A rolling programme of training is essential
to back up these basic strategies, so that
all new teachers are trained from the start
and existing staff get annual reminders. At
the same time, the senior leadership team,
who will be doing classroom observations
and coaching programmes, need to make
sure that inclusive teaching is one of the
things they are looking for, until eventually
good practice is embedded right across the
school.
Once that is the case, teachers will
discover that there are only a few
students who need more than a couple of
‘additional and different’ strategies.
●●In a primary school, these can go on
a simple one-page class education
plan which is easy to access, brief and
given to supply teachers and teaching
assistants (see page 25 for the format
used in one primary school). Strategies
needed for the playground can be put
on a card and given to playground
assistants or supervisors.
● ● At secondary level, as explained above,
staff can click on the register in SIMS to
reveal short summaries of the strategies
needed for students with plans,
including the students’ perceptions,
which are crucial.
● ● Adults involved in providing direct
support to students will need access to
the whole plan.
In a nutshell
So there you have it. Thorough
preparation, a relentless drive to embed
inclusive teaching across the board,
and high quality training for those
members of staff who are involved in
the co-production of plans are the three
essentials.
And, of course, the graduated approach.
Everybody has a co-produced plan
which is clear and succinct: ‘These are
the current concerns, this is what we
are going to do about it, and this is what
we are hoping to achieve. We will have
another look next term. We will assess to
see if good progress has been made. If it
hasn’t, we’ll look carefully to see what it is
that we need to change.’
Which is just basic common sense,
really.
Barbara Ball is managing director of
ASEND, a specialist SEN consultancy,
training and staffing organisation
10 Special Children 231
www.optimus-education.com/sc231