ELABasel Inclusion Brochure

Inclusion Brochure
Learning for the
future.

At ELABasel we are committed to inclusion. We are proud that all
of our learners have access to educational opportunities that
promote their personal development and meet their individual
needs. We ensure that any learner with individual needs has high
expectations of social and academic achievement.
Overall Aim
and
Approach
Our Inclusion Department works across the whole school to
promote and support inclusive classrooms and a school
community by:
Providing curriculum access for all our learners and encouraging a strong focus on high aspirations
Ensuring the identification of all pupils requiring additional provision is as early as possible
Meeting individual needs through a wide range of provision
Attaining high levels of participation from pupils and parents
Providing high quality, up to date supporting resources
Working towards inclusion in partnership with other agencies and schools
Achieving a level of staff expertise to meet pupil needs
Creating an ethos and environment that is person centred and has the views and needs of the learner at its heart
Diversity is the mix.
Inclusion is making the mix work.
Andres Tapia

At ELABasel, we appreciate that students may require additional
support at some point in their school journey. A short boost of
support in a specific area may be all that is needed whilst another
student may require a longer term solution. ELA Basel aims to identify
these students as early as possible so that appropriate support can
be put in place.
Graduated
Approach
Our school has implemented a graduated ‘waves’ model which
describes the different levels of support we provide. With this
approach, each student receives the required and appropriate support
to ensure they make progress in all areas; academically, emotionally,
socially and physically.
Wave 1 (for all pupils)
High quality teaching delivered by classroom teachers.
Teachers make reasonable adjustments to or during a lesson to cater for a child’s strengths and/or challenges
Wave 2 (for some pupils)
Short term support sessions typically delivered in small groups.
Support can be delivered to accelerate progress in areas of academics, language, social, emotional or physical
skills.
Wave 3 (for a small number of pupils)
Long term targeted and personalised additional support delivered in small groups or 1:1 by a Learning Support
Teacher.
A collaborative team including teachers, learning support teachers, external specialists and parents work
together to support the individual.
A Personalised Learning Plan is created for the individual which highlights strengths, goals, support and progress
A Pupil Passport is created which highlights the views, opinions and wishes of the individual
3

Wave 3 (for a small number of pupils)
For a small additional cost, we can arrange for a Learning
Support Teacher to provide 1:1 support to an individual within
the classroom to help them fully access and complete class
tasks. Through our partnership with Foundations for Learning,
we can arrange for a speech and language therapist to work 1:1
with individuals.
Graduated
Approach
External Agencies
ELA Basel also works with a growing number of external organisations to help provide the best support for
our individuals. These organisations include speech and language therapists, occupational therapists,
educational therapists, behavioural therapists and learning specialists.
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The Inclusion Department supports six broad areas:
Communication and Interaction
Cognition and Learning
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
Sensory and/or Physical Needs
English as an Additional Language
Talented and More Able.
Areas
of
Need
Please find below an overview of the six broad areas of need:
Cognition and Learning
Children require additional support to learn, process,
understand, acquire and/or remember new skills.
This can include specific learning difficulties (SpLD) which
affect one or more specific aspects of learning. It
encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia,
dyscalculia and dyspraxia.
5

Communication and Interaction
Learners may require support with their speech, language
and/or communication needs. They may require support with
developing imagination and/or how to communicate and
interact with others. This area of need can include learners
with conditions such as developmental language delay and
autism.
Areas
of
Need
Social, Emotional, Mental Health
Learners may require support with their social and
emotional difficulties.. Learners may need support
with expressing and managing their emotions, or
help with engaging and participating in school life.
This area may include conditions such as attention
deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder or attachment disorder.
6

Sensory and Physical
Learners may require support with sensory issues
and/or difficulties with coordination and motor skills.
This area includes students with vision impairment (VI),
hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment
(MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to
access their learning.
Areas
of
Need
English as an Additional Language (EAL)
We have adopted the following definition: ‘An EAL
student is a student whose first language at home
is not English. This encompasses students who are
fully bilingual or speak multiple languages and all
those at different stages of learning English.’
EAL students may be:
Students who do not speak English at home.
Students arriving from a foreign country and school;
Students arriving from a foreign country but an Englishspeaking
school;
Students who moved to Switzerland at some point before
starting school
Children will be assessed, if possible, using the normal assessment procedures at ELA Basel. If
they are below the level of attainment for their year group, and EAL is the main cause, other
assessment tools will be used to measure attainment and progress.
Through planning, organisation, teaching and assessment procedures, and also the
implementation of resources and strategies, we will aim to meet the needs of all EAL students. If
extra sessions of language teaching are necessary, parents/carers will be consulted prior to this
happening.

