Governance Today Summer 2021

We need to reframe what SEN actually implies about success versus limitation “ SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS - A NEW WAY OF THINKING? "I recently published a review of ‘the state of SEN in England’ where I laid out how many of the big ticket issues were getting worse over time, not better (see also: the 2019 Education Select Committee report into Special Education Needs and Disabilities [SEND]). In short, SEN is in crisis: funding wise, management, coping, skill levels; the list is unfortunately achingly long. In this article, I would like to suggest an idea that could radically shift the way we ‘do’ SEN and hopefully budge us out of the quagmire in which we find ourselves. I hope it provides you with a totally fresh way of looking at SEN and how to go about it in your schools and something that all your teachers really need to understand but unfortunately currently not all do. An educational placebo It took me three times to pass my GCSE maths exam. I had undiagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and I had become used to thinking of myself as incapable. Despite not passing any A levels or getting a degree, I managed to wangle my way on to a Master’s in education psychology (EdPsych) and subsequently managed to undertake post-graduates in education and psychology and even a PhD. Something weird happened when I did the compulsory module of statistical research and analysis during the EdPsych MA - I did fairly well. I asked the lecturer, a former maths teacher, what level he considered the maths to be and he said “approximately first-year degree level, definitely harder than A level”. So how do you square these two facts? Well, there are probably a range of factors, not least the type and context of the maths. But the one key difference which resonates with me is this; at school I had shockingly low self-esteem and since then I had built up a strong sense of self-belief. The very fact that I thought I could do it significantly contributed to me achieving it. A sort of educational placebo. Daniel Sobel is an internationally respected leader in inclusive education and has advised the DfE, the EU and governments abroad. Daniel is a well-known speaker, writes regularly for publications including Headteacher Update and The Guardian, and is the author of several books including Narrowing the Attainment Gap. Daniel left school with no A Levels and read his first book aged 18. Gradually he fell in love with study and managed to secure a place on a Master’s course in Education Psychology. He went on to take four graduate courses in Psychology and Education. Daniel moved to full time teaching and quickly became a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO). Dismayed by how much of the job was pointless meetings and paperwork, he started designing tools to better support his students. During a stint as Assistant Head he continued to develop simple systems to help teachers manage information and maximise the impact of their interventions. Daniel has written the article below to give Devon governors and trustees an opportunity to think differently about special educational needs (SEN) in their setting. I have encountered many such stories demonstrating this phenomenon and it is self-evident for many people I speak with, despite the fact that there is not much research evidence to back it up. In fact, I would guess that 99.9 per cent of people who work in SEN and a majority of teachers would recognise self-esteem as a reasonable and important factor. So, what if we swung the whole SEN system in the direction of ‘self-esteem boosting’? Would it influence outcomes? Would it change anything in the SEN quagmire? Reframing SEN SEN causes low self-esteem (bear with me) and therefore if we boost self-esteem then this will lead to better outcomes for children with SEN. Here is a way of boosting outcomes. We need to reframe what SEN actually implies about success versus limitation. At the moment, SEN is a medicalised diagnosis that essentially carries a psychological message of ‘you are limited’. I wouldn’t argue with medical colleagues. I want to simply add to this formula and suggest that it also means you may have advantages over your neuro-and-cognitive- typical friends. For example: 10 Governance Today Move towards ditching labels altogether in your school. Simply say: we don’t label (we leave that to the medics and psychologists), we only deal with individual children. “