With SEND funding and capacity failing to keep up with rising demand, Bridget Phillipson has indicated that part of her plan is to take a more “strategic and coordinated” approach to increasing the number of specialist resource provisions in mainstream schools.
Setting up your own specialist resource provision is attractive to schools too, for a number of reasons. However, doing so comes with risks if it is not done well. Six MAT SEND leaders, engaged in Whole Education’s SEND leadership network, share their advice on how to get it right.
Get your admissions right
Jude Macdonald, Director of SEND, Peterborough Keys Academies Trust
The specialist resource provisions we set up provide child-focused, quality education. They never become exclusionary “holding spaces” for learners. To ensure this, leaders must first consider which pupils the provision is there to serve.
When constructing admissions guidance, we consider the age, cognitive profile or speech and language profile of pupils, or group pupils according to the provision specified in an EHCP/SEND support plan. We know that we can often have the greatest impact when pupils have overlapping needs.
This admissions guidance will include the nature of the provision, setting out for example the proportion of the school week that pupils will attend the provision and the proportion they will spend in their mainstream class, as well as setting out the responsibilities of various adults.
Once this guidance is created, we communicate it clearly, uphold it rigorously and review it regularly.
Carefully plan a connected curriculum
Rhian Warner, Director of primary SEND, E-Act
Curriculum is such a crucial consideration for schools creating their own specialist resource provision. A well-designed, coherent curriculum, informed by accurate developmental assessment while also aligning to the whole-school curriculum, is vital to ensuring progress from pupils’ starting points.
Many of our primary academies use Development Matters or Birth to 5 Matters as assessment frameworks that inform our curriculum planning. Our specialist provisions work best when these frameworks are considered alongside EHCP targets, and when the subsequent curriculum content is aligned with the books or topics that the pupils would be following in their mainstream classroom.
This alignment with mainstream supports pupils’ successful transition out of the specialist resource provision in many cases.
Sometimes, this alignment of content starts with the provision, for example by choosing picture books that are accessible for pupils who attend it, but whose themes also add value to pupils in the mainstream classroom.
Create the right environment
Beth Deakin, Trust inclusion lead, White Woods Primary Academy Trust
One of the goals of our specialist resource provision was to provide a low-arousal environment that encouraged interaction and helped children to learn how to navigate a learning space.
Our first step was zoning the new, potentially overwhelming space to maximise its impact. We focused on supporting children to use the zones appropriately, offering sensory stimulation and embedding micro-routines.
We were careful to design a space that could be replicated in any mainstream classroom, ensuring we didn’t create a highly specialist environment that fostered dependency.
Instead, we created a flexible space that complements and enhances existing classrooms, building children’s skills for broader integration. This helped pupils to transfer skills and build tolerance for the times each day when they return to their mainstream classrooms.
Collaborate
Sally Philpotts, Director of SEND, Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust
Collaboration is essential to establishing a successful resource provision. That means working with local authorities as well as school and MAT leaders. It means involving students, families, advisory teachers, educational psychologists (EPs) and NHS services to ensure that diverse perspectives inform decision-making, resulting in tailored and effective provision.
It is only with such collaboration that we have been able to get our communication environment right. We use the expertise of speech and language therapists, the specialist equipment available through the local authority and the intimate knowledge families have of their children.
This builds a picture which supports our TAs and teachers to make the best decisions for the pupils in front of them.
Collaborative partners in different settings may vary. However, the core principle remains: a shared responsibility ensures a more holistic and informed approach to meeting students’ needs, promoting innovative solutions and leaning on a range of skillsets to foster success.
Be informed by high-quality assessment
Debra Roscoe, Director of pastoral support, Pioneer Educational Trust
If the learner requires an alternative curriculum, then it is likely that they will need an alternative assessment programme, tracking both academic and wider progress.
As a starting point for assessment, seek a framework responsive to the primary area of need being catered for in the specialist resource provision. An autism spectrum condition resource provision, for example, would not necessarily have the same assessment framework as a cognition and learning resource base.
Seek advice from your EP, consult national charities working in the field (ie the Autism Education Trust) or visit similar resource provisions.
Assessing progress towards an academic curriculum is typically a collaborative process, working with staff across the school to identify appropriately ambitious targets against which progress can be tracked.
Whatever your starting point for developing assessment frameworks, ensure it is developed with rigour, that staff are trained appropriately and that it is properly explained to families and other stakeholders.
Maintain strong links to the mainstream class
Lisa Henshall, SEND strategic lead, St Bart’s Multi Academy Trust
Regular access to an inclusive mainstream environment is a fundamental aspect of our specialist provisions. This not only benefits pupils who access them; it also helps other pupils to learn respect for the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion.
For children in our specialist resource provisions, we retain the link to their mainstream peers at key, often lower-arousal/less academically demanding points in the day – registration and check-in at the beginning of the day, for example.
We increase these opportunities over the course of a term, responding to our pupils’ successes. Trips out of school, visitors into school and community partnerships are vital for all pupils and are carefully planned so that they can be accessed collaboratively.
A great deal of work takes place in the specialist resource provision to get pupils ready to thrive in their mainstream classroom. That might mean working on focus and attention, on positive engagement, on co-regulation and on interacting with peers, gradually developing pupils’ capacity to regulate and thrive in a busy classroom environment.
Pupils’ learning content mirrors that of the mainstream class but is taught using intensive interaction and Makaton. These approaches can then be shared with their class peers, who learn the symbols, rhymes and actions developed in the specialist setting.
With increased focus on SEND, the growth in the number and complexity of needs, and a new government focus on mainstream inclusion and belonging, more schools and trusts will be looking to develop their own specialist resource provisions.
Luckily, there is a wealth of hard-won experience to draw on, across the sector and beyond it, to get the early decisions right and start making an impact immediately.
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