I’ve inherited SEND Registers where families had not been told anything about their being on the school SEND register, let alone been listened to or co-produced with.
I’ve worked hard to fulfil statutory duties as set out in the SEND Code of Practice (2015) – to inform parents, to agree provision, to involve parents in decision-making, and more besides.
I’d get quite good at discussing the ‘what’ – what interventions are in place, what teachers are doing in lessons, what opportunities we’re offering.
But I never focused enough on the why.
Why we do what we do
Some teaching and learning practices can feel strange to families. A school might have silent starts to lessons, have a hands-down questioning policy, and use exit tickets at the end of lessons.
A parent might be concerned that silent starts are about ‘zero tolerance’, that hands-down questioning is about catching pupils out and that exit tickets are about checking who was listening. And perhaps, when practiced poorly, those things can be true.
But when done well, they can be highly inclusive.
A silent start can support a potentially dysregulated pupil to have the calm, orderly and predictable start to the lesson that helps them to access the learning.
A hands-down questioning policy can ensure the teacher gets in-the-moment feedback about who is ready to move on and who might need some additional support. It can show pupils that the learning is for all of them.
An exit ticket can provide rich information to a teacher that informs their planning for the next lesson and even indicates what intervention support might be needed in advance of that next lesson.
Though a teacher may need to more to meet the needs of pupils, including in some cases individualised approaches, they might represent part of a teacher’s inclusive high-quality teaching practice.
Sharing our why
Every parent wants the best for their child. Every parent knows their child best. But most parents haven’t been teachers, and may not know why we do these things in classrooms. They’ll only know it, if we talk to them about it.
So, as school leaders, how much do we talk about our ‘why’? The examples above are about the classroom approaches of teachers, but the principle of narrating our ‘why’ is the same in other areas – on why we deploy our TAs in a certain way, why we’re offering (or indeed, not offering) certain opportunities at lunchtime, on how we prepare pupils for adulthood.
Narrating our ‘why’ needs not to be a done deal, of course. A particular approach might be well-intentioned but ultimately isn’t working for a pupil, and it’s only by listening to families that we get a rounded sense of what is or isn’t working. Just because something is well-intentioned, doesn’t mean it is destined for success. But parents understanding our ‘why’ is more likely to lead to the joint partnership working that so underpins effective SEND provision.
So, the next time you’re planning a coffee morning or other event for parents, consider not only how to tell them what support is in place, for them or for all pupils. Consider planning a session in which you can explain – and of course, take feedback on – your ‘why’.
Gary Aubin is author of The Lone SENDCO and co-author of The Parent’s Guide to SEND
SEND Matters 