Abstract
The inclusion programme we have developed from this school for pupils with severe learning difficulties and multiple learning difficulties, is to provide part of their educational experience within a mainstream school (medical conditions permitting), This is across the age range from two to sixteen at present. We are working to build relationships leading to partnership in schools in a primary and a secondary phase school in the city, with whom we have had links for a number of years. The presentation will include a video evidence of the pupil's experience; joint literacy experiences; video of some of the pupils from all the schools, talking about their experiences and evidence of joint planning for inclusion between teaching staff at secondary level. All mainstream sessions attended by our pupils are carefully evaluated so that learning outcomes and social benefits are demonstrable. These and IEP's are used to inform future planning.
The paper will also give the teaching and support staff a chance to give examples of benefits to the pupils, both mainstream and special school. This model of inclusion may provide experience which is a basis for staff development, both for special school staff to work in mainstream schools and also for mainstream teachers in organising an inclusive classroom.
Introduction
This paper is presented as a practitioner's account of inclusive practices involving pupils with severe and complex learning difficulties, including those with profound and multiple learning difficulties. It is illustrated through video clips of practical situations in which the pupils are involved in academic and social situations both in a mainstream school and with mainstream peers who visit the special school for a literacy lesson each week.
When inclusion became a government 'buzz' word and the notion gained momentum in education, many staff and parents in special schools were sceptical. Other initiatives such as integration provoked mixed responses on how it works. Inclusion of special school pupils needs to be presented as a very different approach. I work closely with mainstream and special school staff as well as parents and this paper reflects a grassroots approach to inclusion. Because this is a practical account, references to the inclusion debate have not been included. It is necessary to convince the practitioners that the interests of all their pupils will be best served in an inclusive setting. After all, it is the quality of the education and not the site that is of greatest importance. Promoting inclusion should broaden academic and social opportunities for all pupils.
Inclusive learning is about appropriate teaching and differentiation, not necessarily about the site of learning at this stage. It is the quality of the teaching and learning which is important. To me, inclusion requires changing an educational system to meet the needs of each individual pupil. Any views expressed in this paper are personal. However, this paper should illustrate some of the practical issues identified if inclusion is to be successful.
As the special school tends to be the initiator in most of the moves towards inclusion, the development plans have come largely from the staff at the special school. The focus in this paper is to detail how we are working from links towards a partnership. It is a pen portrait of one special school, Penny Field, and how it is developing a more flexible role within the local area.
Penny Field School
Penny Field School is an all age multi-cultural SLD special school in North Leeds. Currently, there are 72 pupils on roll across the age range from two to nineteen years old. Approximately 70% of the pupil population have profound and multiple learning difficulties. Most of the pupils and students in the school have severe sensory and motor impairments as well as severe learning difficulties. The school is also resourced for pupils with multi-sensory impairment.
(Penny Field School Prospectus)
Inclusive Education at Penny Field School
The aim of Penny Field School inclusion programme is that every pupil who would benefit from spending some of his or her education time in a mainstream setting or with mainstream peers, will be involved in the inclusion programme. Lack of parental consent, medical needs and challenging behaviour are presently reasons for pupils not being included.
Generally, the pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties are often overlooked for involvement in inclusion. They often may be seen to offer too many challenges in terms of meeting their needs within the mainstream environment. In considering inclusion for our pupils, we look at the benefits to their education the experience will bring. There is a problem with medical needs as the nursing staff and equipment are only in place in the special school and as yet there is no provision in mainstream school. As our priority is the safety and well being of these pupils, another problem is that inclusive education is very staff intensive.
At Penny Field School, the role of inclusion coordinator is to plan and develop the inclusive activities for groups of pupils from the special school going into mainstream, or mainstream pupils accessing lessons within the special school. This two way process provides equality of opportunity for those pupils whose medical needs dictate that they cannot leave the building where there is access to the nurse and to essential medical equipment. There is additional development work, liaison between schools and teaching staff and training for staff in recording, evaluating and monitoring pupil progress in a mainstream base.
In addition to my inclusion work, I am English and literacy coordinator for primary years and a class teacher for Key Stage1 pupils in the school. These roles complement each other, as it means I have some understanding of the problems of subject development in mainstream due to my English role and also the pressures on class teachers to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all the pupils. Mainstream schools may see inclusion of the current special school pupils as another initiative competing for attention with many others. However, if this inclusion can be linked to raising achievement for all pupils, its profile will become more important. My personal viewpoint is that developing inclusive practice is an exciting opportunity to devolve good practice across the range of schools that will work for the good of a wider range of pupils. It presents to some of us the challenge and opportunity for a new way of working
This challenge of change can be approached with confidence. Many people, both from special school and from mainstream may need some convincing. There will always be those who prefer to pretend nothing is happening as they find any change threatening. How this is addressed is an issue for those strategists with an overview of the structure of inclusion. Stealth and imposition will not work, and there is no magic formula. We need to think about all the people who make up the organisation called 'school' and embrace the huge variety of needs within this population. Governors, managers, staff, parents and pupils need to be involved in the development of inclusive schools and changing the role of special schools.
