First Published 2019

by John Catt Educational Ltd,
15 Riduna Park, Station Road,
Melton, Woodbridge IP12 1QT

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© 2019 Michelle Prosser Haywood
& Michael Jopling

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the contributors and are not necessarily those of the publishers or the editors. We cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.

ISBN: 978 1 912906 01 7

Set and designed by John Catt Educational Limited

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

About the editors

About the contributors

Foreword

Introduction: SEND + Research = ResearchSEND

Chapter 1: How Did We Get Here? SEND in Context

40 years of inclusion: From Warnock to SEND reform

Dr Rona Tutt OBE

It shouldn’t take 40 years to create a SEND Leader, should it?

Sean Starr

Chapter 2: Becoming a (SEND) Teacher Researcher

Initial Teacher Training, SEND and research

Paul Gurton

Making the most of an ITE placement in a special school or alternative provision

Jon Reid

Is research an integral part of a teacher’s role?

Cat Scutt

Powerful professional development: Improving outcomes for vulnerable learners

Jessica Broman

Chapter 3: Developing the SEND Workforce

What the Whole School SEND Consortium can do for you

Ann Heavey

Leading SEND in the current educational climate

Malcolm Reeve

Every teacher is a researcher of SEND

Michelle Prosser Haywood

Research schools: School-led support for evidence-based practice

Andy Samways

Chapter 4: SEND-Informed Research and Practice

Research needs SEND as much as SEND needs research

Michael Jopling

Driving evidence-based practice

Chris Rossiter

Supporting poor spelling through research and assessment

Michelle Prosser Haywood

Inclusion: The mainstream school experiences of autistic children and their families

Jo Billington

Supporting the development of autistic learners’ sense of self

Nick Hodge and Emma Rice

Inclusion: A cost-benefit analysis

Rob Webster

Chapter 5: #ChangeMonday: Meeting individuals’ needs in special and mainstream schools

Promoting mental health in schools and learning communities

Marnie Aston

Rainbow rooms

Tayce Mason

The impact of sensory diets in mainstream settings

Beth Barnsley

Removing barriers to improving behaviour

Nancy Gedge

Interpreting and tackling bullying among SEND learners: A preventative approach

Hannah Byrnes

Chapter 6: #ChangeMonday: Learning from practice in special schools

Helping young people to find their voice through SLCN

Will Millard

Total communication in SEND in the Early Years

Victoria Iremonger

What do they really think? Learners’ perceptions of a special school

Jane Elizabeth Dixon

An engagement-centred approach to leading support staff

Debra Ward

Building the confidence of learners with complex learning difficulties and disabilities in the community

Jemma Parton

Transition from special to mainstream schools

Jayne Woodhouse

Parent partnerships

Peter Harwood

Chapter 7: New Voices

ASD: An overview

Jade Johnson

Learners with communication difficulties

Jess Horsley

The role of the TA

Phoebe Brailsford

Transition into adulthood

Courtney Ackerman

Epilogue: Where Next for ResearchSEND and SEND Research?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank all our colleagues who have supported ResearchSEND over the last two years by either attending or presenting at our conferences and believing in the concept of ResearchSEND.

We want to give an extra special thanks to all the contributors to our first ResearchSEND publication who offered to write for us and have now appeared in this book

We could not have done it without any of you.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Michael Jopling became Professor in Education and Founding Chair of the Education Observatory at University of Wolverhampton in September 2017. Before this Michael was Professor in Education at Northumbria University and Reader in Education and Senior Research Fellow at University of Wolverhampton. He has been involved in research in all areas of education, from early years and schools through to higher education, but his particular research interests centre on working with schools on areas such as school and multi-agency collaboration, education policy, educational leadership, social justice and engaging teachers and practitioners in participatory research and action enquiry.

