During the week commencing Monday 29th November 2018 I spent time in a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) school. This school includes children with profound multiple learning difficulties. From day one in this setting it was very clear how different an experience I was going to have compared to mainstream. The class I was based in has ten children, two of which only started on the Tuesday and Thursday of that week. There are approximately three to four members of staff in this class with one member being allocated to personal care (who this is changes each day) TS8: Deploy support staff effectively. The class is a job share with one teacher working Monday to Wednesday and a second teacher working Thursday to Friday. All members of staff are aware of each child’s care, academic, personal, social and dietary needs in order to meet their needs and ensure children are able to access the curriculum with support or independently where possible. The curriculum is very similar to a mainstream classroom in the sense of literacy and maths being undertaken over the duration of the morning, however, how it is executed is very different. In one particular literacy lesson the children were to make a potion with it being Halloween. The learning objective was to write a set of instructions. For the lower ability children they had a picture of a cauldron, sentences already cut out and the ingredients for the potion. For each ingredient the children had to find the matching sentence and stick it onto the cauldron with the support of a Teaching Assistant (TA) and myself (TS5: Know when and how to differentiate appropriately, using approaches which enable pupils to be taught effectively and TS8: Deploy support staff effectively). The middle ability children made their potion whilst writing their instructions onto an iPad with 1:2 support from a level 2 TA (TS5: Know when and how to differentiate appropriately, using approaches which enable pupils to be taught effectively and TS8: Deploy support staff effectively). The high ability group worked directly with the teacher on the computer writing their sentences (TS5: Know when and how to differentiate appropriately, using approaches which enable pupils to be taught effectively). The afternoon sessions consist of karaoke, cooking, swimming, a sensory room, reading, choir, French and R.E. Each child has different physical disabilities. Those that are in wheelchairs have power chairs whilst at school, if able to drive it independently and get time in a morning in a standing frame; time to stretch out whilst laying on mats mid-morning and again in the afternoon and have regular physiotherapy sessions. When swimming they have to be lowered into the pool whether on a wheelchair or a bed using specialist equipment to lower them into the water. The level 2 TA waits to receive the children in the pool with varying equipment to suit individual needs (TS1: establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils, rooted in mutual respect, TS5: demonstrate an awareness of the physical, social and intellectual development of children, and know how to adapt teaching to support pupils’ education at different stages of development and TS8: Deploy support staff effectively). Socially two children are watched very closely for different reasons. One child likes to hug other children and this can be overwhelming for other children. This child is not aware of other people’s need for personal space and is therefore limited to so many hugs a week and is encouraged to high five instead of hug once he has given his allowed amount. Another child likes to say hello to the other children in the class but is not aware of how forceful she is. The other children therefore believe she is hurting them. All members of staff in the classroom are aware of these needs and ensure strategies are put into place to manage this behaviour to ensure it does not disrupt learning or affect the child’s relationships with their peers (TS1: establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils, rooted in mutual respect and TS5: Demonstrate an awareness of the physical, social and intellectual development of children, and know how to adapt teaching to support pupils’ education at different stages of development). I have thoroughly enjoyed this placement. With children’s needs being so different to that of children in mainstream schools, it was interesting to see how differentiation was carried out in a similar way as shown in the example mentioned above. If there is anything that will influence my practise after this placement it was how the teachers differentiated and deployed support staff. Differentiation is vital but becomes more complicated with bigger classes. The needs of children in a class of approximately 30 varies so much it is impossible to meet every child’s needs individually, as it is carried out in a SEND school. Focused next steps to impact on your progress or the progress of the children in your care: Conduct a learning walk with my senior mentor to see what differentiation looks like in a mainstream school. Look into different strategies for differentiating within my age phase. All Stories