IN DEPTH ‘‘
Marissa Gisbourne, Creative Learning Services Librarian.
www.creativelearn-
ingservices.org.uk
The service was offered restriction free so we could really understand how schools would ideally like to use our resources and time if they weren’t hampered by funding...
Improving creative provision for pupils with SEND
Creative Learning Services Leicestershire (CLS) is a subscription service for schools provid- ing resources and sessions from librarians, museum and art specialists which enrich the learning experience. Here CLS Librarian Marissa Gisbourne explains how the project has developed to build an offer that better meets Special Educational Needs.
CREATIVE Learning Services is a package of resources for primary, secondary and special schools which provides creative provision from three backgrounds: art, libraries and museums.
We loan resources, provide staff training or support and deliver fun, curriculum linked pupil learning sessions from specialists in all three areas for children and young people aged four to 18. Schools are able to pick and choose which parts of the service suits their school improvement plan and select from different price bands to suit their budget to build a bespoke package.
Until August 2024 our offer for special schools had been an adapted version of what we offered primary and secondary. Much consideration had gone into how special schools might access our offer in the past, but without dedicated time and funding we were limited in how different services could be from our mainstream packages. So, in 2023 we were lucky enough to receive some NHS funding to ensure our provision to learners with SEND was as compre- hensive as possible and our team enthusiastically began planning how we might make best use of the opportunity.
The first stage was strategy planning for CLS man- agement around how we might test the suitability of our current offer and work closely with schools and
46 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
professionals to improve. Partnerships were made with the Leicester City Learning, Communication and Interaction (LCI) Team to ensure they could offer us advice on who to approach for feedback and what parts of the service would be suitable for special schools. They were also then able to support us though the process and offer feedback through- out the trial.
Our current offer was then made available to three different trial settings. Staff at Ellesmere College, Nether Hall Special School and Spinney Hill Designated Special Provision (DSP) were offered the subscription for free for a year in exchange for thorough and meaningful feedback on resources and expertise used. The service was offered restric- tion free so we could really understand how schools would ideally like to use our resources and time if they weren’t hampered by funding, or the struc- ture of how we must make our provision available. Initial meetings were set up with the CLS manager to inform trial schools what resources and services were available to them and gauge what they might be most interested in trying out.
Trial and training
It became apparent quite quickly that from the library side, we had no suitable alternative to book- talking which is one of our most popular services
Winter 2025
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