Case study:
The Netherhall School
T
EACHING STAFF at Th e Netherhall Th ey also carried out student voice questionnaires
School and Sixth Form College in (with the questions devised by the pupils themselves)
Cambridge began using the Dyslexia, to fi nd out how youngsters felt about their
Speech, Language and Communication performance and progression.
Needs materials in January 2009 and have never “Th e improvement in outcomes was staggering,”
looked back. said Ms Suter. “Th e IDP gave the teachers the
Th e 1,350-pupil school on the outskirts of the confi dence to look for the strategies that make a
university city prides itself on being an inclusive diff erence. As for the pupils, it made a real diff erence
place where everyone is valued. Th ere are around 350 to the way they felt about learning – which was very
students who have SEN on roll and as Wendy Suter, important to us. Also, the average reading age for that
the school’s head of learning support, explained: “We particular group from the beginning of the year to the
don’t see SEN as just being the responsibility of the end of the year went up by 16 months, the average
SEN department. It’s the responsibility of every spelling age went up by 21 months, and there was also
member of society.” a decrease in behaviour concerns.
As well as achieving the Basic Skills Quality Mark
and the Inclusion Quality Mark, Netherhall also won One of the teachers involved does a
an inclusion award in a competition organised by the
Papworth Trust charity in 2009.
lot of 6th form work and he wasn’t just
Th e charity challenged youngsters to design an
inclusive activity that would bring pupils from
using what he’d learned with children
mainstream schools together with young people who
who have SEN, he was using it across the
have disabilities. Th e year 8 Netherhall students hit on
‘

the idea of getting groups to design bed-sized sheets
board with students of all abilities
of fabric, which would then be sewn together and
displayed along the side of the sports hall. “We are now at a stage where it is becoming a
Netherhall jumped at the chance to be part of the whole-school approach. One of the geography teachers
pilot for the fi rst phase of the Inclusion Development involved does a lot of 6th form work and he fed back
Programme (IDP) and decided to concentrate on the to us that he wasn’t just using what he’d learned with
speech, language and communication needs side of children who have SEN, he was using it across the
the programme. Th e school began by training all 12 board with students of all abilities.”
teaching assistants with the materials. Th e school began working on the second phase
“I know some schools have focused on IDP as a of the IDP materials (Supporting pupils on the autism ’
training tool for teachers, but we felt that teaching spectrum) in January 2010 and hopes to use the new
assistants go into so many lessons and are such behaviour, emotional and social diffi culties materials
a powerful resource that actually they had the in due course.
opportunity to impact on the greatest number of “IDP is really powerful,” said Ms Suter. “Some
students,” said Ms Suter. “Th ey then liaised with schools might say ‘we’ve got good teachers, we don’t
teachers and fed back ideas into teachers’ planning need it’. We’ve got good teachers here, but it still made
and delivery.” a diff erence. If you are a teacher who hasn’t had to
At the start, Netherhall chose one year 8 class to teach a child who has extreme speech and language
focus on. Th e year 8 English, history, geography and diffi culties before, how do you pick that information
religious studies teachers then used the IDP materials up? You might be an outstanding teacher, but if you’ve
to develop their knowledge and understanding of never had to do it, how do you know? Th e great thing
pupils’ speech, language and communication needs. about IDP is that it makes good teachers even better.”
SecEd 13
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