We've preselected "All levels" for you, but you can change your study level at any time by choosing one of the options on
this menu. Changing your study level will return you to the beginning of the module.
Teachers should aim to give every pupil the opportunity to experience success in learning and to achieve
as high a standard as possible.
National Curriculum
The National Curriculum inclusion statement (DfEE/QCA 1999) is not just a moral imperative. It is a statutory obligation on educators to enable
all children in their charge to fulfil their potential. Communication is fundamental to this.
Communication and inclusion
Communication is the medium of learning. Children will be disempowered, and educators will not be compliant, if they do
not provide programmes to support communication development in children with SLD/PMLD/CLDD,
for whom the essential rudiments are not in place.
Ensure all staff in your school have read the QCA documents Developing Skills: Planning, teaching and assessing the
curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties (2001) and English: Planning, teaching and assessing the curriculum
for pupils with learning difficulties (2001), from which the following are adapted.
Overcoming potential barriers to learning
and assessment for individuals and
groups of children
Implementing the inclusion principles (1)
Communication is central to enabling all children to learn within an ethos where they know they are valued, and feel secure
and accepted. Inclusion does not just refer to the location where children
are taught.
The National Curriculum's three principles are applicable to all classrooms everywhere and need to be used together to
make sure that teaching
is inclusive.
Inclusion is not just an issue for children with SEN in mainstream education.
In a special school, the issue will be how children with PMLD
or CLDD are included within the main cohort.
Implementing the inclusion principles
(2)
The three inclusion principles are the starting point for a checklist for teachers for supporting children's curricular
entitlement through learning experiences that are relevant and meaningful – at times it will be necessary to offer a
highly personalised and specialised learning context for the child with SLD/PMLD/CLDD.
It is important that teaching styles take account of communication strategies for the child, both in order for them to
understand, and to be enabled to express their knowledge and skills.
Do you emphasise communication?
Does your school environment show a high emphasis on communication across the curriculum?
Are all schemes of work and planning tools incorporating aspects of communication/literacy?
Is there consistency with regard to communication for individuals across the curriculum?
Does all teaching consistently reinforce and extend pupils' knowledge and understanding by putting the development of communication
skills at the heart of the learning process?
Is the range of teaching and learning strategies used across the school sufficient, relevant and interactive enough to
ensure pupils are engaged and enjoy their learning?
A poetry lesson (1)
Watch this clip, in which a deputy head and a teacher talk about the importance of a rich communicative environment.
Note the centrality of communication and strategies used. The teacher has endeavoured to find the foundations for literacy:
an interactive approach, using multi-sensory learning styles; the importance of the social context; and the importance of
recapturing early interactive formats (basic patterning and joint attention).
A poetry lesson (2)
How is the lesson featured in the video compliant with the requirements of the National Curriculum inclusion mandate?
What personalised communication objectives do you think are also being addressed?
Can you explain the choice of teaching and learning strategies?
Do your school policies and practices promote literacy across the curriculum?
Find out more
DES (2003) Excellence and Enjoyment: a strategy for primary schools. London: DfES.
Problems viewing video whilst online may be the result of controls on the network you are using to access the SALT materials.
Should problems viewing video persist, it is recommended that users download the video using the link provided.
Problems viewing video whilst offline?
If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer, you may find that some video resources will not play in your browser when you’re
working offline. We’ve supplied a link with each video to open it in your default media player if this happens.
The mp4 videos on this site are not compatible with older versions of Windows Media Player. If you want to watch the videos
offline, please download an alternative such as QuickTime or RealPlayer, and set this as your default media player. You will also need to do this if you want to download videos from the materials’
‘Further reading’ area.
Alternatively, you may choose to work through the materials in Chrome or Safari.
Please go to your browser settings and turn on JavaScript to make full use of this site.
