Inclusion Development Planning with Claire

Hello! I have just gone through the presentation and I am very excited with it! Although not at exactly the same lines, this seems to be something that can help me with my project. I work in a school in Greece and although we do offer provisions for children with LD the school has no official policy on inclusion. This is therefore my project for this year. To create one! As with your school, i ve decided to focus on SpLD since the majority of our students have been diagnosed with dyslexia. What i wanted to ask you was where your steps are based on? Do you think that in order to create an effective policy I could follow in those steps? I am very keen to get parents/teachers/students to understand what LD really means and believe that something along the lines of the questionnaires you've put in place might be a good place to begin with. Could this be related?

Hi Christiana
I’m glad that you found the presentation interesting. I used the Inclusion Development Programme on Dyslexia to heighten the awareness of Dyslexia with pupils, staff and parents and to consider how to move our practice forward. I found it very useful and will definitely continue to use it as the practice within school evolves further. You should be able to access it online. There are self evaluation tools on the disk which you may find useful to use with members of staff. It should help you to be able to ascertain exactly where the school is and how to move forward.
In terms of the pupil voice, I found it useful to use to a ‘solution focused approach’. I met with small groups of pupils and asked them open-ended questions such as ‘how do you feel about your learning?’ The children drew a line and wrote one at the beginning and ten at the end. They then indicated on the line as to how they felt. This facilitated the discussion, with me asking what stops you from feeling the number below and how could we move to the number above. I found that this enabled the pupils to hone in and be very specific about what works for them and how wave one provision could be improved. It proved to be a very powerful tool, I was impressed by how self aware and confident the pupils were.
The parents in our school were more challenging! However you may be in a very different setting. There are questionnaires on the disk which the parents that we could engage responded well to.
I’m sure that if you want to develop the practice within the school and then reflect this in the policy this would provide a positive way forward.

Hi

I also found this very helpful. I am in the process of reforming the SEN department at an international school in Zambia. I had planned to set up focus groups of parents and teachers as part of my data collection and also wanted to include pupil voice. Communication is an important area for me to work on. Maybe questionnaires would be valid in my situation. I also feel that I need to implement clear systems to ensure that our practice runs smoothly and doesn't add to heavy teacher load. This plan seems to have clear goals and expectations. You mention the IDP disk-where can I access this?
Thanks

Donna

Hi Donna
The Inclusion Development Programme is a series of discs / web based materials brought out by DCSF to support inclusion. The first came out in 2008 and focused on improving wave 1 for pupils with Dyslexia and Speech and Language Difficulties. In 2009 materials on Autism Spectrum were released and later on this year the resource on Behavioural, Emotional and Social difficulties is due to be published. The discs can be ordered through www.teachernet.gov.uk , they are free publications although I am afraid I do not know whether they are accessible outside of the UK. The Dyslexia / Speech, Language and Communication disc takes some time to learn to navigate round it however it is well worth committing the time, as it contains a wealth of useful resources. The Autism Spectrum disc is much more user-friendly.
I think you are right to involve the pupils. Pupil voice can be so powerful. I found that presenting the teachers with the views of the pupils really helped them to think about and evaluate their own practice.
In terms of teacher workload, it is a real challenge in moving practice forward without making it too onerous. It is one of the reasons that we decided to use a lesson study approach. It enabled us to work with a small number of teachers, to try things out and consider how to make it work before disseminating across the school. The teachers involved in the lesson study have been very positive. I’m hoping that as they will be able to talk with experience, about the difference it has made to pupils in their class, that the rest of the staff will be enthused and committed to putting in a little extra work to impact on the learning experience for pupils across the school.

Claire

Hi Claire, thanks so much for sharing with the group how you managed to get such insightful comments from your pupils. I think this will be of great help to all the students as they try to incorporate that view into their portfolios for the MA.
Often in busy classroms we can find it hard to sit down with pupils and really enable them to feel free to explain how they are experiencing the curriculum. Your tips reveal how you managed to get such useful and in depth responses.
Thank you.

Hi Claire

My research project is with children with severe autism and challenging behaviour.They are mostly non verbal. I want to ensure that their voice is heard, I wonder if you have come across a good model for gaining a fair perspective on children who don't speak by using their circle of support as their advocates?

