Tackling the remote learning challenge for pupils with SEND

Infor­ma­tion over­load, phys­i­cal and tech­no­log­i­cal hur­dles, loss of spe­cial­ist sup­port and social inter­ac­tion: remote learn­ing has been a chal­lenge for many chil­dren. But for pupils with spe­cial edu­ca­tion­al needs and dis­abil­i­ties (SEND), the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has spot­light­ed the crit­i­cal need for equal access to learn­ing. 

Around one in four pupils at spe­cial schools and col­leges have been at home through­out the pan­dem­ic, with a sim­i­lar pro­por­tion of those with edu­ca­tion, health and care plans across all state schools unable to attend. 

“The main chal­lenge is that while we might all be in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat,” says Zoe Math­er, edu­ca­tion offi­cer at the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion­al Needs.

With for­mal shield­ing mea­sures for the clin­i­cal­ly extreme­ly vul­ner­a­ble in place until at least March 31, there is a con­tin­ued need for dig­i­tal learn­ing even as schools return. At least 15.4 per cent of pupils in Eng­land have spe­cial edu­ca­tion­al needs, accord­ing to gov­ern­ment data, and “there is no one size fits all”, says Math­er. Each child’s needs are unique, as are pro­vi­sion and access to tech­nol­o­gy across the coun­try. A child with autism spec­trum dis­or­der, for exam­ple, has dif­fer­ent needs from one with hear­ing or visu­al impair­ment, dyslex­ia, devel­op­men­tal lan­guage dis­or­der or Down’s syn­drome.

The impor­tance of con­sid­er­ing pupils’ needs first and their diag­noses sec­ond is high­light­ed by the Char­tered Col­lege of Teach­ing. Its report on dis­tance learn­ing approach­es dur­ing the pan­dem­ic found strate­gies sup­port­ing pupils with SEND by mak­ing con­tent more acces­si­ble are like­ly to ben­e­fit all stu­dents.

These include close col­lab­o­ra­tion with fam­i­lies of pupils with SEND, but also spe­cif­ic adap­ta­tions such as cap­tion­ing and visu­al aids, mak­ing con­tent easy to edit and wear­ing plain cloth­ing in live and record­ed online lessons.

Steep learning curve

After a year of dig­i­tal learn­ing becom­ing a dai­ly real­i­ty for teach­ers, pupils and fam­i­ly mem­bers, the learn­ing curve has been steep. Alis­tair Craw­ford, SEND deputy region­al lead for the North, is part of a spe­cial­ist team devel­op­ing hun­dreds of ded­i­cat­ed SEND-focused edu­ca­tion­al videos and resources for Oak Nation­al Acad­e­my, set up at the start of the pan­dem­ic to sup­port remote learn­ing.

“We had the chance to have a wider con­ver­sa­tion around the cur­ricu­lum we had nev­er had on that scale in the spe­cial­ist sec­tor,” he explains. “When we first start­ed, we were try­ing to emu­late children’s TV pre­sen­ters, but quick­ly realised it was going to be a fam­i­ly mem­ber such as a par­ent or sib­ling work­ing along­side, so had to adapt the tone.”

While indi­vid­ual sup­port is essen­tial for SEND pupils, it was impor­tant to work out what would best fit the needs of so many dif­fer­ent chil­dren through a vir­tu­al offer. Oak’s 10,000 free lessons for use by teach­ers or fam­i­lies were devel­oped with closed cap­tions on all videos and British sign lan­guage-inter­pret­ed Eng­lish and maths lessons for younger chil­dren.

The resources also offer visu­al sup­port and Maka­ton signs, full tran­scripts avail­able for all lessons and con­sid­er­a­tions of fonts and colours used. There are no ref­er­ences to a par­tic­u­lar year group on con­tent as it is “real­ly impor­tant we don’t alien­ate any pupils with the stig­ma of age group­ing”, says Craw­ford.

Desire for con­tin­ued edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment ver­sus speech and lan­guage devel­op­ment, social skills and phys­i­cal devel­op­ment has been a chal­lenge for many schools work­ing with SEND pupils. At St Martin’s School, a spe­cial­ist sec­ondary in Der­by for young peo­ple aged 11 to 19 with addi­tion­al needs, up to 50 per cent of pupils have been learn­ing remote­ly.

Join­ing live Eng­lish and maths lessons in the morn­ing, pupils were encour­aged to meet up online social­ly at lunchtimes, play­ing games with their peers, before tak­ing part in well­be­ing, per­son­al, social, health and eco­nom­ic edu­ca­tion, and social devel­op­ment lessons lat­er in the day. “The social part was real­ly impor­tant to us,” says head­teacher Deb­bie Ger­ring.

