Inclusion: Does It Matter Where Pupils Are Taught - Report Example

Assessment II – Education Inclusion “Education is the key to a better future for all our children and every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential” (DfES 2004, p.5). The government believes that all children whatever background or ability they may have particularly those with special education needs (SEN). Special Education Need is a mainstream issue and according the Audit Commission’s report in 2002, too many children with Special Education Needs are waiting too long to have their needs met and sadly, many of these children who are supposed to be taught in the mainstream setting are at times turned away. This is because the many special schools are still unaware of their roles in these children’s education and consequently parents are constantly facing obnoxious discrepancies in the intensity of support they are getting from their school, Local Education Authorities, and local health services (DfES 2004, p.8). Furthermore, the Audit Commission survey of 2002 reveals that children with different categories of special need experienced greater or lesser degrees of difficulty in gaining admission to their school of choice. It is those with emotional and behavioural difficulties had the most problems as 73% is having a hard time finding a school place and 68% of excluded children and those with autistic spectrum disorders closely follow them (Hunter 2006, p.92). Since then the government consulted a wide range of practitioners and policy makers in schools and other education authorities including children and young people. This information sets out the Governments initiative for the education of children with SEN and disabilities and present a clear national leadership backed by large-scale programmes of continued action and review over several of years in four key areas. To ensure that help for children with difficulties in learning reach them as soon as possible, suitable childcare is easily accessible for parents of children with SEN, and disabilities, early intervention became the first priority of these four key areas. The second is establishing inclusive practice in all school and early years setting by removing barriers to learning. Next is the development and sharpening of teacher’s skills, strategies, and focus to meet the requirements and progress of children with Special Education Needs. Finally, delivering improvement in partnership through hands-on approach to development so parents will have the confidence that their children with receive the appropriate education they need. The commitment to “unlock the potential of the many children with learning difficulty and life chances depend on a good education” (DfES 2004, p.9). The actual school and classroom management in my observation particularly in the promotion of educational inclusion for all seems objective and following the government initiative. The school’s policy of promoting the guidance from the code of practice that all teachers are teacher of pupils with special education needs is certainly a declaration that the school staff and governing body are moving towards the direction of wide, balance, and appropriate education that would meet the needs of all. However, philosophy and policy is not a guarantee that school would actually comply with the four key areas specified by the government programmes for educational inclusion. It is indeed necessary to look for signs of the four key objectives. One of the most notable strategies of the school is the introduction of a ‘differentiated curriculum’ to help all students realize their potential. This is to ensure that curriculum planning is based on the identified needs of individual learners and all will have easy access to it. For instance, the objective of using of a range of appropriate assessment procedures to allow all students to demonstrate their skills and understanding is carried out by written and oral work particularly on subject areas where skills may be different like speaking, listening, art and graphics, and presentations. Another is making sure that each student is working towards achievable and challenging objectives in each lesson is achieved. This is being done through teacher’s explanation of the learning objectives at the very beginning of each lesson followed by an evaluation of these objectives at the end. Similarly, classroom support and extraction by the SEN staff assist less able students and others are assisted through specific study skill related to the subject and knowledge content and SEN support. The objective is probably to ensure that knowledge and skills that comprise a particular task are analyzed, taught, as appropriate to individual students. This means that classroom activities and outcomes will reflect individual learning rates and abilities. In the desire to give students access to various teaching and learning styles, classroom teachers adopted a range of teaching and learning technique in lessons. Moreover, INSET training is being provided to help staff develop each technique. These differentiation strategies are evaluated by individual teachers and department heads through discussions and observation of best practices. The school’s active promotion of inclusion for all is in need of another classroom management strategy to ensure individual achievement thus Individual Education Plan is being implemented through the school’s Learning Support Department. This individual education plan contains specific information for each pupil such as their preferred learning style, strengths, areas of difficulty, learning targets and