Here’s an easy question to ask a SENDCO or other school leader: Whose responsibility are our pupils with SEND?
We know the answer – everybody’s. We know that every teacher should be a teacher of SEND, every leader a leader of SEND. And yet, it’s possible that some of our actions move us away from this collective ownership being lived and breathed, positively, by colleagues across a school.
Joyous ownership
On occasion, there’s an unhelpful subtext to the positive statement that ‘every teacher is a teacher of SEND’. It can be used as a statement that’s high on accountability and expectation, and low on support. It can be used to mean ‘work harder’, rather than ‘don’t forget what a privilege it is to be involved in the education of children and young people with SEND, and here’s how we can support you to make this happen’.
And sometimes we can inadvertently cause this problem for ourselves.
Moving away from joyous ownership?
Colleagues are unlikely to joyously own the education of pupils with SEND if we make it feel impossible. If we add strategies on top of strategies, inferring that the only way to meet needs is to be somehow superhuman in the number of things teachers need to do simultaneously, or if we give advice that creates unrealistic demands on planning time.
Similarly, if colleagues feel only high-stakes accountability around SEND, in which criticism is around the corner when a learning activity isn’t going well for a pupil with SEND, it’s hard to build positivity. If colleagues feel that others only see what isn’t working, rather than what is, it’s hard to ensure colleagues feel joyous about the challenges that teaching a diverse class can bring.
And finally, joyous ownership is absent where the dominant narrative is that the school is doing a pupil with SEND a favour by educating them. Where the discussion becomes ‘well, their needs are so great, what can we be expected to do?’, or where the emphasis is on ‘just having them until the special school place opens up’, it’s hard to engage colleagues positively, with full commitment to inclusive practice.
Moving towards joyous ownership
Conversely, there are schools across the country who achieve this joyous ownership.
They do this by being okay with imperfection, promoting and supporting a spirit of open reflection and experimentation (or, in the words of the Code of Practice, an Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle).
They do this by showing colleagues what it looks like when done well, whether through peer observations, video clips of colleagues’ practice, partnerships with other schools (particularly local special schools), memberships of national networks or by using online advice or exemplification.
They do this by embedding a mindset of inclusion, where the education of every pupil is seen as equally valid and where the school proudly narrates its place at the heart of its community, serving its local population.
And they do this through celebrating successes, reminding colleagues that pupils’ progress (in all its forms) comes as a direct result of the hard work, skill and passion of colleagues in school.
A tricky reality
As schools embark on a new term, no doubt there will be teachers and leaders looking at complex new cohorts arriving at their school, coming with needs not seen before in their setting or in such numbers as to be overwhelming.
And external pressures don’t always make this easy – where training routes for staff, properly-funded EHCPs or the availability of SEND specialists are hard to come by, it’s not easy to feel positive about the term or year ahead.
And therefore, the responsibility on school leaders to ensure joyous ownership of pupils with SEND is even greater. The need for all leaders to remain positive advocates for inclusion, in the context of great challenge, becomes clearer than ever.
Maintaining positivity around the phrase ‘every teacher being a teacher of SEND’ might be tricky, but if feels key to achieving true, and joyous, whole-school ownership of pupils with SEND.
Gary Aubin is author of The Lone SENDCO and co-author of The Parent’s Guide to SEND.
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