Presented at ISEC 2000

Towards An Inclusive School: A Whole School Approach to Managing Challenging Behaviour

C Lewis & C Bowpitt

Abstract

This workshop is based on the Shenton Inclusion Project which began in January 1999.

Shenton is a Leicester inner city mainstream primary school having around 470 children on role. In January 1999 four EBD statemented children were transferred to Shenton from a special school within the City and this number has now grown to nine (five fully statemented from the special school, four Shenton pupils - two fully statemented and two on stage 3). Initially one specialist teacher and two classroom assistants were transferred with the children and in May 1999 were joined by a second teacher and one additional classroom assistant. Current staffing comprises two teachers and five classroom assistants.

The project has had the enthusiastic support of all those involved - parents, governors, all staff and especially the Shenton pupils. The project has been independently evaluated by Maria Landy during the summer term 1999 and will be reviewed in January and June 2000. '

The inclusion project is a major success.' Maria Landy -'A New Start'- 14/7/99.

The workshop will discuss the techniques and strategies which have been used during the project and ideas formulated for the future.

Inclusion is at the heart of education but we must seek to find a balance between the Statutory Law and good practice. An essential component in achieving this is inclusive education. The sooner children see and experience individual differences with one another the more likely we are able to begin to achieve an inclusive and harmonious society. A harmonious society is one which benefits individuals and groups of all sizes not only in terms of people being able to feel satisfied with their role in that society but also in that a harmonious society is one where the safety of individuals and groups is best maintained and ultimately resulting in society reaping the benefits.

For some children the only positive influence in their lives can be within the classroom; an environment where all adults and children learn to respect and learn from each other, which we at Shenton Primary regard as the 'power of incidental learning'. A classroom in which all pupils feel valued and are given the opportunity to succeed. Where all pupils regardless of their difficulties whether learning or emotional and behavioural are included - not just nominally - but are included within the daily planned activities with clear and consistent targets and the necessary support leading to the raising of self-esteem and achievement.

A 109 page-guide to implementing inclusive education was sent to all 26,000 English Primary, Secondary and Special schools in March. The Index for Inclusion: developing learning and participation in schools (2000) by the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education highlights the following issues:

• the language of special educational needs is described as a potential 'barrier to the development of inclusive practice'
• the term SEN confers a label that can lead to lowered expectations
• SEN can 'encourage some teachers to think that the education of students with special educational needs is primarily the responsibility of the specialist.'
• The report blames the label of SEN for focusing on students' problems and deflecting attention from the 'barriers to learning and participation'

The 1997 Green Paper Excellence for All Children: Meeting Special Educational Needs emphasises raising standards for all, including pupils with special needs through inclusive educational practice and working collaboratively with outside agencies. The Green Paper highlighted the following areas for action:

• Policies for excellence
• Working with parents
• Practical support - SEN provision
• Increasing inclusion ¨ Developing skills for teachers
• Working together
• Emotional and behavioural difficulties

The main emphasis of the Green Paper is the consideration of developing strategies for improving provision for children with EBD and the importance of raising their achievements. In support of the Green Paper the DfEE published Social Inclusion: Pupil Support (DfEE Circular 10/99) the emphasis of which is a planned multi-agency approach to supporting pupils

The School Context

Manorbrooke is a special school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. In February 1998 there was an OFSTED inspection which triggered a number of changes within the school. Towards the end of the Autumn term 1998, a draft proposal for an inclusion project involving Shenton Primary and Manorbrooke school was prepared. Prior to the establishing of this inclusion project in January 1999, a number of visits were made to Shenton Primary school by staff, pupils and parents.

Shenton Primary school is a large mixed inner-city primary school which is predominantly made up of Gujerati speaking Muslims (Number on Roll 472). Most of the children are bi-lingual or multi-lingual. 229 pupils receive support through EMTAG funding, 26% are eligible for free school meals - this is above average for the country as a whole.

In order to implement a structured approach to inclusive education at Shenton Primary school there was a need for:

1. establishing a co-ordinating group which included staff, parents and pupils which met regularly to review progress, maintain consistency, to set new targets and to review school practices;

2. governors, pupils, parents and members of the local community to consult periodically in order to monitor the current state of inclusive education within the school;

3. the re-writing of the School Improvement Plan to reflect the insights gained throughout the review process.

'Pre-prepared systems will not succeed unless they are owned by the people who are expected to use them. Imposed systems are doomed to failure. Needs have to be perceived in order to be met' (Bill Gribble)

For inclusion to work successfully within a mainstream school, inclusion must be at the heart of the School Improvement Plan with ownership by all stakeholders. There must be:

• commitment to inclusive values;
• positive whole-school policies;
• systems which encourage and reward positive behaviour including the setting of teaching and behaviour targets;
• regular review process;
• In-Service training which meets the specific needs of the school.

'Good schools have an ethos which permeates the whole school. Future policy should be geared towards this becoming the norm.'

(Paul Lincoln - Director of Learning, Essex County Council, speaking at the "Behaviour and Special Educational Needs - Making the Links Conference" June 1999)

The stakeholders are included within this process at Shenton Primary school as follows:

Staff/Governors

The co-ordinating group at Shenton Primary meets half-termly. These meetings are informed by weekly Head of Department meetings, fortnightly Learning Support Team meetings and meetings with classteachers. The focus of these meetings relates to teaching & learning, curriculum, assessment and behaviour management.