Changes have also includ­ed mov­ing careers days and jobs fairs online, with vir­tu­al tours and work­shops, improv­ing inclu­siv­i­ty for pupils who wouldn’t pre­vi­ous­ly have been able to take part.

“There have been sil­ver lin­ings for us as we can open up that access,” says Ger­ring. “And for those with anx­i­ety or pupils with high-func­tion­ing autism, this way of learn­ing has been fan­tas­tic for them.”

While the chal­lenges of learn­ing remote­ly have been con­sid­er­able, some of the sil­ver lin­ings point to excit­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties for con­tin­ued learn­ing even when class bub­bles have to iso­late or indi­vid­ual chil­dren need hos­pi­tal stays. 

Patchwork of tech access

A mixed patch­work of tech­nol­o­gy resources across the coun­try meant the first chal­lenge for some schools was get­ting equip­ment for inter­ac­tive learn­ing. For Karen Revill, who teach­es at Mid­dles­brough-based Bev­er­ley School for chil­dren with autism, once teach­ers had over­come the chal­lenges of access to web­cams, lap­tops and the inter­net, the “dig­i­tal learn­ing was wrapped up in the ethos of con­nec­tiv­i­ty”.

“Mak­ing sure the fam­i­lies and stu­dents didn’t feel iso­lat­ed made such a dif­fer­ence to their well­be­ing,” she explains.

Timetabled lessons for some stu­dents, vir­tu­al tours of col­leges for those con­tin­u­ing their edu­ca­tion, meet-and-greet ses­sions with a new tutor sup­port­ing maths GCSE and even a school YouTube chan­nel all helped pupils remain con­nect­ed to the learn­ing rou­tine. “It has felt like the most pow­er­ful thing to retain that sense of learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty,” adds Revill.  

Oasis Acad­e­my Warn­don prin­ci­pal Suzanne Owen agrees invest­ing in tech­nol­o­gy and train­ing through­out lock­downs means teach­ers are now ready to con­tin­ue the online learn­ing jour­ney in the future. Around 20 per cent of pupils at the school in Worces­ter have spe­cial edu­ca­tion­al needs and dis­abil­i­ties so ensur­ing inclu­siv­i­ty across all teach­ing is cru­cial, says Owen.

The Oasis Hori­zons project pro­vid­ed each pupil with an iPad in Jan­u­ary, which means every child can take part in dai­ly live lessons and asyn­chro­nous record­ed ses­sions. Chil­dren with addi­tion­al needs also got sup­port through apps such as Nessy and Dynamo Maths, as well as a chance to use an immer­sive read­er to read out text.

Live one-to-one video calls enable pupils to ben­e­fit from emo­tion­al and social sup­port too.

“Everybody’s sit­u­a­tion is dif­fer­ent, but it is very much about work­ing with par­ents and car­ers,” she adds.

Lessons learnt from the pan­dem­ic and a more flex­i­ble learn­ing approach could change the prospects for chil­dren with SEND longer term, believes Cristi­na Bow­man, who runs train­ing and events organ­i­sa­tion Diff-Abil­i­ty for chil­dren with Down’s syn­drome. Her four-year-old son Max was among a group who fundraised to cre­ate a series of bespoke learn­ing resources specif­i­cal­ly for chil­dren with Down’s, which launched at the end of 2020.

The Teach Me Too project aims to plug the gap in spe­cial­ist inter­ven­tion by deliv­er­ing impor­tant cog­ni­tive and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills to a gen­er­a­tion of ear­ly learn­ers. She says flex­i­ble work­ing hours and access to online work­ing for pupils whose “pain means they can­not get dressed or their anx­i­ety means they can­not walk out of the house that day will ben­e­fit many chil­dren”.

Catalyst for change

The pan­dem­ic has forced change upon many schools, pupils and their fam­i­lies, with mixed con­se­quences for many. But push­ing a new way of approach­ing learn­ing into the spot­light is a cat­a­lyst for change, argues Lynn McCann, spe­cial­ist teacher and founder of Rea­chout ASC autism sup­port ser­vice and train­ing for main­stream schools.

“I would love to see we assess how tech and online learn­ing could be used to devel­op blend­ed learn­ing for some, if not all, chil­dren going for­ward,” she says. “Clear instruc­tions, chun­ked steps through the learn­ing and clear feed­back that shares what they have done well could be a real option for stu­dents who strug­gle with the school envi­ron­ment.

“Chil­dren with SEND should not be an after­thought, but at the heart of our cur­ricu­lum plan­ning and deliv­ery whether through tra­di­tion­al or tech­nol­o­gy-based teach­ing.”