In today’s classrooms, no two children learn in exactly the same way. Every child brings their own strengths, interests, and talents, while also facing different challenges or barriers to learning at different points in their educational journey. At our family of schools, we believe that recognising and responding to these differences early is one of the most important things we can do as educators.

Our staff work hard to truly know and understand each child as an individual. This means looking beyond academic performance and understanding how children learn best, where they may need encouragement, and what support can help them thrive. Rather than waiting for a formal diagnosis (which we know can often take years!) our schools focus on identifying needs early and putting the right support in place at the right time.

Early intervention can make a significant difference to a child’s confidence, wellbeing, and progress. By quickly recognising and reducing barriers to learning, our staff ensure that children can continue to access the education they deserve without unnecessary delay. Whether a child needs additional support with communication, emotional wellbeing, literacy, concentration, or confidence, our approach is always centred around providing practical help at the right time.

We are proud to create inclusive learning environments where every child feels valued, supported, and able to succeed. By working closely with families and responding proactively to children’s needs, we help ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to flourish both academically and personally.

What key characteristics do we want of our inclusive schools?

Through research, visiting other settings and understanding our children, we know the following characteristics help create inclusivity and have adopted practices with the aim of embodying these:

• Universal support for all in the classroom
• Adaptive teaching to personalise learning
• Appropriate use of Assistive Technology
• Proactive approach taken to identifying strengths and barriers to learning so that our children are not held back
• A shifting from the focus of "Can this child do this task?" to "How can I adapt this task so that everyone can access this?" 
• A culture of acceptance, empathy and respect for each individual
• Inclusion extending beyond SEND: to support all children regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, and socio-economic status.
• One where parents feel they have a voice

Waiting lists, strengths and barriers to learning:

We do not want a culture of waiting for a diagnosis or to be part of a society that waits for this, before supporting our most vulnerable learners. We do not want our children to ‘fail’ while waiting for other professionals to confirm what children need, although we do want their knowledge and wisdom to enhance what we are already doing.   

As you will no doubt be aware (or are possibly experiencing yourselves), the NHS waiting list for a diagnosis or paediatric appointment is long and ever-growing. Waiting for a diagnosis appears to be a waste of precious time when children need support right now. An interminable wait will only delay and impede a pupil’s progress.

Where barriers to learning have been flagged, schools will seek to work with you as soon as possible to ensure that we have accurately identified your child’s strengths and needs. We want to work with you so that we work in tandem and can grow your child’s strengths and break down their barriers to learning, both at home and at school.

We do need specialists to support us:

Teachers and schools are constantly developing their knowledge on best practices: attending training and workshops; collaborating with peers and educational professionals and reading up on academic journals and research.  With this depth of knowledge and experience, we have confidence we can work with you to find the right provision and support formula that will help your child flourish, develop personally and achieve in education.  However, even teachers do not know it all (!) and we use specialist support to aid our inclusive practice and inform us on how we can deliver the very best possible outcomes for our children.

We invest in specialist support independently of the NHS, to enrich our inclusive schools. We hope, as you do, that this becomes more widely available through the SEND reform process. We hope that all schools will have access to this support as and when they need it, without having to join the ever-growing waiting lists.

Why have a diagnosis at all then?

Questions often asked by adults include:

 “Will a diagnosis or a label hold them back?”

 “Will our children be pigeon-holed under a broad banner?”

The answer to these questions within our Trust schools is a “NO”.

We celebrate our individual children and  seek to support their individual barriers and celebrate their strengths and successes. Be that: accessing the school toilet without crippling anxiety; being able to do up the buttons on their shirts; walking into school and knowing that they are going to achieve every day and of course making progress in their learning.

Schools all around the country have been working on initiatives to build inclusive and integrated environments and this focus will continue in line with the direction of the SEND Reform. We are supporting a generation to understand, and value that each member of our communities can offer something to each other. This acceptance and celebration of each individual helps to prevent the stigma of diagnosis.

A diagnosis can sometimes be the key to better understanding. It can help communities understand exhibited behaviours, can help our families recognise what our children face every day and most importantly, it can help your child to understand themselves. It can allow your child to understand their uniqueness and why something may seem more challenging to them than to their peers . The diagnosis can relieve and replace self blame with self – compassion, allowing them to make it their empowerment tool.