In order for staff to be aware and sensitive to the needs of children with EBD, there needs to be regular training and a consistent whole-school system of communication and recording, resulting in staff feeling confident and sufficiently skilled to devise and implement Behaviour Management Plans, de-escalate difficult situations, diffuse potential major incidents and provide measurable evidence to inform future planning all of which leads to the successful inclusion of children with EBD within the mainstream classroom.

'Our vision is of an inclusive local education system in which the normal presumption is that children spend as much time as possible in a mainstream setting' ("Meeting Special Educational Needs - A Programme for Action" DfEE 1998, chapter 3,p23)

At Shenton Primary the system for this includes:

• Daily observation sheets;
• Written pupil daily records;
• Daily incident charts;
• Individual pupil tracking sheets - noting when incidents are most likely to occur;
• Frequency of incidents records;
• Self-monitoring of targets by individual children;
• Behaviour Management Plans; ¨ Daily targets for classroom and playground;
• IEPs with SMART targets;
• Pastoral Support Plan meetings;
• Incidents of Behaviour (overview sheet)
• Major incidents reports.

Parents

Parents know their child best; in order to achieve the best support possible for pupils there must be an emphasis on partnership with parents:

'involving parents and carers in education increases children's achievement' (Partnership with parents in action (Page 41 Ed. Sheila Wolfendale - Nasen publication 1997)

At Shenton Primary the system for this includes the following positive aspects of parental involvement:

• children witnessing parent and teacher co-operation/support;
• teachers and parents sharing information - weekly contact by 'phone, monthly home visits, parental visits to school, positive notes home.
• a positive relationship and partnership of trust established through honest and immediate dialogue with parents and children to discuss any aspects of the child's behaviour

All of which promotes the raising of self-esteem and morale of teachers, parents and pupils, an essential step to inclusion.

Pupils - the power of incidental learning

Pupils make a significant and positive contribution to a successful inclusion programme. Pupils are involved within the context of learning, the context of playing, the context of eating, and the context of friendship.

At Shenton Primary, pupils are making a very positive contribution towards the inclusive ethos of the school. They are helping their new peers to cope. Children with EBD watch how other pupils react and begin to copy this behaviour, as a result incidents do not always escalate out of control.

Shenton pupils are helping to break the chain of events that result in inappropriate behaviours. Peers support each other, they warn each other in a supportive way and instead of encouraging inappropriate disruption they help their friends to remain on task. This incidental learning in such a positive context is very powerful.

Within the context of the Shenton/Manorbrooke inclusion it is remarkable that racial tension or harassment is not an issue. Pupils from both groups are accepting the differences in each other.

Implementing the Changes - The Process

• 'By contrast to other problems faced by teachers in schools, challenging behaviour tends to be perceived as a direct and personal threat to the teacher's authority. And the greater the sense of threat, the more likely it is for a number of things to happen.' (Challenging Behaviour in Schools Gray, Miller, Noakes 1994) A scheme was piloted resulting in liaison meetings between Manorbrooke and Shenton staff. As a result lessons were observed; IEPs monitored; classteachers were consulted; the planned curriculum was scrutinised ensuring there was sufficient planning for differentiation; initial meetings with children from both schools prepared the whole school for these changes. The Headteacher ensured that Governors and all staff were updated regularly.
• A need for a consistent approach to the monitoring and recording of behaviour throughout the school was recognised. C Lewis and C Bowpitt working collaboratively introduced a system. To ensure consistency, it was agreed that termly INSETs which focused on a whole school approach to managing challenging behaviour, were essential.
• To ensure the safety of all pupils and staff (including non-teaching staff) positive handling strategies and training in de-escalation techniques were introduced. A holistic approach was adopted using TEAM Teach.
• An audit of the training needs of the in-coming staff from Manorbrooke school, led to Numeracy and Literacy Hour training sessions and Shenton staff were included in these as refresher sessions.
• An audit of human and physical resources had formed part of the initial pilot scheme, these were then reviewed and the need for a quiet place was identified as being crucial to the success of the inclusion.

"A 'sanctuary' space, to allow for 'cooling off' and counseling was found beneficial"

(Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties in Mainstream Schools, J Visser, T Cole & H Daniels Research Report RR 90)

• ¨ Evidence from data identified vulnerable times within the school day where a higher ratio of staff to pupil was required to enable teaching and learning to be maintained.

The Future

• Our enthusiasm for inclusion is that children who would have at one time have languished in small special schools can now have the excitement and rich variety of mainstream education but also, that behaviour management as a concept will enter the educational arena generally and will become fully included into standard educational thinking and practice.
• Research by Visser, Cole & Daniels ('Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Mainstream schools' Research Report RR90) recognized that whilst not all pupils with EBD could be maintained in mainstream settings, it was concluded that more could be done to minimise segregation.
• We are whole-heartedly convinced of the benefits of the inclusion of children with EBD into mainstream schools but have schools planned for inclusion. Do they understand the conflicts which will ensue if they have not?
• There are tensions within the teaching profession due to mixed messages - the drive to raise standards within schools and at the same time directives to become inclusive schools. There need to be incentives for mainstream schools to accommodate children with diverse needs.
• A truly inclusive system within our schools will require more training of staff who would then be best equipped to meet the needs of the children: teachers themselves working with children with special needs.
• With a commitment to working towards an inclusive school, we have recognised the need for:

1. Good leadership - a Headteacher who has empathy with all children

2. A commitment to inclusive values which impacts all areas of the School Improvement Plan

3. Skilled teachers who through training, realise the benefits of accepting responsibility for all children within the school and as a consequence will be instrumental in creating a harmonious society which benefits all.

4. A multi-agency approach: schools seeking close co-operation between the educational service, parents, pupils and other outside agencies.

Index