As a school, we have developed links with a number of mainstream schools, where pupils have been taken on a regular basis over the years. Some of these links have come to a natural end giving valuable information for development work in the future. For example, one nursery school decided they could only accommodate mobile pupils as the space and organisation was unsuitable for wheelchairs. Keeping equality of opportunity uppermost in our minds meant that this link was no longer worth pursuing. It presented an attitude among the staff not conducive to inclusion although none of the practical obstacles seem insurmountable. It appeared a change of attitude among the school staff might have altered our decision to discontinue with the link.
We presently have links with two primary schools and one high school. These links have been established over a number of years. Our intention is to develop a closer partnership as part of the process of inclusion with Primrose Primary School and County High School. Cherry Primary School is forging stronger links with us and we are targeting joint development planning with staff to enhance the learning experience for all the pupils.
Cherry Tree Primary School
Cherry Tree Primary School is geographically very close to Penny Field. It does have very little space in the classrooms, which makes inclusive lessons on that site difficult. By having the lessons at Penny Field School, we build in flexibility that may be developed in the future. Inclusive learning is about appropriate teaching and differentiation, not necessarily about the site of learning at this stage. It is the quality of the teaching and learning which is important. To enhance the learning opportunity, we have arranged joint development planning for next year. There seems reluctance for staff to become involved themselves and staff jointly participating is vital. This year I completed the planning and implementing of the lesson as a means of driving inclusion forward.
The lesson chosen for the pupils to share is a weekly literacy lesson between the special school Key Stage 1 and groups of 6-8 Key Stage1 mainstream pupils (5-7year old pupils). Some year 6 pupils (11-year-olds) accompany the younger pupils and supervise them on the walk between sites. This helps to make it part of a whole school issue at the mainstream site, as it encompasses a spread of year groups. The books and poems chosen as the central theme of the lesson are carefully selected to fulfill a number of criteria. These include;
There is no anxiety about coming to Penny Field from the pupils, who are seated as a large inclusive group. The pupils with learning difficulties have their own objectives to work on in the lesson, which are evaluated afterwards. The increased attention to task and greater use of their own communication strategies by the host pupils are some of the positive observations. The governors who accompany the visiting pupils have reported improved behaviour or confidence from individual pupils within the inclusive lesson. Teaching research now tells us that we should use auditory, visual and kinesthetic methods to teach young children literacy and numeracy. Perhaps adapting practices to include some of the strategies presently used with pupils with complex learning difficulties would enhance the learning experiences of all pupils?
Primrose Street Primary
The links we have had for a number of years are now working towards a closer partnership. Over time, during the process of inclusion this could mean that although the pupils from the special school will remain on its roll they will spend some of their school time, up to 100%, on the mainstream site. Contracts will need to be drawn up to formalise the arrangements and capital sums invested to adapt schools for the needs of the new pupils.
At Primrose Street Primary School, the Penny Field pupils originally only experienced nursery, but developments over the last two years mean the pupils are now following their own peer group. We have pupils who attend classes in nursery, reception and Year One. This planned progression through the school will continue with more year groups covered as these pupils move up and others take their places in the lower age classes.
In Primrose Street Primary School, the pupils attend for two sessions and include numeracy and literacy hour within their time in the school. Staff from Penny Field School differentiate the work where possible before they attend; however, there is still some 'thinking on your feet' which is inevitable. The differentiation is based on the literacy hour strategy documentation already in schools, and our own assessment used to devise the pupils' Individual Education Plans.
For the way ahead to be closer links between mainstream and special schools, both organisations need to be flexible and creative. This will provide the conditions necessary for the process of inclusion to best advantage the pupils, staff and parents of all the pupils involved.
Within the class bases at Primrose Street, Penny Field staff needs to be confident in their own roles and in their abilities at working with mixed groups and as part of a team within the mainstream class. Formal staff development can help this process of extending the skills of all staff, but an important part of this training is within the situation. Staff from Penny Field have the opportunity to extend their own professional development within the mainstream school by attending planning meetings and working on whole class planning and monitoring sessions. Not all our pupils need one to one working with a staff member in the mainstream situation all the time as a large part of their learning will be in groups for social skills. This should allow some flexibility in how the staff use their time. Working practices will eventually need to be subject to a contract that will ensure staff are assigned to work for the benefit of the special school pupils.
