Resourced provision

The Programme aims to establish a technologic component in each child s curriculum throughout compulsory schooling from ages S to 16. This will be undertaken by the introduction of a phased programme (over 7 years) of curriculum development, staff training and resource provision for all schools, all pup and many teachers. 

The headteacher says that the variable quality of the information about individual students arriving from feeder primary schools means that the school is often ill prepared for meeting the needs of some students. Although students with statements of special educational needs and those who are recipients of the resourced provision have clearly identified needs, some parents are recommended... 

In addition to the resourced provision rooms, there are specially equipped facilities for the small number of students who receive physiotherapy and speech therapy, but it is felt by the SENCO and other staff that there is insufficient support for children with therapy needs. In addition, the school has to cope with a lack of dedicated space that would be required for the development of a wider range of provision for example, there is a shortage of small teaching rooms, inadequate resources for the visually impaired and insufficient storage space for speciahst equipment. 

In addition to the resourced provision base, students identified as having special needs in KS3 are in a separate base for most of the time but all spend about a fifth of the week in mainstream classes. KS4 students are supported in mainstream classes and go out of lessons for specialist support. 

Currently, inclusion is conceptualised in terms of access to an appropriate curriculum and the sharing of resources and facilities, as opposed to all students being in mainstream classes all the time. The head of resourced provision pointed out tiiat ... 

Students who are part of the resourced provision do not have access to all areas of school life and, indeed, may not need it in some cases. Difficulties include some of the external constraints for example, although having registration together in the morning would be a good inclusive start to the day, problems with transport make this impossible because students do not arrive until registration is finished. 

The extent to which all students are involved in broader aspects of school life varies, and there are different views among staff. According to the assistant SENCO Most pupils have full access to school fife and staff are very supportive and try to include pupils in after school activities, except the children who are bussed in . However, others think that the extent to which those students identified as having profound and multiple learning difficulties mix with other students is variable. Many staff commented that it could be better and that many opportunities are missed. It was pointed out that sports day for students in resourced provision was a separate event and as such was a missed opportunity for sharing an important learning and social occasion. Such aspects of school life are seen as areas for development. 

Nevertheless students from resourced provision tend to stick together because support workers are constantly with them at lunchtime and natural opportunities for social contact are not necessarily easy. The attitudes of other students have not always been good. As a teacher in the resourced provision stated, A kid knocked on door and said, Is this the disabled class 1 made him come into the lesson and do work and asked him what he learned, and he wanted to come back . 

The school is trying to blm the boundaries between resourced provision, students with statements and the mainstream, but feel that the local authority has not yet caught up with the school and the delegated budget process is not yet sufficiently responsive. 

The head pointed out that many children in the school have chronic health problems that have an impact on their education. To help overcome these problems, better hnks between health and education agencies were required. In turn such contacts would help parents to negotiate their way through the complex process of getting support for their children. The school has been working hard to improve communication with many parents and it is now felt to be satisfactory. In particular, staff from the resourced provision have good personal contact with parents. It is less so with those who work with other students who have been identified as having special educational needs. The SENCO feels more needs to be done and contact with families could be developed further. 

Our observations across all four schools also indicated that relationships amongst staff were generally based on values of mutual support and respect. Staff in the two primary schools, whatever their position in the schools hierarchies, worked closely and productively with colleagues. This sense of joint commitment was somewhat weakened in the secondary schools, probably because the sheer size of these organisations encouraged staff to form smaller groups within each school, usually around subject departments. However, the divisions between some mainstream and some resourced provision staff ( schools within schools ) seemed less productive in terms of supporting either the inclusion or the achievements of some of the most vulnerable students. 

Contemporary arrangements for integration in the UK include (and are probably still dominated by) the movement of individuals or re-placement However, there is now an increased awareness of the need for major structural change in orderto free up the resources to enable real inclusion. The result has been the introduction of a range of innovative and essentially experimental schemes wherein the skills and resources of the once-existing special school are delivered in the mainstream. Here, money follows children and there is no dilution of resource provision as children move from special school to mainstream school. The research reported in this book examines one of these projects. 

---