ABSTRACT
The quality and impact of teaching on learning for SEND students, as opposed to ‘additional support/intervention’, frequently receives less attention in a school. Yet, increasingly, SEND students are expected to achieve the very same qualifications as their non-SEND peers over the same period of time. Pathways that include Wave 2 and 3 interventions are more likely to support students in progressing to a broader range of options post-16.
Here, we explore various ways that schools within their own curriculum intent facilitate access to the mainstream curriculum through high-quality teaching and support for SEND students.
A strong focus on developing cognitive and metacognition skills and the best models of deployment of teaching assistants are explored, so as to develop confidence, motivation and resilience and, promote independent learning.
The curriculum pathways for those at risk of disengaging from education are reviewed with an intent and implementation that is in line with the mainstream curriculum and does not ‘dumb down’ the knowledge and skills that students require for GCSE examinations. The focus is on providing an equitable education – ‘a level playing field’ for our most vulnerable SEND students. These young people are arguably the most susceptible to becoming NEETs.
