The role of special schools for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties: is segregation always best?

The education of young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties continues to raise challenges and controversies. In this article, Ben Simmons, an ESRC funded PhD student and research assistant, and Phil Bayliss, programme director for the masters degree in special education and disability, both based in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Exeter, describe their research into provision for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties in a special school in the south west of England. Their work, based in an interpretivist, qualitative approach, set out to illuminate issues relating to the inclusion of pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties. The findings presented here suggest that the school, in spite of its strong reputation, struggled significantly to provide appropriate learning experiences for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties. Ben Simmons and Phil Bayliss discuss the need for improved staff development opportunities focused on enhancing current levels of knowledge and skills. They conclude by calling for a reappraisal of the established view that special schools necessarily provide the best learning environment for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties.     

Teaching subjects to pupils with profound and multiple learning difficultiesConsiderations for the new Framework

Nicola Grove, who lectures in speech and language therapy and works in a school for pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties, and Nick Peacey, Director of the Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training (SENJIT) at the Institute of Education, discuss the development of a framework for teaching National Curriculum subjects to pupils with profound learning difficulties through discussion with mainstream specialists.     

Preparing for Contact Between Mainstream Pupils and their Counterparts Who Have Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities

Despite the increasing societal inclusion of young people with a disability in Ireland, there is very little evidence of any substantive improvement with regard to inclusion for young people with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities (usually referred to, in educational settings in the UK, as pupils or students with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties). As a result, these young people often remain isolated within their local communities and have minimal contact, if any, with their mainstream counterparts. One innovative schools link programme in Ireland offers structured curricular activities that include mainstream pupils and their peers who have severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities. A video programme was used in the pre-contact phase of the programme and this paper explores the effectiveness of the video programme in preparing the mainstream pupils to meet their counterparts who have severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities. Michael Shevlin, who teaches in the Education Department of Trinity College Dublin and has research interests in inclusion, argues that it was evident that the mainstream pupils reacted positively to the video programme and found it useful in overcoming their anxieties at the prospect of contact. He discusses the implications of these findings in relation to the further development of structured contact sessions in integrated classrooms and to the wider issue of societal inclusion for young people with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities.     

Music: a Shared Experience

Links between ordinary and special schools are threatened by funding arrangements under local management of schools. Rosemary Dunn, head of music at Dover Grammar School for Girls, Kent, and a member of the British Society for Music Therapy, shows how the sixth form timetable has enabled her to forge and maintain such a link with a local unit for pupils with severe learning difficulties.     

Planning for Their Future

Robert Ashdown (Headteacher of St. Luke's School, a special school for pupils with severe learning difficulties in Scunthorpe, Humberside) argues that although the years since the Education Reform Act have been marked by intensive curriculum development in special schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties, external pressures may have forced schools to focus on the National Curriculum at the expense of the whole curriculum. This risk remains with the new, slimmer National Curriculum. This article reports on what has been achieved and what remains to be done, particularly as regards the personal and social development of pupils.     

'We're Doing History'— What Does It Mean?

Is it credible to claim 'We're doing history' in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties or is it merely playing with words? Dr Jean Ware and Nick Peacey believe the claim can be justified through the use of the programmes of study for history in the National Curriculum. Dr Ware is now at the School of Education, University of Wales, Cardiff, and Nick Peacey is at the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University.     

Reflections upon teacher education in severe difficulties in the USA: shared concerns about quantity and quality

In this article, Phyllis Jones of the Department of Special Education at the University of South Florida and Elizabeth West from the University of Washington explore key issues in respect to teacher education for teachers who teach pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties in the USA. Issues relating to quantity and quality of teachers are discussed in the context of policy and practice in the USA. Reflections related to teacher education delivery in the USA, in terms of case-based learning and distance education, for example, and the content of teacher education courses, for example, in terms of helping teachers to understand the needs of pupils with learning difficulties and the promotion of evidence-based practices, are discussed. Phyllis Jones and Elizabeth West suggest that their reflections can contribute to continuing discussions about teacher education in the UK for teachers who work with pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties.     

A Jigsaw Approach to Group Work

Using group work as a way of meeting children's individual learning needs is becoming more widespread in a variety of schools. Richard Rose, head of Wren Spinney School, Kettering, Northamptonshire LEA, and a member of the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD) at Cambridge Institute of Education, describes a strategy for promoting group work in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties.     

Meaning-led learning for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties

This paper proposes that learning and teaching for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties could be enhanced by a closer focus on emotional factors and on the careful identification of what is meaningful for them. Phil Goss, senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Central Lancashire draws on understandings about emotional development gleaned from child psychiatry and psychotherapy to inform our awareness of the deep-seated factors that may influence the complex needs of these pupils. He describes a research study in which he analysed findings from interviews with parents and carers about their perceptions of what is meaningful for their children. These outcomes are elaborated using findings from a pilot study on one pupil in which perceptions about what is meaningful for him were used to inform the ongoing planning of his learning. Phil Goss then uses the implications of this study to argue for fuller and more systematic involvement by parents and carers in planning for pupils with severe, and profound and multiple learning difficulties. Finally he suggests ways in which access to learning could be rendered more fruitful by adopting a meaning-led approach.     