Morag

Hi Morag, I'm currently delivering this first module in a Special school in Barnet which has a high percentage of pupils with ASD, many of whom are non verbal. Nearly all the staff there are finding innovative ways to include their pupils' views in some really exciting projects. I'm sure that they would be very happy to share some of their practice with you. Get in touch with me and we can perhaps arrange a visit. Ruth
r.x.green@mdx.ac.uk

Hi Morag
I'm glad Ruth has been able to offer you some support with this as I'm affraid I have had no experience in this area. I know that the IDP on Autism looks at pupil voice but I haven't studied it in detail as I've focused very much on Dyslexia so far. I'm not sure how helpful it will be but it may be worth looking at.
Claire

I will try to make sure that there is an external link so you can get through to the IDP from this web site.
Ruth

Just checked and its working fine.
Ruth

It is very interesting to read about the research. I had an experienced with working with pupil who could be very disruptive in class-walkig in and out of lessons. As a new teacher in the school, I initially treated the constant disruptive behaviour as normal characteristics of BESD pupils. The most challenging part was when the pupil refused support during lessons. The knowledge I gained after reading IDP, made me think that the pupil could be a possible dyslexic. I devised strategies to promote motivation to learning. My thoughts were confirmed when I started to implement the strategies. I recommend that we all make time to read the IDP.

Barbara

Hi Claire,

I am a year 1/2 teacher in a special school in Essex. I work in an autistic base and have 7 boys in my class. I am not familiar with the IDP but was interested in what you said about your focus on dyslexia. Although my children dont have dyslexia they do present with similar issues with reading and linking letters or sounds. Do you have any suggestions to support those who are struggling with their reading and writing. I know this is probably not what you are focusing on so i understand if you cant help. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks
Katrina

Hi Katrina
The IDP specifically focuses on wave one. The overcoming barriers section would be useful for you to look at. You may also want to have a look at some of the wave three programmes that are available. I find Phonographix and Acceleread / Accelerwrite to be very successful as 1:1 programmes with this age group, but you would obviously need to look at the inidividual needs of the children. Also do you use Letters and Sounds? - it is a fantastic resource!
Claire

Hi Claire,
Thanks for your suggestions I shall have a look and see what I can find. Only 2 or 3 of the boys are showing signs of reading but I shall certainly keep working at this.

Thanks Katrina

Hi Claire,
My dissertation is on 'how the partnership can empower children to learn' - with a focus on 'embedding wave 3 intervention into the classroom/partnership', however it ties into a bigger Achievement for All project about engaging parents. I read your presentation hoping it might give me some answers.

I have already found success with engaging parents in the children's learning by giving them ownership of it - through identifying and monitoring a target. This has opened up a dialogue with the parents about their child's learning which I know other aspect can be discussed.

I have been observing the children in the classroom to see if there are changes in their learning behaviour, but it probably too early days. However by being in the classroom has highlighted how different literacy tasks/teachers have affected their learning behavour. This has to be my next project.

Marion

Hello Claire,

I enjoyed your powerpoint. My research is very similar; I'm doing a case stuy of the White British working class children in a partlicular year group who appear to have traits of dyslexia. I can fully relate to your point about parental support. I have used a very personal approach; I phoned the parents of my focus children and texted them to remind them about appointments. I had an 8/9 success rate. Although, it was very time consuming. We have also enbarked upon a family learning programme with a lcoal college, which has mustered up quite a bit of interest and participation by the parents.

I would be interested to share a copy of your single sheet of good wave one paractice to support teachers as I am running an inset on the IDP at the end of May.

Good luck with the rest of your research.

Loretta

I found your powerpoint presentation very interesting. In the same way that you might have felt that your school staff/magagement team needed to improve their understanding of what dyslexia is, how to identify it and how teachers can support pupils with dyslexia, the same principle applies to the teaching of gifted children. Gifted children have needs which must be addressed. The Senior Leadership Team need to be aware of what these needs are. Teachers must learn how to better identify gifted children AND how to plan their lessons accordingly. The difference between the SEN children and the G&T children might be the widespread attitude amongst teachers that gifted children "will do fine" even without special provision. Or perhaps we are expecting the impossible - that the already overworked,time constrained teacher can plan and deliver lessons that can successfully cater for the needs of every child in the classroom. Nieves

Hi Claire
I found your powerpoint presentation very interesting. In the same way that you might have felt that your school staff/magagement team needed to improve their understanding of what dyslexia is, how to identify it and how teachers can support pupils with dyslexia, the same principle applies to the teaching of gifted children. Gifted children have needs which must be addressed. The Senior Leadership Team need to be aware of what these needs are. Teachers must learn how to better identify gifted children AND how to plan their lessons accordingly. The difference between the SEN children and the G&T children might be the widespread attitude amongst teachers that gifted children "will do fine" even without special provision. Or perhaps we are expecting the impossible - that the already overworked, time constrained teacher can plan and deliver lessons that can successfully cater for the needs of every child in the classroom.

Nieves

Hi Nieves, I quite agree with your comments about the overlap between these areas and the need for better identification and planning, otherwise the consequences in terms of self esteem and unfulfilled learning can be similiar.
Planning extension activities does need to become more wide spread.
Ruth

A big thank you to Claire for hosting this discussion at a very busy time of year. Your power point has been of great help to many students I have discussed work with and not just those who have contributed to this forum.
Have a lovely holiday and I hope you will appear again on the middlesex web site.
All best,
Ruth