VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM


lesson prompts them to think about what they can hear, the different smells, and what the people in the story might be feeling. This is particularly helpful for our learners with autism who can struggle to visualise and critically reflect on their learning. With immersive platforms, learning is brought to life in the ‘here and now’, making it easier for children with autism to engage and stay focused.


connect schools from around the world and facilitate global learning. The platform enables teachers to expand their classroom into a global learning environment and help children broaden their horizons, as they engage with key PSHE topics all linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. I felt this would be an ideal resource for our learners who thrive with multisensory learning, so I was keen to try it out! I was also able to attend a free CPD training


event to learn how to get the most from the platform and adapt the lessons for my learners, which was hugely valuable. These regular free webinars are also a great opportunity to share tips with other teachers and find out how they have been using the resources.


How has video and immersive storytelling been so powerful in supporting the needs of your learners? The Lyfta lessons have been highly effective in sparking conversations and lively debate amongst learners around what they’ve seen, how they can personally relate to some of the experiences, or instances where their views have been challenged. In the process, learners are building their communication skills, confidence and empathy, whilst meeting their curriculum learning objectives. Video content is also brilliant for learners who have reading and literacy challenges. By using videos with subtitles, it is easy for me to read out and explain language to the children as needed, while still giving them the independence to watch, infer and decipher what is happening in the videos. It has been great to see the learners’ vocabulary improving, as they’re prompted to describe what they see and hear, as well as gaining an understanding of new words.


Can you add other multisensory experiences as part of these lessons? Absolutely. To help learners further connect these global experiences to their own lives and solidify their learning, we’ve been using the stories as part of a cross-curricular approach. For example, to complement the Afghan bakery story, we made our own flatbreads in cooking class. The learners had great fun testing out their culinary skills while thinking about the experiences of the bakers in Kabul and how they make breads as their livelihood. As part of another real-life story looking at beekeeping, we brought in homemade honey for learners to taste. These activities made the learning more concrete in a dynamic and enjoyable way, whilst encouraging them to continue reflecting and thinking critically.


What do you do to help students develop their global and cultural awareness? Some of my learners experience the world in a different way to other students, and so immersive learning has been a brilliant way to open a window onto different cultures and places and introduce them to the ways other young people live around the world. The learners have loved this ability to ‘travel’ from the comfort of the classroom! For example, one storyworld took our learners to an Afghan bakery where they learned about traditional methods of making bread and the experiences of children who work and barter in the street markets. The learners explored the spaces and sounds of Kabul as they virtually move around 360-degree environments, while the


Ocgtober 2021


How does immersive learning help you teach sensitive and complex themes? Over the past 18 months, many children will have experienced potentially stressful situations and new feelings of anxiety, disruption and bereavement living with Covid-19. Equipping children with the emotional and social skills to understand these issues and deal with them in a positive way has therefore never been more important and is a critical step in preparing them for the world of adulthood. Story-based learning is an effective tool for broaching these conversations in the classroom and developing learners’ understanding of less well-known concepts. In our PSHE lessons, we have been exploring


one story which looks at experiences of male ballet dancers and the issue of prejudice and differences between men and women. This opened up discussion around whether boys can do ballet, and we also looked at other activities that usually only girls or boys are encouraged to do, and why that may be. The learners loved this! The real-life stories helped them develop a deeper


www.education-today.co.uk 17


understanding and appreciation, learning about the importance of kindness and inclusivity. It has been inspiring to see how empathetic and respectful our learners have been in their reactions to different people, cultures and interests.


How does it help reinforce teaching concepts? It’s great for reinforcing learning because the resources are so flexible. It’s easy for teachers to adapt lesson plans, use the videos as lesson starters or to round-off topics, as well as starting new conversations. For instance, as part of our health and hygiene teaching, we virtually take learners to Ethiopia to experience life inside a medical clinic. The lesson helped to reinforce the importance of health and welfare and provided students with a reference point which they could relate back to personal medical experiences, a particularly timely topic in the current pandemic. Most interesting of all, the learners noticed the similarities between the Ethiopian clinic and UK medical centres more than the differences. The similarities provided a source of comfort for the learners as they understood they were not alone in experiencing health and wellbeing scares.


How can other SEND settings benefit from resources like Lyfta? Making sure that learners feel safe and secure within their learning space is fundamental in SEND settings like ours, and so the ability to experience new countries and cultures virtually is incredibly valuable. Each child can access and experience the lesson, no matter their ability, and everyone will take away something different from the experience. It’s accessible, enables students to have fun whilst getting to grips with complex themes, and helps develop a wide range of life skills such as resilience, tolerance and empathy, a truly essential tool in the SEND classroom.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48