High quality, inclusive teaching and learning

Effective strategies to support children with SEND

We know that high-quality teaching and learning is effective for all children. All teachers and practitioners are teachers of children and young people with SEND.

Find support to help you plan to meet the needs of children and young people, from useful websites to handy resources, training, and specialist support.

Contents

What makes teaching and learning effective?

This section outlines evidence-based strategies for creating inclusive learning environments where all pupils, including those with SEND, can thrive. Based on Education Endowment Foundation research, these five key strategies provide a framework for effective teaching that should be embedded into everyday practice, not treated as an additional layer of support.

The Education Endowment Foundation guidance report Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools outlines that supporting children and young people with SEND should be part of a proactive approach to supporting all pupils, not an add-on. It sets out five key strategies aimed at supporting pupils with SEND.

1. Create a positive and supportive environment for all children and young people without exception.

  • High expectations of all children and young people.
  • Always challenging what you need to do differently.
  • Understand special education needs as a difference or neurodivergence rather than a shortcoming or weakness.
  • Use language and terminology that doesn't have negative connotations or suggest a deficit.
  • Ensure the child's wellbeing needs are met.
  • Foster independence and strong, positive relationships.
  • A physical environment taking into account such aspects as sensory needs.
  • Effective, skilled learning environment management.

2. Build an ongoing, holistic understanding of children/young people and their needs.

  • Know the needs and contexts of children and young people and their characteristics – not stereotyping or applying a label in a way which might have a negative impact on expectations or opportunities.
  • On-going, responsive, diagnostic assessment, observation, monitoring and review that informs and shapes the teaching and learning.
  • Use a wide range of observation, assessment, and feedback tools including self and peer assessment.
  • Skilled pedagogical intervention, using knowledge of how children and young people learn to craft and re-shape learning experiences.

3. Ensure all children and young people have access to high quality teaching and learning.

  • Access to a broad curriculum and to learning which is sequential, cohesive, relevant and contextualised.
  • Skilled, open-ended and hinge questioning; asking the right questions at the right time.
  • Modelling to reveal the thought processes of an expert child/young person to aid understanding and help develop metacognitive skills.
  • Dedicated teaching of metacognitive skills; helping children and young people to understand how they learn and to make decisions about learning.
  • Build on and embed prior and key knowledge, understanding, skills and ideas.
  • Elaborate on learning by using describing and explaining to help embed it in the memory.
  • Planned sequences and cycles of learning which facilitate mastery.
  • Deliver flexible teaching and learning to adjust and personalise.
  • Teach key vocabulary or modelling with intent, to assist in conceptual understanding and building knowledge.
  • Demonstrate use of a range of resources and strategies evident in planning and delivery and explicit teaching in how to use them.
  • Appropriate use of technology to help with problem-solving and open-ended learning.

4. Complement high quality teaching with carefully selected small group and one-to-one interventions.

5. Work effectively with teaching assistants/supporting practitioners

  • Skilled use of additional adults with appropriate training and clear, focused remits to support learning, independence, metacognition and self-regulation.
  • Understand the impact of any adjustments, personalisation, intervention or support critically evaluated, with these evaluations used to inform subsequent teaching and learning.
  • Pre-teaching which acknowledges the different starting points of children and young people and attempts to enable all children and young people to access the core teaching and learning.

The five-a-day principle

The 'five-a-day' principle offers a practical, memorable framework for inclusive teaching practices. Just as eating five portions of fruit and vegetables daily supports physical health, incorporating these five teaching strategies into daily lessons supports cognitive development and learning for all pupils, particularly those with SEND. These strategies should become habitual elements of your teaching practice.

The five-a-day principle can be integrated into teaching and learning to support learning and improve outcomes for all children and young people, including those with SEND.

Teachers/practitioners should use these as a starting point for working with all children and young people, including those with SEND:

For more detail, access the full Ordinarily Available SEND Provision document

Useful information for schools

This collection of resources provides essential guidance on implementing effective SEND provision in mainstream schools. From understanding adaptive teaching to working effectively with teaching assistants, these materials will help you develop your knowledge and refine your practice. The resources include policy frameworks, practical guidance, and evidence-based approaches to support your professional development.

