In this blog, the authors explain why and how they have established a hybrid classroom and curriculum offer for students with cognition and learning needs which upon entry to secondary school, placed their prior attainment at KS1 level. They reflect upon the processes undertaken to intentionally include students with acute cognition and learning needs within their large mainstream secondary school so that they are educated and thrive within their own community.
‘The why’
In 2021, through our transition planning, we knew that there were at least 10 children in our local Primary Schools in Year 5 attaining at early KS1 levels. This was an ‘inflection moment’ (1) for us because we committed immediately to think differently: to commit to solving this problem, whereas previously we may have objected to the consults we received as we did not have the capacity or expertise to meet need. The question we asked ourselves was ‘how can we do the best by these children and how can we be part of the solution?’. Our quest to answer these questions was driven by our trust’s value of ‘Belief in Every Child’ (2) and our school’s commitment to ‘promote social justice and social mobility for Chard and the surrounding area’ (3). If we believe in these things and live by our school’s values of ‘Compassion’ and ‘Community’; how could we not wholeheartedly commit to being the right place for as many local children as possible? Our quest was also driven by challenging local contexts, with serious pressure on Somerset Council’s high needs budget (4) and a lack of high-quality specialist school places in South Somerset, as is in many rural areas. We knew that educating these children as part of their own local community was vital to them thriving and so, our Enhanced Learning Provision (ELP) was born (5). The first cohort of children started at Holyrood in September 2022 and are currently in Year 8. We welcomed our second cohort into Year 7 in September 2023. Although to us it was ‘the ELP’, to the children it is H2- the name of the classroom, an intentional step towards inclusion.
‘The how’
It was clear we needed to recruit a highly skilled and primary trained teacher, not only to lead this provision but also to provide support and advice to secondary colleagues also teaching the students. We committed in the early stages to these students studying the full range of KS3 subjects and spending at least 40% of their time within mainstream classes, with the right support for them as well as training and support for teachers to enable them to facilitate this.
Once our vision for the future was established, we focused on engaging those that were going to help make it happen. Along with the local authority (LA), who were keen to support us with funding a primary teacher, this also included our feeder primary schools, the Educational Psychology Service, our Transition TA and once appointed, our primary teacher. We worked together closely to design the provision moving forwards, to carefully identify the right students and ensure we were invested in a shared goal.
Throughout the planning stage, we looked forensically at our curriculum model for the ELP and felt certain that as we transitioned in and out of the provision and ensuring students were able to integrate socially with their peers, it was important that this mirrored the mainstream school curriculum but at a stage appropriate level. Additionally, we decided that there needed to be as much pedagogical consistency between the ELP and mainstream classes as possible. The same behaviour routines and policy are applied as well as the same homework structures so that students could succeed inside and outside the ELP. To truly include the students, they attend tutor time and assemblies in mixed groups and attend social time in the mainstream with their friends.
Impact and next steps
We are pleased and proud of the impact of this provision. This group has the highest attendance of any class in our school and is well above the national average for secondary schools. Every child is making good progress against their own personal targets. Every child has sustained participation in at least one extra-curricular club and every child has been on a residential trip. Suspensions and behaviour events are extremely low compared to school and local averages. The Year 8 group now spend at least 60% of their time in mainstream classes and some students no longer require ELP support. Our next step is to plan our Year 9 provision and how this will support students to access an appropriate KS4 curriculum with us.
We are delighted by the results we have seen from this provision and by undertaking a similar planning process, we have now established an SEMH provision which uses the same principles but looks very different. We look forward to seeing its impact and reflecting upon it in a future post.
With thanks to the co-authors Beth Warwick, Katie Wilson and Clare Brun.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
References
Somerset LA (2024) Enhanced Learning Provisions. Accessed at: Enhanced Learning Provision for Students with SEND
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