its expected outcomes, positive teaching strategies for class teachers, SEN provisions and its expected outcomes, and the roles of parents or guardians. This strategy is very helpful in the assessment of each pupil’s abilities even before they start attending the class. This means teachers will be fully aware of the individual characteristic of his/her pupil particularly in their preferred learning style. For instance, if the student’s preferred learning style is “visual” or learning through seeing, his/her teacher will use body language and facial expression. Since these pupils may learn best from pictures and visual displays, diagrams, illustrated textbooks, videos, etc., teachers are using them to enhance pupil’s absorption of information. Apparently, this approach will cover several of type of inclusion since it can easily identify which area of learning a specific pupil belongs and what instructional material he/she needs. There are many difficulties in learning that we need to know and positive strategies to be adopted. For instance, pupils suffering from very weak literacy skills are oftentimes refused to read on any level and will not complete a literacy test. Moreover, they are also very reluctant to improve their handwriting and always feel being treated unfairly. These extremely poor emotional and social behaviour needs attention and positive strategies such as setting firm boundaries early on in the term and make him/her very aware of these limitations. It should be always a consistent and firm but sensitive disciplinary approach. “Underachievement among specific minority ethnic groups is an established fact, and it is a whole-school responsibility to aim for optimum attainment for all pupils” (DfES 2002, p.2). It is therefore necessary for every school to recognize the knowledge, culture, and language, which bilingual pupils bring to learning and focus on their full access to the curriculum. More importantly, the school should bear in mind that working with pupils who are learning English as an additional language is not a job for additional staff in isolation. They must raise awareness of needs and issues with staff teams because this is equally important as the actual work done with pupils in moving towards greater equity of provision and equality outcome. In these circumstances, the school managed to incorporate equal opportunity and freedom from discrimination particularly on the grounds of race and disability. They therefore acknowledge that the life experiences of people from the ethnic minority backgrounds are of equal value but dissimilar to the mainstream culture. The school sets out to ensure that they serve the pupils and the community in a way that is enlightened and positive with respect to all cultures and backgrounds. As a result, teachers teach students about the connection between social dialects and Standard English and treasure the languages and dialects that students bring to school and observe the strengths of those who speak more than one. Moreover, teachers are more sensitive to the needs of pupils in the early stages of acquiring English and do their best to ensure that they have access to all curriculums as possible. More importantly, teachers inform pupils to the potential of language to empower or diminish individual. To maintain equal opportunity, the school monitors and identify patterns of behaviour that would breach the policy and take necessary remedial action in line with national and local guidelines. The DfES (2004) guidelines for schools in ways and means are aimed to enrich the curriculum for pupils through increased provision of specialist subjects. The role of specialist subjects is to broaden learning by exploring concepts beyond normal study. This should include the development of thinking skills and the application of skills in various perspectives such as problem solving, planning, evaluation, and teamwork. Improve the quality of learning through teaching that stimulates originality, innovation, and enterprise in students and the use of ICT to enable students to analyze, evaluate, and compare performance. Consequently, although there have been varying success in raising standards in specialist subjects, combined average points score of each pupil was higher in technology, language, arts and sports colleges than the average (Castle and Evans 2006, p.2). Moreover, Castle and Evans (2006) added that the 2005 Ofsted report noted more pupils are participating in specialist subjects as pupils have a broader range of options in lessons. Reference List Castle Frances and Evans Jennifer, 2006, Specialist Schools – what do we know?, Research and Information on State Education, Institute of Education, online, http://www.risetrust.org.uk/specialist.pdf DfES, 2004, Removing Barriers to Achievement:The Government’s Strategy for SEN, Department for Education and Skills, DfES Publications, © Crown copyright 2004, DfES/0117/2004 DfES, 2004, Optional additional guidance for schools: Sport Colleges, Department for Education and Skills, The Standard Site, online, http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk /specialistschools/guidance/?version=1 DfES, 2002, Supporting pupils learning English as an additional language: Revised Edition, Department for Education and Skills, DfES0239/2002 Hunter Morag, 2006, The Handbook of Social, Emotional, and Behavioural Difficulties, Published 2006 Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0826488935 Ofsted, 2006, Inclusion: does it matter where pupils are taught?, Office for Standards in Education, © Crown copyright 2006, Document reference number: HMI 2535 Read More