| Summary: | In this film, experienced teaching assistant Carol Cato has worked closely with a year 5 teacher to bring the lesson Diamond Ranking into the classroom. This is a lesson she learned while doing a Foundation Degree. It tests children's thinking and learning skills by having them discuss and prioritize a series of statements. In this exercise Carol works closely with children who need extra support by scaffolding the task and giving them individual attention. It's useful in extending all children's thinking, but especially helps those who have greater difficulty. By doing the degree and learning about the theories behind her practice, this has given Carol greater confidence to support teachers in working with children who have special needs. With her broader knowledge of educational theory on Inclusion, Carol has now become a key resource in the school for other teachers when it comes to children with specific difficulties such as autism.
Through the University of Hertfordshire Mo Serby, an NQT, went to a special school for children with moderate learning difficulties during her 2nd training year. Now she has brought many of these theories into her mainstream classroom at Sarratt Primary School. Mo demonstrates how Inclusion, for her, means allowing all children to do everything instead of separating them off into different lessons. She has thought carefully about including all children. She uses a picture timetable up on her board so all children can see what is happening during the day. She uses lollipop sticks pulled out of a tub to choose children for tasks. This ensures fairness, a concept those with mild autism can understand. She differentiates resources to address all levels of ability. She uses her Teaching Assistant to support her in working with different resources so that the lower and higher level children are all catered for. In this art lesson she demonstrates how this works.
Sarah Jeffery teaches at Icknield Primary School, one of the largest providers for deaf children in a mainstream school in the country. Having taken a Certificate of Education for teaching the deaf at the University of Hertfordshire, she has particular interest in her field. Profoundly deaf herself, she works with a small number of children on numeracy and literacy skills for a few hours a day. She has an advantage in working with deaf children because she can strongly empathize with the difficulties they face. In this film she talks about the need to communicate with them, to give them confidence and belief in themselves and her wish to provide a positive role model for them. Sarah talks about the added importance of having all children in mainstream classrooms relate to those with learning difficulties and disability. She considers the value for parents in working with a teacher like herself who has themselves overcome difficulties to achieve what she has achieved.
|
|---|
