During my time within my special needs placement I was fortunate to experience a new outlook on delivering education to children. While the class I was assigned to had a small number of pupils, less than a quarter of pupils compared to my mainstream school, and with more adults assigned to the class it became very apparent that this was beneficial in order for children to be safe but to also receive focused learning. The pupils had a range of needs with most having a diagnosis of Autism alongside other health issues that meant they needed a specific environment that catered to their individual needs while providing a first class education. After reading the Individual Education Plans (TS5 have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils), I was interested to see what strategies the class teacher used in order to deliver lessons that would enable all children to access the lesson effectively. Taking into account the different needs of the children a range of learning styles was used by the teacher to encompass and support all learners and break down any potential barriers to learning. The use of the interactive white board to show a quick video clip to engage the visual learners showing counting to five was backed up by the class teacher and teaching assistant using Makaton as a way to reinforce what was being taught. For the auditory learners the video clip had a simple song for children to hear and sing along to with the supporting adults and finally the use of a cup cake puppetry glove and five paper cupcakes on the table that the children had made themselves to touch and count which accounted for the kinesthetic approach (TS5 secure understanding of how a range of factors can inhibit pupils’ ability to learn, and how best to overcome these). Throughout the lesson of counting to five and back again all children were engaged and encouraged to participate by showing their understanding through counting by using all of the resources that were available to them either independently or with support from adults in classroom. All children reached the learning objective with some children being extended by not only counting the cakes but showing the correct amount of fingers and saying the number out loud (TS5 differentiate appropriately, using approaches which enable pupils to be taught effectively). The same lesson was repeated daily to ensure that it was consolidated by the pupils. The next steps will be to continue counting to five and back using opportunities within the classroom environment e.g. using Duplo bricks or animals to continue to consolidate the number knowledge. All Stories