Special Schools

Inclusion

Secondary

See teachers give full-time education to excluded KS3/KS4 pupils

This whole-school video on safeguarding KS3/KS4 children shows Alternative Education Service (AES) staff promoting inclusion in full-time education for pupils excluded from South Tyneside's mainstream secondary schools. Some of Britain's most economically and socially disadvantaged families live in South Tyneside. The AES has the challenge of providing full-time education for the area's excluded young people, as shown in this video addressing behaviour and other issues under Every Child Matters. Teachers at the Secondary Pupil Referral Unit are not only trying to improve pupils' behaviour so they can be re-integrated back into school, but they're also acting as an important support for vulnerable children. One of their key aims is to help pupils develop the emotional and social skills necessary to cope with growing up in an area of great poverty. Although education has a clear and prominent place in South Tyneside Council's priorities, this video shows staff doing remarkable work with pupils in conditions which are often quite unsuitable for boisterous, lively adolescents. The staff aim to provide these young people with a safe place to learn.

A Safe Alternative

An innovative special school rigorously promoting healthy living

Alderman Knight School in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, is a special school bursting with healthy initiatives. The school has embraced the National Healthy Schools Programme with a passion and children are encouraged to think about food, how to grow it, cook it and buy it. The school has introduced many schemes to create a healthier learning environment, including a thriving breakfast club. There are greater opportunities for play, sport and dancing, and partaking in extra artwork to help improve the emotional wellbeing of the pupils. The children are also given a "thought for the day", encouraging them to ponder moral, political and ethical questions.

Alderman Knight School

Three schools demonstrate how they make PE inclusive for all

In this programme, three schools demonstrate how they have succeeded in providing physical education opportunities appropriate to the needs of each of their students. Beacon Hill in Ipswich is a special school that has evolved simple ways to make PE accessible for children with complex communication issues. Hall Green School in Birmingham is a mainstream school with a number of wheelchair users amongst its students, and PE lessons have been adapted accordingly. Students at Southfields Community College in south west London speak a total of 71 languages between them, with some pupils hailing from refugee families. Whilst the school still offers traditional PE lessons, it also provides less obvious options so that all students can find a sport that appeals to them.

Everyone's Included at Secondary

How gifted and talented deaf pupils have changed their school

Jamie, a gifted and talented pupil at Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education, tells how he has been able to influence the provisions made for others like him at his school. Using British Sign Language, Jamie explains the ways in which his school has listened and taken on board the particular needs that gifted and talented deaf students have. Suggestions such as vertical learning groups for some pupils, and improving the experiences which deaf students have with partner hearing schools, are just some of the ideas the academy has taken on board. Jamie also explains how the gifted and talented pupils also contributed suggestions for the design of a new school building, all contributing to a better learning experience for the gifted and talented pupils.

Gifted and Talented Pupil Voice - Jamie - Exeter Deaf Academy

Six years ago, homework was completed by less than 20% of the students at Carwarden House and Ofsted had highlighted it as an area for concern. The pupils' ages range from from 8 - 19, and all have learning difficulties. Su and her colleagues wanted an approach where the students wouldn't feel they were doing homework at all, and one tailored to differing needs. The maths games they developed are designed to meet the objectives of the National Numeracy Strategy. Each student can have a different game for every week of the school year. "The teachers have a lot of work to deal with anyway with their class, so finding time to work with every individual on different levels is practically impossible. So that is the beauty of this. Up and down the country we have over 2000 schools now using the packs. And over 200,000 children involved in playing these games at home - with their parents." Su Cope, Assistant Head Teacher.

Homework High

Relocating a special school into the new HLC development

The Hadley Learning Community is an exciting new PFI development that is home to, amongst other things, the relocated Bridge Special School. The Bridge caters for children with severe and profound learning difficulties and is moving out from cramped and inadequate facilities in to the new state-of-the-art HLC extended school. But with government building guidelines rather out of date, headteacher Una van-den-Berg feels she has to fight hard to ensure her pupils get the space and facilities they need. This programme highlights the hardships that staff and pupils face in the old Bridge Special School and shows how Una and her team get involved in designing the Hadley Learning Community.

Including the Special School

Jonathan Dimbleby debates the future of inclusive education

Is Baroness Warnock right? The original architect of the inclusion policy comes face-to-face with a panel of experts, including former Ofsted chief, Chris Woodhead, and equality campaigners on the future of inclusion. Children with disabilities have always had a tough time in education. For 25 years, education policy has striven to remove the barriers to learning faced by children with special needs by including them in mainstream schools. But not everyone is happy with the way the government is trying to achieve it. Teachers fear classroom disruption. Parents of non-disabled children fear an erosion of academic standards. And, at the heart of the debate, stands the right to continue sending the most severely disabled to special schools. For some, this is segregation. For others, it is common sense. Now even Baroness Warnock has turned against it. The way we're teaching disabled children, she claims, will leave "a disastrous legacy." Lady Warnock and former Ofsted chief, Chris Woodhead, join Jonathan Dimbleby and a panel of teaching practitioners and equality campaigners to discuss the future of inclusive education.

Chef Michael Coaker creates a lesson for SEN pupils

Chef Michael Coaker creates a food technology lesson for pupils at a special educational needs school, using fruit and vegetables from the school's garden. He works with food technology teacher Pauline Salta at Belvue School, west London, to create a dish for the pupils to cook and share with friends. Michael decides on a vegetable curry prepared with herbs and spices, and uses the berries picked that morning to make fruit smoothies.

KS3 Food Technology: Belvue Garden Curry

See a school's efforts to manage the behaviour of excluded pupils

Anti-social behaviour in schools is at the forefront of many teachers' minds in recent years, with teaching unions placing it high on their conference agendas. Hear one primary school's story in this whole-school video. Teachers at New Woodlands Primary School in the London borough of Lewisham have to deal with exceptionally challenging behaviour from pupils every day, as shown in this behaviour-management video for primary and secondary teaching staff. This powerful and moving documentary takes a close look at the methods and philosophy of headteacher Duncan Harper and his staff. New Woodlands provides education for 60 young boys who've been deemed very difficult - if not impossible - to cope with in the 72 mainstream primary schools in the area. Some of these boys are as young as five and all have been excluded because of their challenging behaviour.

More Than A Special School

The work of teachers at Great Ormond Street Hospital School

Off Sick But In School features Great Ormond Street Hospital School, where education is delivered on the wards and in dedicated classrooms. Many of the children being treated at this hospital have injuries and illnesses needing several weeks, months or even years of treatment, so it's imperative they don't get behind with their school work. This programme follows a typical day for two of the school's teachers and shows their commitment to young girls like Miriam. Although she has to lie on her back and then her front for two hours at a time for weeks on end, she can still manage to get to grips with Shakespeare. The hospital teachers have to teach all age groups and all subjects, often in very difficult circumstances, and without always knowing what the children's futures will be.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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