SEND
Leaders in inclusive practice
In her new column for Education Today this month JAYNE FOSTER, CEO of Ethos Academy, explains how inclusion is a key part of Ethos Academy Trust’s mission.
As I set out in my column last month, one of our three main Trust objectives is to be leaders in inclusive practice. We’re an ambitious group of educators and facilitators that share a strong belief that every child deserves a quality education regardless of their background or circumstance. Our mission is ‘to develop nurturing and inclusive learning communities’ and our ambition is to grow in size, quality and breadth to ensure that we can support as many pupils in need as possible. Rather than put a number on this, we began by mapping out what good and outstanding looks like and set out our plan and our goals for the schools we had within the Trust and the mainstream schools we supported. We needed to fully understand what we meant by being ‘inclusive’ – it’s a term that can be loosely bandied about and stuck on a website or mission statement, and we wanted to fully commit and develop an inclusive culture throughout all corners of our provision, inside and outside of the classroom and out into the wider community. For Ethos Academy Trust, inclusion is about recognising and celebrating the diversity of people, ensuring that they are effectively supported to access opportunities and contribute fully. Across the organisation, there is a firm commitment to identifying and breaking down barriers to belonging and participation.
It’s fair to say that by the time children access alternative provision, they pretty much have fallen out of love with school and their attendance has been poor or non-existent. They have often lost trust with any figures of authority and also their peers and school has become a really miserable experience.
One of our immediate goals is to create warm and nurturing inclusive environments. Our schools are all calm and welcoming and our classrooms have additional comforts to encourage participation and concentration, and quiet spaces and sensory areas designed to help regulate emotions.
The most important part of our inclusive provision is our staff. From our education experts (all leaders in their specific fields) to our nurturing support network outside of the classroom, everyone is on a daily improvement journey to deliver the very best we can. Building a mutually respectful relationship between staff and pupil is fundamental if we want to gain their trust. Developing a strong inclusive culture with an aligned staff team is crucial. Attendance can be our biggest challenge - if our children aren’t in school, they can’t fully access our support - so it’s vital that both the environment and the people are the very best. Internal structures such as our ever-growing school improvement personnel, policies and procedures and the introduction of a Director of Education role has enabled us to create an inclusive offering that we are incredibly proud to roll out. Professional development is imperative if we want to consider ourselves as a leading Trust and it is a priority for us.
Our main challenge is extending our capacity to scale up so that we can help more children. In some areas we have had to be satisfied with taking baby steps and making inroads where we can. Learnings – what works well for the most vulnerable children we support works well for all children. When we extended our inclusive learning support to mainstream schools, we saw the benefit of our nurturing approach. The key element is creating those strong trusting relationships this brings the most success. If anyone in the sector would like to be part of our journal, and are willing to share their success stories and best practice, please contact me on
jfoster@eat.uk.com
20
www.education-today.co.uk
Strategies to support pupils with social and
emotional difficulties In the second part of her look at supporting pupils with social and emotional difficulties, KATRINA BROWN, SENDCo at Histon and Impington Park Primary School, this month offers advice on what this looks like in practice.
Adults can support pupils to get back on track with gentle but firm reminders delivered in a neutral tone to put the appropriate course back in the child’s mind. They need to be vigilant and be aware of where pupils are on their personal scale of regulated behaviours. To stymie inappropriate behaviours, low key responses and descriptions of reality delivered by an adult to pupils off task and on the cusp of accelerating behaviours could be any of the following: • Tactical ignoring. Sit it out and withdraw interaction and reaction. • Swoop in and out. Give a quick instruction and leave because the expectation is that everything will be in order again from that point.
• Describe what has been successful prior to this moment. “Elizabeth, I really liked the way you re-read the sentence to correct your mistake earlier on. Maybe that will work here too? Give it a go.”
• Describe the reality. For example, “Elizabeth, you are shouting.” • Describe what the positive behaviour looks like. “Elizabeth, we put our hands up and wait to be asked. Thank you.”
• Reminder of the expectation. “Elizabeth, the expectation is that we walk to the line. Thank you.”
• Bring the task to close but on the adult’s terms. “Elizabeth, just finish those two questions because we need to go outside for our mile a day. Thanks.” Children need to be reminded to keep their problems small, but mistakes do occur and when they do, clear, logical consequences should follow. Thought should be given to what makes sense to the child and how it relates to the behaviour because the desired outcome is for the behaviour to be altered for long term.
The restorative conversation
A restorative approach separates the child from the behaviour but supports an understanding of the child’s own culpability and the harm that has been caused to others. Adults ensure when discussing an incident, the child knows they are listened to. When restorative conversations become part of the fabric of provision, children understand that mistakes are expected but with shared inspection the situation can be resolved calmly.
Simply put, the approach leads to honest conversations that don’t dwell on the punitive outcome. There may ultimately be a consequence but because the process helps the child to accept their own culpability in a structured way, a consequence becomes logical. Adults plan the approach with questions/ scripts to elicit an understanding of the incident and the child’s place in it. Careful listening, an open mind and empathy support a positive interaction. The restorative conversation will be scaffolded by questions to an end goal of how reparation can be made. Questions could be asked as follows:
• What happened? • What were you thinking about at the time? • What have your thoughts been since the incident? • Who do you think has been affected by your actions? • In what way were they affected? • What do you do now to make things right?
The adult’s role in a restorative conversation is to support the child to recognise and understand their own behaviour, and make links between it and their emotions. If the child is having difficulty articulating answers to the questions the adult can lend their own thinking to the child to support an understanding of actions and consequences. The aim is for the child to take responsibility and repair any harm that a situation has caused.
Finally, for children with short attention spans, social stories can be used to improve understanding by presenting a short narrative in a concrete way in less time. Cartoon strips can be used to provide a visual map through the incident and prompt answers. For young children, drawing very simple pictures on a whiteboard to make the sequence clear, with space for the adult to draw or write an alternative course of behaviour, will suffice.
May 2023
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