Matthew Syed’s Black Box Thinking provides an interesting holiday read for leaders, educational or otherwise.1 Its argument, in summary, is that high performing organisations are culturally responsive, constantly review their existing practice, and actively seek positive change based on learning about themselves and from others.
It’s a message which resonates powerfully with the development of special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision at Park House school since 2013—a journey influenced by the school’s partnership with education improvement charity, Achievement for All, and leading to three inter-linking dimensions of change in relation to school culture, structure and practice.
Where did we begin?
In 2013, with the impending introduction of the new Code of Practice and major changes on the horizon, the school’s leadership identified the review and development of SEND provision as a key priority for whole school improvement. The central focus: every teacher is a teacher of SEND.
A critical analysis of the ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’ of the new Code of Practice was completed in the early stages of this review, ensuring that child-centred approaches, the graduated approach (assess-plan-do-review cycle), and pupil-centred planning were at the heart of the development work undertaken by the school. A need to understand recent research into deploying support staff more effectively was also critical. Blunt and uncritical reliance on generically deployed assistants was, in some cases, preventing teachers from recognising their responsibility for students with SEND. As the Education Endowment Foundation have reported, ‘Students in a class with a teaching assistant present do not, on average, outperform those in one where only a teacher is present’.2
Dissonant research data of this sort, challenging accepted and entrenched practice, only served to emphasise that change was an imperative at all levels—within the senior leadership team, among teaching staff and with the support assistants.
The headteacher was inevitably at the heart of this process regarding the development of SEND provision, both in terms of the communication of a powerful and compelling vision for change and also more practically. The process would inevitably involve staffing and contractual issues, and decisions could not be made without understanding and approval at this strategic level.