Areas
of
Need
Talented and More Able (TMA)
Just as there are learners who have learning difficulties and need a particular type of support in order to reach their
potential, so there are also talented and more able students who also need help to achieve their potential.
Talented and More Able learners are those who have one or more attributes / abilities developed to a level
significantly ahead of their year group or with the potential to develop those abilities.
The term ‘more able’ refers to those pupils who are capable of excelling in academic subjects such as English,
Science, and History. ‘Talented’ refers to those pupils who may excel in areas requiring visio-spatial or practical
skills such as Music and PE, Drama or Art.

Classroom
Support
Wave 1 Classroom Support
Below you will find some examples of support provided in the classroom
Area of
Need
Cognition &
Learning
Communication
& Interaction
Social,
Emotional and
Mental Health
Sensory
&
Physical
English as
an
Additional
Language
Talented &
More Able
Type of
Support
Differentiating the
task’s challenge
or content to
ensure all pupils
are able to
access it
Adapting
resources and
staffing to
effectively
scaffold children’s
learning
Using
recommended
aids, such as
laptops, coloured
overlays, visual
timetables, larger
font etc.
Vocabulary and
number resources
available to use
Opportunities for
students to
demonstrate their
learning in
alternative ways
Modelling, prompting
and scaffolding
students’ language
Chunking or breaking
down information
Checklists and visuals
available, when
required
Providing additional
thinking time
Offering pastoral
support in different
ways and styles, for
example, during
informal
conversations with
teachers
P.S.H.C.E (personal,
social, health,
citizenship education)
lessons
Adapting play times
etc
Praising effort with
house points and
class certificates
Resources available
to help with
concentration e.g.
timers, fidget toys,
wobble cushions
Giving cues before
changes to the lesson
or day
Specific
seating
arrangeme
nts, where
necessary
Class
movement
breaks
Considerati
on to left
handed
learners
Classroom
environmen
t is
considered
and
adapted
according
to
individual
needs,
where
required
Pre teaching
and revision
opportunities
Use of visuals
and displays
Lots of small
group work to
encourage
listening and
speaking skills
A focus on key
words and
vocabulary
Recognising and
celebrating
individual’s
home language
Opportunities to
ask and answer
higher order
thinking
questions
Additional
problem solving
and decision
making activities
Additional
classroom
leading roles
Opportunities to
showcase skills
to classroom
peers
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Classroom
Support
Wave 2 and Wave 3
Additional School Support
Below you will find some examples of our additional support programmes.
The group size and frequency of support varies depending on the level of need
Area of
Need
Cognition & Learning
Communication
& Interaction
Social,
Emotional
and Mental
Health
Sensory
&
Physical
English as
an
Additional
Language
Talented
& More
Able
Type of
Support
Morning Year 2- 7 ‘Booster’
Sessions for English,
Mathematics , French and
German to pre teach or revise
key skills
Precision teaching
Bespoke English and
Mathematics small group
work
Nessy UK reading and
spelling program
Toe by Toe - reading and
spelling programme
After School homework
workshops
Reading aloud sessions
Numicon
1:1 classroom support
Talkabout Friendship
Time to Talk
Lego Therapy
Lunchtime Games
Club
Speech and Language
sessions led by
external therapists
1:1 classroom
support
Nurture Group -
Self Esteem and
Self Awareness
Talkabout
Social Skills
Listening Ear
Starving the
Anxiety Gremlin
Programme
Starving the
Anger Gremlin
Programme
Zones of
Regulation
1:1 classroom
support
NHS Fizzy
and Clever
Hands
Programme
(Gross and
Fine Motor
Skills)
Handwriting
workshop
Additional
classroom
resources,
including
technology
1:1
classroom
support
New to
English
Early
Acquisition
Developing
Competence
Colourful
Semantics
Precision
Teaching
Phonics
Nessy UK
Bespoke
English and
Maths
sessions
1:1 classroom
support
Weekly
morning
Booster
session
Project
work
Competition
s
Opportuniti
es to
showcase
skills to
peers
Bespoke
enrichment
groups
1:1
classroom
support
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Our inclusive
international
community prepares
young people for the
future.
ELABasel Kita
Gartenstrasse 93, 4052, Basel, Switzerland.
ELABasel Primary & Secondary School
St. Alban-Vorstadt 32, 4052, Basel, Switzerland
+41 61 313 05 80
admissions@ela-basel.ch
www.ela-basel.ch
All the information included in this document is accurate at the time of printing - January 2026.