Topics: From Muths to Objectives

The topic method and the objectives approach to learning have each come in for increasing criticism. Will a synthesis of the two work better for pupils with learning difficulties in the new context of the National Curriculum? Richard Byers, a teacher seconded from Riverwalk School, Suffolk Education Authority, to the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), Cambridge Institute of Education, describes the experimental introduction of 'integrated schemes of work' in special schools.     

高师音乐教育专业课程结构与教学模式探析

《全日制义务教育音乐课程标准》为我们展示了中小学音乐教育一系列崭新的价值观念和教育理念。高师音乐教育专业是培养未来中小学音乐教师的工作母机,教育理念、课程结构、课程教学模式等与中小学音乐教育改革的成败休戚相关。在中小学音乐教育正在发生重大变革的关键时刻,高师音乐教育专业应以中小学音乐教育为立足点,以《标准》为依据,在教育理念、课程结构、课程教学模式等方面进行调整,以适应新时期中小学音乐教育的需要。     

Supporting the Mainstream Teacher

What support is most helpful for those who teach pupils with special needs in ordinary schools? Louise Clunies-Ross, deputy education officer, RNIB, describes a recent study undertaken with former colleagues at the NFER     

Who goes to SLD schools? Aspects of policy and provision for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties who attend special schools in England

This article focuses on aspects of policy and provision for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) who attend special schools in England. The findings reported below are from a larger study, which aimed to answer the question: ‘Who Goes to SLD Schools in England?’     

Special educational needs and disability

Issues relating to the categorisation and labelling of pupils, and, the use of the terms 'special educational needs' and 'disability' in particular, have been the topic of debate in BJSE before. In this article, Sue Keil, a research officer at the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), Olga Miller, of the Institute of Education, University of London, and Rory Cobb, a development officer at the RNIB, summarise some of the key findings from a review carried out on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC). The authors highlight confusion over the use of terms that represent differing ideological perspectives. Despite the social focus that characterises much of the discourse about disability, disability is frequently regarded as an aspect of special educational needs, an area in which a medical model is often dominant. These confusions benefit neither children with disabilities nor those with less clearly-defined difficulties. Sue Keil, Olga Miller and Rory Cobb note with interest recent developments in Scotland where a new framework based on the concept of 'additional support needs' separates disability from educational need and is intended to represent a more inclusive approach to children's learning.     

Collaboration and integration of services in Greek special schools: two different models of delivering school services

Multidisciplinary collaboration is considered to be very important for the education of pupils with special educational needs and particularly those pupils with the most severe disabilities. This research adopts a multiple case‐study design in order to understand collaboration and the integration of services and the effectiveness of these among pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) in Greece. The teams, choosing case studies in five special schools, considered 10 pupils and their parents. Reviews and analyses of the legislation; the use of diaries; participant observations and semi‐structured interviews were used for the collection of data. Two different models of service integration which provide different opportunities to the inclusion of pupils with PMLD were revealed since schools have different methods of integrating health and social professionals. In the first model, the school works with outside services, whereas in the second, services are within the school. In addition, roles and responsibilities differ within the different models. Service integration and collaboration were found to be more effective in schools where teachers and health and social professionals work under the same management. The study suggests the expansion of the second model of multidisciplinary collaboration with the integration in schools of health therapists, educational psychologists and social workers.     

What Provision for Pupils with Challenging Behaviour?A report of a survey of provision and curriculum provided for pupils with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour

Jill Porter and Penny Lacey, lecturers in special education in the School of Education, University of Birmingham, describe a survey of the provision made by schools for pupils with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour, which focused on in-class support; curriculum access; and additional facilities and resources for such pupils.     

‘I Was Little Then’

Should pupils with severe learning difficulties be introduced to history in the National Curriculum? Views are divided. David Banes, teacher, Rainbow School, Bedford Education Authority, and a member of the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), and Judy Sebba, coordinator, National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), Cambridge Institute of Education, are exploring access to history. They describe how the use of personal video material can help some pupils to become more aware of ‘the past’, an essential component of learnin g history.     

缪天瑞与《音乐教育》

20世纪30年代,由著名音乐教育家、音乐学家、律学家和翻译家缪天瑞先生主编的《音乐教育》杂志是我国最早的一个音乐教育刊物,这是一本集普及性与提高性、综合性与针对性、基础性与学术性、理论性与实践性紧密结合的优秀的音乐刊物。《音乐教育》杂志具有自己独特的栏目和内容,其对普通音乐教育有很大的贡献,在中国音乐教育发展史上具有开拓性意义。主编缪天瑞对该杂志作出了突出的贡献。     

Creating Opportunities for Contact between Mainstream Pupils and their Counterparts with Learning Difficulties

Michael Shevlin, Lecturer in Education, and Astrid Mona O'Moore, Senior Lecturer in Child and Educational Psychology and Co-ordinator of the Anti-Bullying Centre, both at Trinity College, Dublin, describe a programme linking mainstream pupils and their counterparts with severe and profound learning difficulties, consider the reactions of the pupils, and assess the social and educational benefits for all involved.     

Managing with SIMS

Information management systems will become increasingly used by schools as pupil assessments and local management of schools develop. David Quaife, head of Delamere School for pupils with severe learning difficulties, Trafford Education Authority, has been using such a system for the past year.