Useful information for early years providers

Early years provision forms the foundation for children's lifelong learning and development. This section brings together statutory guidance, developmental frameworks, and practical resources specifically designed for early years practitioners. Whether you're working in a nursery, pre-school, or reception class, these materials will help you create inclusive, play-based learning environments that meet the needs of all children, including those with SEND.

1.16 The statutory EYFS (early years foundation stage) framework does not prescribe a particular teaching approach. Play is essential for children's development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, relate to others, set their own goals, and solve problems. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play and learning that is guided by adults. Practitioners need to decide what they want children in their setting to learn, and the most effective ways to teach it. Practitioners must stimulate children's interests, responding to each child's emerging needs and guiding their development through warm, positive interactions coupled with secure routines for play and learning.

1.18 In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

  • Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and 'have a go'.
  • Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements.
  • Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

1.19 All children deserve high quality early education and care. This requires a quality workforce. A well-trained, skilled team of practitioners can help every child achieve the best possible educational outcomes. Children need to build an attachment with their key person for their confidence and well-being. The key person also promotes children's learning by developing a deep understanding of their individual needs and children can particularly benefit from their modelling and support.

Oxfordshire Inclusive Support Series

The Inclusive Support Series provides practical, strengths-based tools to help identify and implement reasonable adjustments for children and young people with SEND. These documents facilitate meaningful conversations between educators, parents, and other professionals to ensure appropriate support is in place. You don't need a diagnosis to use these tools – they focus on meeting individual needs rather than labels.

The Oxfordshire Inclusive Support Series consists of strengths-based tools designed to help identify reasonable adjustments in learning settings for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These tools facilitate conversations with educators to implement necessary provisions and adjustments to support students effectively.

When using the documents below, please note:

  • a diagnosis is not required to use an Inclusive Support Series
  • that schools should share completed Inclusive Support Series documents with CAMHS professionals as part of their assessment evidence
  • that schools can and should utilise more than one Inclusive Support Series where there are multiple needs.

Inclusive Support series for school age children

Inclusive Support series for Early Years children

  • Autism (document under review)
  • Sensory Processing (document under review)

Training

Continuous professional development is essential for maintaining high-quality SEND provision. This section outlines training opportunities available for both early years practitioners and school staff in Oxfordshire. From core SENDCO training to specialist sessions on adaptive teaching and working with teaching assistants, these courses will enhance your skills and confidence in supporting children and young people with SEND.

Training for Early Years providers

Training for schools

  • SENDCO essentials: your statutory role: SEN Support - school processes and systems
  • SENDCO Essentials - Ordinarily Available SEND Provision (OASP)
  • SENDCO Essentials The Graduated Approach - making the APDR cycle work for you
  • SENDCO Essentials Preparing for Ofsted
  • Adaptive teaching part 1 and part 2 (including EEF five a day)
  • Meeting the needs of a wide range of learners with SEND in the mainstream classroom
  • Middle leaders as leaders of SEND
  • Effective teaching assistant deployment for teachers
  • Teaching assistant training on developing independent learners
  • Teaching assistant training on effective classroom support
  • Supporting newly arrived pupils who are new to English

Book from the upcoming training list at the bottom of this page or contact the team for in school or online training.

Specialist support in setting

Sometimes you may need specialist expertise to support individual children or to develop whole-setting approaches to SEND. Oxfordshire offers specialist advisory teams who can provide targeted support, consultancy, and guidance. Whether you need advice on a specific child, want to conduct an inclusion audit, or are looking to develop your setting's SEND provision strategically, specialist support is available to help you achieve your goals.

The Early Years SEND Advisory Team

Alongside working with individual children under 5 who have complex learning, communication and/or social interaction differences, the Early Years SEND Advisory team also provide universal and targeted support to Oxfordshire early years settings and schools in order to promote effective inclusion of children with SEND. Settings and schools can use the SENDCO Helpdesk to ask for 'no names' advice and targeted setting support. Targeted SEND support work specifically focuses on supporting early years settings and schools to improve early identification and intervention support for Early Years children with SEND. One tool used to support this work is the Oxfordshire Early Years SEND Inclusion Audit

Oxfordshire School Inclusion Team (OXSIT)

We support the strategic development of inclusion provision in schools, with a particular focus on early identification and improving provision for pupils at SEN Support by developing an effective graduated response that improves learners' outcomes.

Find out more about OXSIT consultancy support packages.