The group of Penny Field pupils at Primrose Street Primary includes those with complex learning, sensory and motor difficulties. One pupil has verbal language, one has some signing and symbol use, but the other pupils use more idiosyncratic means of communication. Both during lesson and social times, the pupils are encouraged to mix together by the Penny Field pupils joining a working group at a table or on the carpet. If the work cannot be differentiated meaningfully for the pupils, then they have their own programme work with them and can work accordingly, but alongside their peers. A future development will be to resource a base room so that withdrawal for individual and small group work will be available.
To some extent, the staff from both schools needs to be creative and intuitive to deal with issues before they become problems. Interaction can be encouraged between the pupils in a variety of ways. For example, during play times the Penny Field teacher or other staff member may set up play situations that facilitate communication and interaction between the pupils. Again it's knowing when to withdraw, successfully leaving the children to use their own ways of communicating together. This time can be used for valuable observation. A Penny Field group also take part in physical education, and this needs consistent planning to ensure all the pupils including the wheelchair users, have a worthwhile experience. Moving around the school is no problem as the staff move with the pupils. As the partnership moves closer, there will be increased access to areas such as Key Stage 2 rooms and specialist areas such as the computer suite. At present, we have three Penny Field pupils in Year 1, supported by a teacher who has overall charge of the group while in the host school. Two pupils are in Reception supported by a trained nursery nurse and up to four pupils in the nursery supported by two trained nursery nurses.
Developments in the process are happening all the time and the all-important lines of communication are becoming more established, with suggestions for development coming from Primrose Street staff and senior management.
County High School
At secondary level, the pupils with a range of complex and multiple learning difficulties from Penny Field take part in a variety of lessons. At present, sharing a base room with the special needs department in the school, so when the visitors have a separate session such as core programme work, there is still plenty of opportunity for interaction as other pupils come and go.
The subjects the pupils access are Design and Technology, Food Technology, Physical Education, Art, Drama and Music. These subjects were felt to be meaningful and can be differentiated for Penny Field pupils. Planning meetings have taken place between the subject teachers at County and Penny Field staff to ensure that the areas of work can be made appropriate to the needs of all the pupils. In drama, some of the Penny Field pupils will now join groups of others without direct support. Oversight is needed to ensure that they take part and operate as a participant and not just as an observer. Other pupils voluntarily join the remaining Penny Field group and staff. Extra staff in the class is a benefit to the subject teacher as well as enabling the inclusion of our pupils. Staff from Penny Field who are flexible in their approach and able to modify their teaching skills to fit the group they are working with, are a great resource as they work alongside the County High teacher. A number of staff at the school have reported improvements in the behaviour of some of their more difficult pupils when Penny Field pupils are part of the group.
The opportunities for social contact are at break time and at dinnertime. A lesson for the Penny Field pupils is built around choosing meals, paying, communicating choices to each other, and counting meals and money. The group use photographs and symbols to choose meals. They sit together within the school canteen with oversight from the staff. Other pupils from the school will approach and chat, but apart from this genuine interest in their presence there, they are left, as any group of friends would be.
A group of pupils with special needs from the secondary school visits Penny Field for joint lessons in a smaller, different environment. It is a way again of opening the special school to be a more flexible learning resource for pupils from other schools. We have recording and monitoring forms that are used to inform future developments and the objectives for the pupils' work for all inclusive situations. These are completed on a weekly basis and staff are encouraged to discuss their reports with others involved in the inclusion. This enables the inclusion and the work done while on the mainstream site to be seen as part of the whole continuum of education for each pupil. A pupil profile has been completed for each pupil from Penny Field, which gives important information to mainstream staff. This is being further developed over the next twelve months as part of joint development work. Another development will be use of communication books for our pupils who have little formal communication, but use idiosyncratic strategies that may be difficult for others to understand. Penny Field teaching staff will develop the books as part of each pupil's communication programme. This will take the form of photographs/symbols of key places and people important to that pupil and information on favourite activities. We are hoping to monitor the use of these books and work on their development as a resource, which may be useful in a wider context of inclusion.
Because our pupils have such complex needs, we are working largely without the experience of others to use as a resource for our development. However, we are hoping that by taking part in information exchanges such as this, we will build up a bank of contacts. Others may be giving pupils with complex learning, sensory and motor difficulties the opportunity to be educated alongside their mainstream peers for at least part of their school life and we can exchange ideas. Others may want to try this and our experience could prove useful. I'm sure that by sharing information internationally as well as nationally, we will improve the equality of opportunity for all our pupils irrespective of learning difficulty and need.
If you would like more information, please get in touch. We have complete videos covering different areas of inclusion and we will endeavour to copy them for anyone who is interested.
The Way Ahead
Challenges to inclusive practice;
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