DfEE Green Paper (22/10/1997) - A new role for special schools

home

SEN articles & info

catalogue

downloads

reports : DFEE Green Paper

4 Increasing inclusion

A new role for special schools

12. Traditionally, the role of special schools has been to provide specialist teaching, support and facilities to meet the needs of pupils who attend their school. This has meant a concentration of experience and expertise in a small number of schools (about 5% of the total) meeting the needs of 1% of pupils. We recognise the continuing need for special schools to provide - in some cases temporarily - for a very small proportion of pupils whose needs cannot be fully met within the mainstream sector. The context in which they operate has however changed over the past decade. The categorisation of special schools is no longer as clear as it might once have been, and many now cater for a wide range of increasingly complex needs.

13. If we are to move successfully to greater inclusion, it is essential that pupils with complex SEN in mainstream schools receive specialist support. The role of special schools should reflect this changing context. In principle, teachers in special schools are uniquely equipped to help their colleagues in mainstream schools to meet complex needs. But currently there are no requirements for special and mainstream schools to co-operate. Arrangements do exist, but their incidence is patchy and there is little co-ordination. We will examine how special school staff can work more closely with mainstream schools and support services to meet the needs of all pupils with SEN.

Case study - Round Oak School and Support Service, Warwickshire
Round Oak was opened in 1989 following the closure of two special schools. It provides flexibility for children with moderate learning difficulties through its core special school and eight linked cluster mainstream schools. Pupils are educated in a variety of settings, from total inclusion in mainstream classes through to separate provision when necessary. Liaison between core and cluster staff means that children can move between settings as their needs change.

Many of the children that Round Oak supports are enrolled at a cluster school, and spend their entire school week at their mainstream school. OFSTED recently reported that the progress of pupils in the cluster schools is "always at least satisfactory and frequently good. They are able to keep pace in their mainstream setting and enjoy positive support from cluster staff".

Round Oak has many distinctive features:

all staff are appointed to the core school but can move flexibly throughout the system - eight teaching and some part-time non-teaching staff are currently deployed to the cluster schools to support children with statements;

special school pupils have access to subject specialists at all four Key Stages; and

the cluster schools provide SEN support to a number of other primary and secondary schools.

14. If we are to broaden the contributions made by special schools and their staff, the small size of many special schools (the majority have fewer than 80 pupils) may make some desirable developments difficult. LEAs will need to consider whether in some cases:

s taff currently working in special schools might work in resourced mainstream schools, or in units attached to mainstream schools; or
some special schools might be amalgamated - wherever possible in close association with mainstream schools - to create larger special schools whose teachers would have an explicit remit to provide support and training to mainstream colleagues and to individual children.

15. We want to build on existing good practice. Possible ways forward are:

guidance to LEAs and schools on co-operative working. This might cover:
shared facilities;
shared teaching and non-teaching expertise;
support for pupils who move between special and mainstream schools;
special schools becoming part of cluster arrangements with primary and secondary schools;
suggesting that LEAs include in their Education Development Plans (EDPs) arrangements for collaboration within the framework of generally inclusive provision, including targets for improvement. LEA plans would reflect any arrangements agreed at regional level (see Chapter 5), and would be subject to inspection by OFSTED;
extending LEAs' duty to review the provision they make for pupils with SEN, to include a requirement to review collaborative arrangements between schools;
placing a requirement on special and mainstream schools to provide details of collaborative arrangements in their annual reports. For special schools, this could include setting targets for the amount of time pupils should participate in mainstream education.

The local forums on admissions mentioned above should encourage co-operation on the admission policies of mainstream and special schools.

16. In all this there are exciting opportunities for special schools. Increasingly, they will be providing a varied pattern of support for children with SEN. Some children will be in full-time placements, others part-time or short-term; staff will be supporting some children in mainstream placements; they will be helping mainstream schools to implement inclusion policies; and they will be a source of training and advice for mainstream colleagues. It may be that when their role has developed to this extent, the term "special school" will be seen as an inadequate reflection of what they do.

17. This is a challenging agenda. Our proposals will have significant resource implications, not least in the training which some special school teachers will need as their role develops. We shall start with pilot projects, drawing on the experience which some LEAs and schools are developing in this area. But we want to see real progress over the next four years.

QUESTION: How can we help special schools to develop their role, working more closely with mainstream schools to meet the needs of all pupils with SEN?

31/08/2000