Celina Walsham, SENCo and Inclusion Manager at William Martin Church of England Infant School & Nursery and Junior School, has recently written a piece for The Headteacher magazine about using adaption to close the gap between children with SEN and their peers.
As is the case in many primary schools, Celina Walsham noticed that several SEND pupils were beginning to feel isolated from their classmates during lesson time – not because of bullying or a lack of attention, but because they were being taught in a different way from everyone else in the class. To tackle this isolation, the whole school worked together to transition from differentiation to adaption, with all members of staff taking responsibility for SEND pupils.
Over a period of several months, teaching staff took part in a series of specialist training sessions where they learnt how to adapt their existing resources to better support SEND pupils without isolating them from the rest of the class. This could be something as simple as adding more pictures to class presentations for children who respond better to visual stimulation.
Celina Walsham discusses several steps that can be taken to seamlessly integrate adaption into classroom learning, including carrying out thorough assessments of each child to establish their specific needs and working closely with SENCos to plan more accessible lessons.
Celina Walsham’s article on adopting a process of adaption rather than differentiation can be read in full on The Headteacher website.
JOHN 15:5
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