Michelle Prosser Haywood has held a range of different positions within the education sector, including Head of a Local Authority SEND Service, SENCO and deputy headteacher in a primary school. Michelle is currently Head of ResearchSEND at The University of Wolverhampton, where she runs the National ResearchSEND Conferences, undertakes a range of SEND Research projects and leads on research informed practice to improve learning across the University of Wolverhampton Multi Academy Trust. Michelle is undertaking her own research for her PhD on exploring SEND career routes, as well as writing a regular column for nasen Connect on different aspects of research; more recent features have included writing a research proposal and the ethical considerations of research.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Courtney Ackerman is a special education teacher who is passionate about supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities to achieve their full potential, promoting independence and advocating for the roles they can play in the working world.

Dr Marnie Aston is a practising educational psychologist, who prior to setting up her own independent practice worked for Staffordshire Local Authority.

Beth Barnsley is the SENCO at the Devonshire Schools in Sandwell and is a National Leader for SEND.

Phoebe Brailsford undertook her Primary PGCE at the University of Wolverhampton, selecting the SEND Enhancement so that she could pursue a career supporting pupils with SEND.

Jessica Broman worked at the Teacher Development Trust as a Policy Advisor but is currently travelling the world, before returning back home to her native Australia.

Hannah Byrnes fell into the realms of SEN teaching after finishing her degree in English with Theatre Studies at Bangor University. Following some time in a teaching post at a SEN college, Hannah decided to undertake a PGCE and subsequently an MA in Educational Innovation with a specialism in SEN at Warwick University. Hannah has now been teaching for a total of seven years and has held the post of Behaviour Lead at her school for the past five years, while overseeing the school’s pastoral support programme. She plans and delivers positive behaviour management training both internally and externally.

Jane Elizabeth Dixon works with pupils with special educational needs.

Nancy Gedge writes about issues relating to teaching and parenting. Nancy’s blog ‘The Diary of a Not So Ordinary Boy’ won her the TES Teacher Award for Teacher Blogger in 2015. Nancy is also author of Inclusion for Primary School Teachers.

Paul Gurton is a Teacher Educator and Course Leader for the BA in Primary Education leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) at the University of Wolverhampton. He teaches on Professional Learning, English and Research modules and on both the Undergraduate and PGCE programmes. Paul’s research interests have focused on early reading and writing acquisition, primary language learning and philosophy for children. He taught in international education for five years in Italy and Greece. Paul has published chapters in several books and has presented papers at national and international conferences and completed a scoping exercise for the BBC focused on early reading.

Peter Harwood is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, who specialises in SEND and inclusion. He is a member and active contributor to the West Midlands SEND Forum.

Ann Heavey is the National Director for the Whole School SEND Project and is an Education Policy Specialist for the National Education Union (ATL Section). She is particularly interested in securing better educational experiences and outcomes for children and young people in SEND. She is currently undertaking her Research Doctorate in Curriculum Reform, Gender and Primary History at the UCL Institute of Education where she is researching the implementation of the 2014 National History Curriculum in English primary schools – focusing on the teaching of history and women’s history.

Nick Hodge is Professor of Inclusive Practice at Sheffield Hallam University. Prior to joining the University in 1998, Nick was a special education teacher, supporting disabled children and their families in schools for over 15 years. His research interests focus on attitudinal and structural barriers that lead to disabled children and their parents and carers becoming marginalised, disempowered and excluded within the educational system. Nick works in close partnership with teachers and other educators through research partnerships and is a trustee of the Sheffield Autistic Society. Nick was previously Director of the Sheffield Hallam Autism Resource Exchange. Emma Rice is a PhD student at Sheffield Hallam University.

Jess Horsley completed her PGCE at the University of Wolverhampton last year and is nearing completion of her NQT year in a school in the East Midlands.

Victoria Iremonger is a teacher at Severndale Specialist Academy in Shropshire.

Jade Johnson undertook her Primary PGCE with QTS at the University of Wolverhampton and is currently undertaking her NQT year in a school in the West Midlands.

Tayce Mason is the SENCO and Autism Enhanced Resource Lead at Woodhouse Primary Academy, which is part of the University of Wolverhampton’s Multi Academy Trust. She is currently undertaking a Masters qualification and focusing on looked after children.

Will Millard is Head of Policy Advocacy at LKMco, working to ensure LKMco’s research leads to action that will improve the lives of young people. He has extensive experience designing and implementing research projects. Recently, Will has been working with the GLA to develop its strategy for supporting boys’ academic achievement across London, Founders4Schools, evaluating how careers interventions can best support pupils as they progress through school, and Pearson, exploring how innovations around the world can help improve the quality of classroom assessment. Will also works closely with education- and youth-focused organisations, helping them enhance their impact. He is leading a major Arts Council England-funded evaluation of creative writing in schools, and has worked with organisations including BookTrust and Researchers In Schools, evaluating and developing their impact.

Jemma Parton is a teacher at Severndale Specialist Academy in Shropshire.

Malcolm Reeve is Managing Director at Firmament Education Ltd, a National Leader of Education and a National SEND Leader for the Whole School SEND Project. He is also a columnist for Special Needs Jungle.

Jon Reid joined Oxford Brookes University as Subject Co-ordinator for Education Studies (Single and Combined Honours) and Education Studies: Special Educational Needs/ Disabilities and Inclusion (SENDI) following a teaching career in both primary and secondary education. Jon has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Studies and MSc Education at the University of Oxford. He has spent time working in a therapeutic residential school, catering for pupils who have experienced severe emotional trauma due to the accumulation of adverse experiences in infancy and early childhood. Jon worked as a deputy headteacher of an independent secondary special school that specialises in meeting the needs of a diverse group of pupils who primarily have needs associated with complex educational needs, communication difficulties and challenging behaviours.

Chris Rossiter is the Chief Executive of Driver Youth Trust, an influential UK charity working with and for young people who struggle with literacy and who may have special educational needs.

Andy Samways is Director of Unity Research School, one of the 22 schools making up the Research Schools Network, a collaboration between the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Institute for Effective Education (IEE) to create a network of schools that supports the use of evidence to improve teaching practice. Research schools act as regional hubs for the Research Schools Network. Through the network, they share what they know about putting research into practice and support schools to make better use of evidence to inform their teaching and learning.

Cat Scutt is Director of Education and Research at The Chartered College of Teaching. She is a former English teacher who has worked in learning and development in both the corporate and education sector. Her roles have included commissioning and leading research, designing and supporting online communities and collaboration programmes, running education conferences and developing online and face-to-face teacher CPD. She is Chair of Governors of a rural secondary school and is a PhD student at the UCL Institute of Education, investigating the use of simulation in education leadership development.

Dr Sean Starr is a Senior Lecturer in Secondary Education at the University of Wolverhampton with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. He has an MA in Educational Leadership and Innovation, completed at the University of Warwick.

Dr Rona Tutt OBE is a Policy Advisor and SEND Consultant at NAHT. Dr Tutt has taught pupils of all ages in state and independent, day and residential, mainstream and special schools. She is a former headteacher and has been a winner of the Leadership in Teaching Award.

Debra Ward works with pupils with special educational needs.

Rob Webster is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Inclusive Education, UCL Institute of Education. Between 2011 and 2017, he led two research projects (Making a Statement and SEN in Secondary Education) which together make up the UK’s largest observational study of the educational experiences of pupils with SEND. Rob was involved in the ground-breaking Deployment and Impact of Support Staff project and now leads the Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants initiative, which is also the focus of a large-scale trial, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation. He has written extensively on the role and impact of TAs and SEND. Rob is also an occasional writer for TES.

Jayne Woodhouse returned to education in 2004 when her children started school. She completed her degree in Early Childhood Studies and began working as a SEN TA in a mainstream primary school. She moved to Severndale Academy where she completed the Graduate Teacher Training Programme, qualifying as a teacher in 2013. She is passionate about supporting young people with SEND to be included in their local and wider community.

Jemma Parton has been a teacher of SEND for 11 years. She has spent all of her teaching career at Severndale Specialist Academy covering the breadth of diversity and age groups that they support. She is passionate about teaching, although she is now working part time to spend more time with her two boys.