High quality, inclusive teaching and learning

Teaching 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. 

What makes teaching and learning effective?

The statutory EYFS (early years foundation stage) identifies three characteristics relevant for all children: 

  • 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 (1.18).

Supporting pupils with SEND

There are a number of strategies you can follow to specifically support pupils with SEND. Although not exhaustive, these are key features of high-quality, inclusive teaching and provision.

1 Create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils 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 your pupils 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 pupils have access to high quality teaching.

  • 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 pupil 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 

  • 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 from the main lesson(s).

The five a day principle

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

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

For more detail, access the full ordinarily available toolkit. [link to follow]

Useful information

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. 

The statutory EYFS  (Early Years Foundation Stage) covers the education and care of all children, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It says:

  • Children deserve high quality early education and care (1.19) and highlights that 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 (1.16). 

In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately.