Ron Berger: An Interview
Ron Berger is internationally recognised for his educational wisdom and insight. He was a public school teacher and master carpenter in his early career and those craft values now inform his educational leadership. He is Chief Academic Officer for Expeditionary Learning, which embraces over 300 schools across the United States, and he also teaches at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
This is the second instalment of our interview with Ron. He is a wonderful storyteller as well as a wise educator — might those things just be linked? Anyway, it is so rich that we are feeding it in small servings! Towards the end, he talks about a lovely project done by ten-year-olds. In the Resources for Teachers section, we have included a teaching guide to that project. Â
Critique and multiple drafts
Rowan Eggar, Assistant Head: Curriculum & Assessment at Gesher
How can we best support kids to make critiquing and drafting a dynamic process, as opposed to them being basically annoyed because we are having to review again? So thatâs my question: What ways are there to design drafting and critiquing so that you can get the best possible outcome for the students?
Ron Berger
Great question. I think the way Iâm most known in the world is the Austinâs Butterfly video. And so people understand I am obsessed with kids polishing their work and doing multiple drafts, but itâs not easy, as you say. So, I can give a few reflections on that.
The first, I would say, is that itâs only useful to keep doing drafts if the work keeps improving, if kids can see improvement happening. After that, there is no need to make them do six drafts. Thereâs not a magic thing that says Austin did six drafts, so therefore everyone should do six drafts. Austinâs work actually kept getting better, and thatâs why it made sense for him to keep pursuing that drafting process in the video. One of the things that we can see in the Austinâs Butterfly video is that Austin had a reason to do six drafts, which was, importantly, that there was an audience for that work that he really cared about.
The butterfly Austin drew went on a card. It was sold across the entire state of Idaho. Wow. And all that money was used for butterfly habitats. And so his drawing was supposed to be so good that people would be able to use it to identify the actual butterfly, which is a reason why his first draft wasnât that useful because you couldnât actually identify the butterfly from that draft. Some art teachers have critiqued me for making him do something thatâs very mechanical but thatâs because this isnât an expressive art project. Itâs a scientific illustration. And so there was a reason for him to care about getting it right. And the kids in the video also had that photograph that they were looking at. So they knew what it should look like and felt empowered to say, âI can see whatâs different about your drawing from that photograph.â
Thereâs a couple of things to take away from that. One is just the motivational thing. When kids have a purpose for their work thatâs beyond their classroom, a real social purpose, a purpose they care about, then theyâre way more motivated to do more drafts. Is there a way that what theyâre creating can be used for something that matters a lot to them and where they really want it to be good?
For example, I went into a first-grade classroom where kids were working on letters, writing letters, and they were Y2, second years in the US. And they were still working on some of the basics of capitalisation and punctuation and ending sentences and writing legibly. They were young kids, they were six and seven years old, but they had visited the local fire station where they had met firefighters. And so instead of doing practice, they were actually writing a personal letter of appreciation to each firefighter and each student was assigned a firefighter.
A second thing is, do they have a model of what good looks like? If they have, then they can give critique.
So, if I were assigned Loni to write to, I would think, oh my goodness, Iâd better get this letter to be perfect because Iâm writing to this woman, whoâs a firefighter, whoâs protecting us, and sheâs going to put it up on her locker and look at it every day. I want it to be perfect. I want my lettering to be perfect. I want my punctuation to be perfect. I want my spelling to be perfect. And so there was not a lot of pressure to say to kids, âYou have to do another draft.â It was like, âI need to keep making it better.â
A second thing is, do they have a model of what good looks like? If they have, then they can give critique.
So if Iâm working on my thank you letter for Loni as a firefighter, and Ali is a peer of mine and she has a model of a thank you letter that weâve all looked at together, a really good one, she can say, âYou know, Ron, yours doesnât have this actually. And notice how this one has it.â And so itâs easier for her to give critique. And itâs easier for me to think, âoh yeah, youâre right, I didnât do this. I didnât do thatâ. And I know that we are often, as a culture, afraid to give kids models because we think, oh, what if they copy? But I have an entirely different attitude towards that, which is that copying is how we learn. So if we, as adults, want to learn to do something new like play guitar or speak Danish or do yoga, what do we do?
We go to a class or we go online and we watch somebody do it, and we try to copy them. And then we get critiques about what weâre not doing. Right? And then we try to copy them again. And we keep trying to copy them. We donât start by improvising, right? We start by watching how they do a yoga pose, listening to how they pronounce something, watching how they do a chord on the guitar. And then we copy it. And then we critique ourselves and we get critique from others.
Modelling is how all of us as adults learn. We should not be afraid to show kids models of what a good letter is, what a good maths solution is, what a good anything is and to agree together why it is good. And then that empowers the kids to critique each other.
So I think it makes sense that kids get frustrated because they feel like âI just wanna be done. And youâre just delaying.â The dynamic is totally different when you feel that this is what weâre aiming for. Itâs about giving kids more power over it, by it not being us, the ones telling them itâs not ready, but them being able to see themselves.
Rowan
Amazing. Thank you. Thatâs really helpful!
How do we know our children well enough to understand what is relevant or right for them?
Ron
Teaching is about relationships. If you want to draw the best out of each kid in your school, in your class, in your group, itâs really about knowing that kid. Itâs knowing what theyâre proud of, knowing what theyâre worried about, knowing what motivates them, knowing where their heart is. And if you want to draw them out, you have to know when itâs okay to tease them and what you can tease them about as a way of showing that you love them.
Itâs all about relationships, but that doesnât mean that we have to individualise what every kid works on. I think thatâs a mistake we make, thinking that knowing kids well and loving them and caring about them means that I have to have a totally different task for Rowan, for Loni, for Ali and for Charlotte because oneâs interested in dogs and oneâs interested in cats etc., so they canât do the same task as itâs not their passion. I donât believe that. I believe sometimes kids should be able to write about their passion, read about their passion, do projects about their passion. But I think thereâs a side of all of us that wants to do some good for the world.
So, itâs not just a question of passion. Itâs a question of if youâre a human, you also want to do something appreciative for others.
Iâll share another story, a project from year fives (10 or 11-year-olds) in Moscow, Idaho, another rural community in the United States. All the kids were brought to an animal shelter and each kid was paired with an animal. Now, this is not an animal that theyâre going to be allowed to take home. Their parents are not going to say: âYou can take this stray dog home or this stray cat. But the kids learned the story behind each animal. What do we know about this dog? What do we know about this cat, her past, what she likes, what sheâs afraid of — what do you know?
So they learned the story of their animal. They took a picture of their animal and then they went back and they did a portrait, an artistic portrait of their animal based on the photograph they had. And they did many drafts because there was a real purpose for this. The purpose was that they wanted their animal to be adopted. Oh, wow. Then they wrote a poem about the story of that animal, what they had learned about that animalâs past. Then they took the artistic portrait they had drawn and they took the poem that they had written about the animal, both of which had gone through drafts and they made a poster of it and they laminated those posters and they put them up all over town.
Now, if youâre in the laundromat, and if you are in the motor vehicle registry where you get a driverâs licence, or youâre in the doctorâs waiting room, there are posters of all these animals with poems and portraits. And once those went up all over town, guess what, people started adopting those animals. Because how much can you look at these beautiful animals on these posters without thinkingâ Iâve got to adopt that one right thereâ.
So there was a tremendous reason for kids to care about multiple drafts of their poems and multiple drafts of their drawings and to get critique from each other and from the teacher and from experts. But we didnât have to think, oh, thatâs not a kid who likes dogs, or thatâs not a kid who likes cats, therefore we wonât bring her on this trip. We just assumed, correctly, that every kid would understand the human quality of âwe can save these animalsâ lives — if weâre really good at this.â
… my students would be so motivated by that project.
Rowan
Yes. Purpose and agency. Iâm just thinking already, my students would be so motivated by that project. That sounds like a dream project. Absolutely amazing. Love it.
Ali Durban, Gesher Co-Founder
It also emphasises the connectedness to the real world which, especially for our students, makes learning much more tangible — rather than knowledge that floats around that doesnât actually mean anything.
Editor’s Note
A Project Card to support this project has been included here in the Resources for Schools section.
Why is School a Tough Place for Neurodiverse Children?
Ali Durban
A Short Reflection on Bravery
If all schools were judged by the provision they make for their most vulnerable learners (which feels not to be an unreasonable measure) it could be that there would be more âinadequateâ judgements than there are currently. For some learners attendance at school requires reserves of courage.
Bravery is not a word that we would want to define any child or young personâs daily experience of school. After all, school is meant to be a place of safety, fulfilment, and positive relationships, yet for thousands of differently abled children and young people, navigating their normal school day is challenging, complex, damaging even, and bravery is a daily necessity of survival. In his recent book âThe Inclusion Illusionâ, Dr Rob Webster highlights the everyday experience of students with SEND in mainstream school as being characterised by separation and segregation.
School is meant to be a place of safety, fulfilment, and positive relationships, yet for thousands of differently abled children and young people, navigating their normal school day is challenging, complex, damaging even.
âThere are structures and processes ingrained within these settings that serve to exclude and marginalise them (children and young people). The arrangements that led to this might be defendable if they were necessary for creating an effective pedagogical experience. Yet the evidence⌠suggests that, if anything, they result in a less effective pedagogical experience.â
The Policy Context
Over 1.4 million children in Britain are reported to have some sort of special educational need and we all know that the unassessed number is probably much larger. Three-quarters of these (about 1.1 million) are on SEND support and 365,000 have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The current SEND Green Paper talks about âa clear vision for a more inclusive systemâ but gives no real sense of how it will be achieved. To put this inclusive thinking into context, following a consultation on behaviour management policies and exclusion, the Department for Education appointed a âbehaviour tsarâ to create âbehaviour hubsâ. Guidance also referred to the use of âremoval roomsâ in schools as a punishment and to the use of managed moves as an early intervention measure for pupils at risk of exclusion. To be clear, the children and young people most impacted by these measures are the most vulnerable in society. Mostly they are those with SEND.
The Government (and constant merry-go-round of Education Ministers) continues to wrestle with inclusion and SEND system reform, with no clear approach to system transformation in sight. For this article, we set aside the complexities of system change and instead take a grassroots-level deep dive into exactly why life in mainstream education is so tough for differently abled students.
Introduction
Gesherâs Ashleigh Wolinsky, Speech and Language Therapist, and Ingrid Mitchell, Educational Psychologist, have extensive experience working with SEND learners. We asked them to share some insights drawn from that professional experience. It will not be a shock to readers to learn that SEND identification, poor resources, and assessment and diagnosis delays are some of the consistent features.
However, with that as background we have extracted from the interviews three further clusters of issues:
- Those that are endemic to âschoolâ — the way secondary school in particular works.
- Issues that are unique to the learner — the needs of a âdifferently ableâ youngster.
- What we have called âwisdomsâ — some practical suggestions that may be of help.
End Note: This article is not a criticism of mainstream schools, nor of secondary schools in particular. Nor is it a eulogy for special school provision. Letâs be clear: we believe that both mainstream schools and special schools can do a great job for neurodiverse SEND youngsters — hence the insights and advice.
What we are also clear about, though, is that hundreds of young people across the country have a potentially damaging and unhappy experience of school and that there is knowledge about how things could be better. This piece is a small contribution to that, drawn from those with expertise.
Professional Prompt Questions
What most challenges your schoolâs SEND practices in this article?
Are there things in the âpractical wisdomsâ section that your school might like to adopt?
Might it be of value to your school to create a Learnersâ Lens of insights from your neurodiverse children?
How can a Life Skills Curriculum Support Children to Access Learning?
Danielle Petar
âMore than just practising daily tasksâŚâ Gesherâs new life skills scheme
The idea of teaching life skills in schools as part of a young personâs education has been formalised since the late 1990s when the World Health Organisation (WHO) introduced its ten core life skills principles. They defined life skills as âa group of psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, empathise with others, and cope with and manage their lives in a healthy and productive mannerâ. Before that, it was a core mission of the scouting movement (since the 1920s) and the Duke of Edinburghâs Award (founded in 1956). We have long known that life skills are an essential thing to have. For specialist schools like Gesher, they are crucial to school success, future life chances and emotional well-being.
Despite this, what the student experience of life skills learning means for day-to-day teaching can be difficult to picture. Is it discrete individual lessons about part of the WHOâs definition? Is it traditional lessons like maths, literacy, and science which implicitly teach these skills? Is it practising skills that young people will need for daily life in their classrooms and beyond? Is it something which teachers teach, or should this learning be happening at home?
What the student experience of life skills learning really means for day-to-day teaching can be difficult to picture.
These are some of the problems that Gesherâs Inclusion Team, (Danielle Petar and Matt Summers), grappled with when they first set out to develop Gesherâs own life skills scheme at the start of 2020 — and they are sharing their experience in the hope that it will be of value to others. Two years on, this scheme, called Bridges: Foundation, has been launched to Gesherâs students and will shortly also be introduced to parents. In anticipation of this, we sat down with Danielle and Matt to find out more about the journey they went on to design the scheme as well as some of its features.
Setting Up The Scheme
âThe notion of creating something which meets all of the WHO definition of life skills was exciting but also rather daunting. In the first stage of the process, we looked at the four key areas in the Governmentâs âpathway to adulthoodâ guide. These are employment; independent living; good health; and friendships, relationships and community. However, we quickly realised that weâd need some more focus and to break these down furtherâ. After going through various combinations of themes, the team decided on eight child-friendly themes.
Within each of these themes, there are eleven badges for the students to work towards achieving. In the âMy Homeâ theme, for example, the badges range from âClearing the Tableâ to âPreparing for Social Occasionsâ. âWhile each badge is very different they are all designed to focus on developing creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, the ability to communicate and collaborate, as well as commitment to personal and social responsibility.â
The approach is driven by the studentâs motivation to learn new skills, explore their areas of interest and develop their independence, as well as encouraging them to think about their future. Therefore, they have some autonomy in choosing their badges.
âWe were also eager to ensure that the young people themselves were included in the design process and itâs safe to say their feedback was refreshingly honest⌠It ultimately had a huge impact on the way the scheme looks from a visual perspective. Given that itâs the young people themselves who will be using the scheme, this is exactly what we wanted.â
The final stakeholder group that Danielle and Matt sought views from while in that crucial design phase was parents from the Gesher community. âThe scheme was designed as an exciting journey that would foster a partnership between home and school, with students completing badges both at home and at school. As parents were going to be a vital part in implementing it, then it was equally important to get their input in the design process.â
Taking Ownership
The design of the Bridges scheme was very much focused on ensuring that students can take ownership of their learning. Within each life skill, there are four âstepsâ to achieve along their journey that reflect an increasing level of independence and in this way students can see their progress.
As you journey through the different life skills badges, there are different steps along the way that you can take; each step leading you to be more independent.
Each step has a number of success criteria provided, which are visible and accessible to students. These were created by extensive research from the Inclusion team and in consultation with a wealth of other educational professionals (Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists, Art Therapists, Teachers, Teaching Assistants and Dramatherapists).
The different steps are not age-related but rather based on a childâs own stage of development at any given time. Both the approach and the journey navigation are highly personalised.
âUnlike the way that learning is normally structured, both the approach and the journey navigation are highly personalised. The different steps are not age-related but rather based on a childâs own stage of development at any given time and based on their individual skills and needs. We did this to reflect the fact that a young personâs journey to adulthood is not linear and they will navigate their own winding path.â Put another way, both the approach and the journey navigation are highly personalised.
Beyond Practising Daily Skills and Student Ownership
Unlike more traditional life skills schemes, Gesherâs reach is broader in terms of the themes it covers and has a greater focus on softer skills like decision-making and critical thinking. âWe wanted the scheme to be aspirational, more than a means by which to practise daily tasks.â This is evident in the inclusion of themes like âMy Imaginationâ and âMy Worldâ, which encompass skills like âMaking a giftâ and âLearning about a religionâ.
This breadth means that young people donât just work on their life skills badges in the classroom but in a home context as well. âThe success criteria for each level have been designed to include language that is accessible for students as well as the adults in their lives.â To further promote this, students work on a minimum of three badges at a time. The idea is that one is chosen by their teacher to work on in the classroom and relates to their project-based learning; one is chosen alongside the adults at home; while the last is selected by the young people themselves. This badge they will work on both at home and at school. âObtaining these badges at home and at school should be both meaningful and fun and will hopefully open up new experiences for students as they navigate their own journeys to adulthood. Itâs also important to say that there is no limit on how many badges a student can be working on at any one time. The scheme is designed to give them the opportunity to explore and to be ambitious.â
Hiding in Plain Sight
The eight themes ensure that the life skills curriculum is incorporated across the school from the Early Years class to the students in Year 8. This will allow students to become familiar with the skills they need for adulthood as early as possible in their education journey. Each class has one discrete life skills session a week where they work on their chosen badges. This is led by the schoolâs âlife skills championâ and the class teacher. In addition, for students at Gesher who are less likely to graduate with traditional academic qualifications such as GCSE and may follow a more vocational route, life skills sessions are taught daily in small groups.
As well as this dedicated time, the schoolâs holistic approach to learning means that badges can be worked on during studentsâ therapy sessions or in-class sessions through project-based learning. What will be obvious is that the approach (student ownership, personalisation, real-world tasks, school and community, etc) has many features in common with the project-based learning approach to the wider curriculum.
Next Steps
Whilst the Bridges scheme is very much underway, it will evolve and the team is already planning to create further resources to support the teaching of each life skill. They are also in the process of creating the next stage of the scheme, Bridges: For Life. This will expand on the four areas of preparing for adulthood and ensure that the students build on the life skills theyâve already developed through the Foundations scheme. This article offers a window into an important aspect of our work, one of which we are proud — both the scheme itself and the process through which it was developed. If you want to know more, please contact Gesher.
Legacy
Gesher is both privileged and humbled that this scheme has been made possible by working in collaboration with the Daniels family in order to honour the extraordinary life of Sonya Daniels, their wife, mother and grandmother.
Professional Prompt Questions
We all know how important life skills are for young people. How well established is (a) your curriculum for life skills; (b) your assessment processes?
In particular, how coherent is your life skills work with SEND youngsters?
Does the idea of badges have any merit for you?
Changing Schools, Changing Lives
Sam Dexter
Authentic Voices
Reflecting on the content that appeared in the first issue of The Bridge, we noticed a pattern. There was a lot from the perspective of neurotypical adult experts, but very little from the perspective of neurodiverse young people. This worried us. How could we be creating an educational journal about educating neurodiverse young people, without including the voices of these young people? This is clearly not right.
So, in this issue, and all future issues, there will be a dedicated space reserved solely for pupil voice — featuring the first-hand views of neurodiverse young people. For this issue, we spoke to five young people about how life at Gesher is different from the experiences they had in their previous schools.
Different in the Classroom
All of the students we spoke to described how learning at Gesher was different from their previous schools. One student said, âI didnât learn anything⌠all I ever did was play around and make thingsâ. When asked what it is like now at Gesher that differs he replied by saying: âI have more support hereâ and âI like learning more⌠I like learning more so I get even smarter.â
Another student, also speaking on the theme of support, told us how in his previous school:
âI was learning, learning, learning but didnât understand one thing and there was no support for me. They just said, you have to do it yourself⌠In this school, there is a lot more support, like if you donât understand something, they explain it in a different way.â
The students told us how things were taught differently at Gesher. âI find learning better because itâs taught differently. We get to do PBL (Project-Based Learning)… which is fun and creative.â For another student, not having the pressure of traditional assessment was a huge relief. âThey [studentâs previous school] had lots of tests. And Iâm actually glad that my mum put me in this school because otherwise, I would have had to deal with lots and lots and lots of SATs exams.â
The approach to emotional regulation helps in the classroom.
A common theme related to how Gesherâs approach to emotional regulation also helps them in the classroom. âI can ask for a break and that means Iâll go outside and when Iâm ready Iâll come backâ. Another student described how, if the learning environment was too noisy, he knew to ask for ear defenders or he had the freedom simply to find them himself.
Different Outside the Classroom
Another feature shared was how school life is different outside the classroom at Gesher. Around this topic, two main themes emerged: friendship and the schoolâs therapy dogs. Relationships are a big focus at Gesher (they matter a lot for neurodiverse young people) and on the topic of friendship, students explained how Gesher provided them with the opportunity to build new relationships. âSchool can help us make new friends if we meet more people.â [That same student went on to ask if the purpose of TThe Bridge was to bring more students to Gesher, suggesting that if it was, there would be âmore friends alsoâ.]
Other students felt that Gesher had allowed them to develop new interests and passions. âI like the fact that school can help me get interested in different things, [friendâs name] has got me interested in Minecraft and stuff like that.â Another interviewee emphasised that Gesher provided the opportunity and support to build new relationships.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, all students spoke enthusiastically about the positive impact that the visits of Gesherâs therapy dogs, Puplinda and Toby, had on their well-being:
Gesher student: I like it when Puplinda comes to visit.
Interviewer: Why?
Gesher Student: She makes me feel happy and calm.
Others spoke about being excited when Puplinda came to their class and were very concerned that she hadnât visited for two weeks due to an operation (she is recovering well and will be back in Therapy Dog action before this article goes live).
The improvements mentioned are being followed up.
Always Room For Improvement
As well as hearing their views about what was different between their previous school and Gesher, we also asked what could improve their experience. The most commonly mentioned area for improvement was the playground, with students discussing how there could be more exercise equipment, more swings and slides, and some more creative activities. Another liked that the playground was a âvery big areaâ but felt that the surface material is âvery tough⌠every time I slip a bit, I end up with everything in the cut, like rocks and everything.â
This part of each interview was important because it helped to give students agency over the process — not just wanting to hear the positives, but also to learn how we can make things even better. Mindful also of not wanting simply to be a passive ear for young peopleâs views and concerns, the improvements they mentioned are being followed up by one of Gesherâs Deputy Heads.
For Practitioners: Things We Have LearnedÂ
- A useful mantra for thinking about âstudent voiceâ, especially that of neurodiverse young people, is ânothing about us without usâ. As such, reflect on something within your setting that you want to change/are already planning to change. How might you gather the views of some of your neurodiverse learners about what this change might mean for them?
- The process of gathering student perspectives and insights with neurodiverse young people can be more time-consuming because there are additional barriers compared to collecting the views of neurotypical young people. We have learned (a) to have a trusted adult ask the questions (quite often not a teacher); (b) to conduct the interview away from the classroom, and (c) to keep it short!
- The use of visuals can support students to share their views about something, especially where a verbal interview doesnât play to a young personâs strengths. In the Resources for Schools section of this issue we have included an example of the âThree Housesâ model, a simple tool to elicit the view of a young person who finds it challenging to verbally express their feelings.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all five young people who gave up some of their playtime to share their views with us, and to Gesherâs Deputy Head and Dramatherpist, Mr Chris, who was the âtrusted personâ who conducted the group interview.
Making the Most of Therapies in Your Setting
Victoria Rutter
The ever-changing political landscape has seen far-reaching implications for education and health services; spending cuts have been severe and there is currently a real disparity across the country in the amount and type of therapeutic provision available to children with SEND. It is interesting to reflect on the journey of how therapies emerged in schools, and to observe the inherent successes, but also the frustrations; frustrations largely due to ânot enoughâ rather than the quality of provision.
It is abundantly clear, from both research and anecdotal evidence, that the best possible model for effecting quality provision for each child is to do this within a team. In this case, the team would be school, parents and therapies.
Within School, Not Withdrawn
Historically children were taken out of school to attend therapy sessions in local community clinics and hospitals. This obviously disrupted childrenâs education and meant there was limited opportunity for liaison with school staff, and also that skills acquired in therapy had little chance of being generalised into everyday school life. With the advent of Statements of Special Educational Needs (Statements) — now Education, Health Care Plans (EHCPs) — the NHS began to place Therapists in both mainstream and SEND schools. Subsequently, Local Authorities (LAs), through joint funding with the NHS, began financially and operationally to support this model and Therapists began to work regularly in schools to see children — both with and without EHCPs.
Therapists as Members of Staff
Schools and parents could really see the benefit of children receiving therapies in their school environment. However, they also became increasingly frustrated by the amount of input they were being offered, with both the NHS and LAs rationing services due to a never-ending series of spending cuts. Schools began to recruit their own Therapists, giving them more control over the frequency of input, and allowing Therapists and school staff the opportunity truly to work collaboratively as part of a team around the children and young people in education.
Cut to today and this model is seen in both SEND and mainstream schools across the UK. Some settings have multi-disciplinary therapy teams on site full-time, while others have Therapists either employed directly by them or contracted via independent Therapists and practices. Therapists may visit weekly, half-termly or termly depending on the needs and budgets of individual schools.
Arrangements in one SEND School
At Gesher, therapy is not seen as an âadd-onâ, instead, it is part of the overall curriculum and is designed and delivered in tandem with the educational and social curriculum. Therapy targets are woven into all aspects of day-to-day school life, and therapies can be delivered in a variety of ever more creative ways. Staff upskill each other and are able to plan jointly and run interventions.
As in most settings, therapy staff work to a three-tiered approach: Universal (for all), Targeted (for small groups) and Specialist (for individuals). It is at the Universal level that the work can really make an impact: devising, teaching, modelling and reviewing whole-school approaches such as communication and sensory-friendly classrooms, signs and visually supported speech, Zones of Regulation, Movement breaks, facilitating lunchtime chats, playground games and Fun with Food.
Some Lessons For Any School
This model can differ from setting to setting, particularly in mainstream schools. So, what can a regular school do to maximise the impact of therapeutic support where provision can be limited in frequency?
Preparation is Key
Identify the key person who will liaise and plan with the Therapist. This is usually the Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities Coordinator (SENDco). The SENDco can then ask school staff and senior leaders to come up with a list of priorities and areas for development with regard to the particular Therapist that is working with your school; this could include:
- Identifying particular children (specialist) or groups of children (targeted) who may require assessment and/or intervention
- Identifying areas of universal need for your particular school, for example: vocabulary, listening, play, handwriting, sensory regulation, etc
- Creating optimal learning environments such as communication and sensory-friendly classrooms
- Identifying opportunities for Team Teaching to model and embed Quality First teaching strategies
- You may wish to identify a Teaching Assistant with relevant skills and/or interest to also liaise with the Therapists and who helps to coordinate and deliver the therapeutic interventions in school
- Identifying training needs for all staff
- Identifying training needs for identified staff
- Identifying pieces of work with parents.
Plan For Each Visit
The SENDco and Therapist can make a joint plan prior to the visit, by email, which ensures:
- The priorities of the school are met in a timely way
- School staff are aware that Therapists will be in school/class
- Parents are informed
- The Therapist knows in advance what assessments/resources to bring in
- Time is ring-fenced for the SENDco and Therapist to meet
- A room can be booked in which to assess children and meet with staff and/or parents.
Taking children out for one-to-one work may be necessary if outlined in a childâs EHCP. In these circumstances, a Teaching Assistant should be able to accompany the child to observe and participate in the session and effect meaningful carry-over. If you are unavailable to catch up at the end of the visit, ask the Therapist to send you a summary of who was seen, meetings that took place, interventions/training carried out, etc.
How Do I Go About Commissioning a Therapist?
It may be cost-effective to link up with other local schools to âbuy inâ Therapists and many independent Therapists and practices have a choice of bespoke packages to suit a range of needs and budgets.
For further guidelines and information on commissioning Therapies in schools, see the links below:
Therapists share the frustration and challenges of our colleagues in education regarding provision. However, as suggested above, there are ways to maximise outcomes and utilise the therapy provision a school does have.
In essence, those universal approaches will have a significant impact and are achievable and sustainable. Investing in staff training and setting up whole-school approaches benefits all students, leaving the precious remaining Therapy time directed where it is needed the most.
Building From Passions and Interests
Sam Dexter
In the first issue of The Bridge, we introduced Gesherâs Five Design Principles. These principles were developed by members of the Gesher community, friends and supporters of Gesher, and with input from members of the wider community. They are central to everything that happens at Gesher and as such, across the next five issues of The Bridge, we will look at how they are put into practice.
For this issue, we spoke to Monique Lauder, a Teaching Assistant in the Early Years/Year 1 Class about Gesherâs second design principle; personalised learning informed by young peopleâs passions and interests. Monique has spent twenty-one years working in Early Years settings and joined Gesher two years ago. In that time she has developed her own approach to personalising sensory trays and tuff trays.
The decision about what to include in the trays is driven by her deep knowledge of the young people.
Sensory Trays and Tuff Trays
Sensory trays and Tuff trays are a regular feature of many Early Years and Key Stage 1 classrooms. They promote and support language development, gross and fine motor skills and support children to develop their problem-solving skills. They are typically large plastic trays filled with materials such as shredded paper, coloured rice, pasta, different types of lentils, couscous, shaving foam, or water. They also often include small-world play items or objects linked to a topic. When we sat down to chat with Monique, her latest sensory trays were full of small white stones, tweezers, and what looked to me suspiciously like old Weetabix.
… the personalisation of learning informed by young peopleâs passions and interests.
Planning and Creating the Personalised Trays
For Monique, the decision about what to include in the trays is driven by her deep knowledge of the young people she works with. âI try to get something I know will interest them, maybe someone is really into cars, so I would put cars in that tray⌠Itâs mostly about looking at the children, seeing what they really like, asking them what they like and going from there.â
As well as knowing about the interests of the young people she works with, Monique also discussed how a young personâs individual targets feed into the personalisation of a tray. âA lot of our students have targets related to communication and interactions so I use the trays to encourage role-play⌠the students are seeing their friends or adults playing in a certain way or interacting with an object in a certain way and theyâre able to do the same.â Monique also told us how, if a student is working on a very specific target, that can be practised in the tray. For a student working on recognising numbers up to twenty, for instance, putting objects in the tray and asking students to find them, means the skill from a maths lesson can be practised throughout the day. The studentâs Project-Based Learning (PBL) topic also helps Monique to decide how to personalise a tray. A PBL topic usually runs for half a term so one of the trays will also be linked to this.
Monique also shared with us how her approach to planning and setting up the trays has developed throughout her time at Gesher. âAt first, I was doing two a week but I changed it because I felt that students needed more time to exploreâ. Now, Monique will change the trays once a week and this gives the students much more time to be curious and work out which different sensory experiences they like and donât like. âThe other thing Iâm trying to do more is implement what the students are doing in the classroom into the trays.â At this point in our chat, the young people Monique works with came charging in from the playground. After taking off their coats and putting away their bags, they headed straight for the trays filled with the white stones and Weetabix. One of them grabbed a picture of a mouth and the other immediately picked up the tweezers asking who wanted to be the first dentist to collect the teeth. Monique explained that their topic this term was healthy bodies and that specifically this week they were looking at how to keep healthy (and that I was correct, it was old Weetabix).
Moniqueâs Tips for Creating a Personalised Sensory Tray
Ideas
The vast majority of Moniqueâs ideas come from knowing the young people she works with really well, so her biggest piece of advice is to take time to build relationships with the young people. Once youâve done this you can start including personalised objects in the sensory tray and build the process up from there. Knowledge of a young personâs targets and next steps will also ensure the tray can be further personalised to their needs, as can a broad awareness of the curriculum experiences they are having.
Resources
Monique told us how most of her resources come from things she would have usually recycled, like food containers and packaging, as well as natural materials from the garden like leaves, conkers and acorns. A store of these materials can be built up relatively quickly, especially if more than one person is contributing to it. The materials could then be shared between classes and reused for different topics. Finally, she said that shops like B&M, Tiger, Poundland and Wilko are great places to get inspiration (and often bargains!)
End Note
Whilst the work that Monique does is specifically related to sensory trays, this article is also about something much bigger — the personalisation of learning informed by young peopleâs passions and interests. The principles are the same whether it is six or seven-year-olds or much older learners — build relationships; know the learner well; involve the learner; connect to the real world; and design experiences relevant to their learning ambitions.
Professional Prompt Questions
We included this article because Moniqueâs sensory trays provide a highly accessible example of personalisation in practice. What is the best example in your school?
This example is built on relationships — and knowing studentsâ SEND needs, learning challenges and passions. Who in your school has this relationship with SEND learners?
Critical Friendship Groups: Think âFireside Chatsâ
David Jackson
Gesher School serves children who learn differently — many of whom have had highly stressful school experiences previously.
To do a brilliant job for these children, we want to be the best that we can be — the best in well-being, best in assessment, in project-based learning design and facilitation, in exhibitions, best community links, best staff development, best parent engagement, skilled in the use of technology and so on. Not best or better in any comparative way — just the best that we can be to serve the young people, adults and families who are part of our school community…
We need to be the most informed and intentional learning organisation that we can be.
To do that we need to be the most informed and intentional learning organisation that we can be, and one feature of that is to reach out to people who have relevant knowledge and experience to help us with dilemmas or âproblems of practiceâ and to debate with us key elements of our ambition. One strategy for this is Critical Friendship Groups.
Critical Friendship Groups (CFGs)
Gesher started as a primary school and is now an all-through school. For the first 18 months of its existence as an all-through school, it is emphatically in learning mode. We plan to harness the goodwill and professional generosity of the schoolâs multiple partners and connections to establish a small number of CFGs around key themes that are central to the schoolâs success.
At the time of writing we have held one CFG so far, on the theme of well-being, when we asked our critical friends:
How do you empower young people to manage and own their own mental and emotional well-being through adolescence and beyond school?
Eight people from backgrounds as diverse as the Anna Freud Centre and Place2Be, and as geographically spread as Bolton to Israel, met online for two hours to engage in a facilitated conversation, the outcomes of which will be featured in Issue 3 of The Bridge. We plan to share both a think-piece distilled from that session and also a tool or framework that might be of practical value to teachers.
Critical Friendship Group Objectives
There are four objectives to CFGs, which are:
- To connect Gesher with advanced practice and thinking around issues linked to the schoolâs ambitions, and to the needs of the SEND sector.
- To build relationships with people who have experience, knowledge and insights that can help to advance Gesherâs work and the work of the sector.
- To generate usable knowledge and ideas around key âproblems of practiceâ.
- To create an informal space that allows people to engage and contribute to Gesherâs evolution.
We hope, of course, to learn a huge amount. And we plan to share the things that we learn which are of collective value through the journal.
For the moment, we offer up the idea of âfireside chatsâ with a group of people who know stuff and who care about young peopleâs learning, as one that might have value for other schools.
Three Houses Model
The Three Houses model is a tool which provides a visual way for people to express their views about a topic or experience. The tool was originally developed in 2003 in New Zealand for use in the field of child protection, but since then has been adapted for use with other groups. The version here is based on that created by Cunningham (2020) who used the tool as a way of eliciting the views of autistic children about what made their school autism-friendly.Â
How Does It Work?Â
The Three Houses model is a very flexible tool, which can be adapted to suit the needs or preferences of the young people you work with. Below are two options for how the tool could be used.
Option 1: The adult and young person draw three houses together. Once the houses are drawn the adult explains the name of each house: house of good things; house of less good things; house of dreams. The adult then asks the young person some questions and the young personâs responses are recorded in each house. For example, the adult could ask questions about what
 is going well at school. After the young person has given their responses, the adult would add these to the relevant house, in this case, the house of good things. This would be repeated until all three houses are filled.
Option 2: The adult shows a young person a picture of three houses and then asks the young person to draw their own version on a separate piece of paper. The adult would then explain the name of each house: house of good things; house of less good things; and house of dreams. Next, the young person would be asked to write or draw pictures of all the âgood thingsâ about something, for example, school. As the young person draws or writes, the adult can ask the young person for more information about what they have drawn or written. This process would be repeated with all three houses.
Example
The below three houses are from Gesherâs conversation with students for the Changing Schools, Changing Lives article.
Where Do Projects Come From?
HTH Unboxed
We would like to thank High Tech High for their generosity in allowing us to share in The Bridge project cards and the occasional article from their Unboxed journal. Â
High Tech High in San Diego, now some 16 small schools serving over 6,000 young people K-12 across four campuses, is one of the most feted and influential school designs in the world. It is known for its commitment to a project-based curriculum, to relationships, to deep learning and to the development of students through the development of staff. More relevantly for The Bridge, HTH is also committed to sharing practices and learning in multiple ways. They have a graduate school supporting Masters degrees for their own staff and others; they host literally thousands of visitors to their campus each year; they facilitate a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) available internationally and, for the last 14 years they have published their own adult learning journal, making it available both in hard copy form and via the Unboxed website, which is a rich treasure trove of resources.
Where Do Projects Come From?
by Angela Guerrero
On a cold October morning, my colleague Breawna and I carpooled to school together as we often do. I piled my bags into the back seat, hopped in the passenger side, handed over a cup of coffee, and settled in for a drive full of teacher talk. The topic of discussion, as it so often is, was how to make projects meaningful and still hit the content needed in the history standards. This is an odd question for us to ponder, since we teach at a school that alleviates some of that âstandardsâ stress by asking teachers to teach what they are passionate about through projects. But there we were, without the pressure of a frustrated principal or a zealous department chair, agonising over our fear of not giving the kids enough content. This may be because we both started our teaching careers at traditional high schools, attended traditional universities, and attended traditional high schools where school looked very much the same; teachers lectured, students feverishly took notes, a test was given, an essay written and a grade awarded that measured proficiency on some standard. Breawna and I are both struggling to define what education is all about, and building the curriculum around projects requires a break from the past that is often difficult. But on that morning when Bre asked me, âWhere do good projects come from?â I felt I finally had something to say.
Eleanor Antin, âThe Touristsâ from Helenâs Odyssey. Copyright Eleanor Antin. Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, www.feldmangallery.com
This question, and the struggle to meet standards, plagued my first year teaching at High Tech High Chula Vista. So much of my work in the first year was simply writing and reading a pretty standard English class by most accounts. As I entered my final grades and completed my first year of teaching, I made a promise to myself to create engaging projects that would also comfort me by hitting standards. But what were the projects going to look like? Where would I get the ideas? Where did projects like that come from? Thirty journal entries, ten morning walks, hours of reviewing the state standards and countless conversations with friends left me no better off with my query as the summer days slipped by. I decided to simply enjoy summer for a while and return to the burning question in August. But then something happened that answered my questions. And it happened while I was enjoying myself, no less.
My sister invited me to a local museum to see an exhibition called âHistorical Takesâ, by Eleanor Antin. I sauntered into the swanky evening exhibition expecting to be impressed by the art. Indeed I was, but it turned out to be a lesson planning adventure like no other. Antin had created a collection of photographic portraits depicting historical tales from ancient Greece and Rome with feminist spins on the events. Helen of Troy was a devious vixen slinging a rifle on her hip. Ancient Grecians strolled casually by the dying veterans of the Trojan War with shopping totes and sunglasses. Wealthy Romans dined in elaborate clothing while servants died in the wings unbeknownst to their masters. And next to each scene was an explanation of the artistâs âtakeâ on it. I was fascinated and found myself wondering how the artist came up with her interpretations. Then I wondered how I would create scenes from different time periods from different perspectives, say, a nihilistâs perspective, or a childâs perspective on the French Revolution. As I gazed at more images, and wondered more about how to create my own, I felt my legs tremble with delight. I had reached a new understanding. âThis is perfect!â I exclaimed, to the surprise of the museum docent. History, photography, costume design, set and scene design, research, literature — all these things were present in the work. And they could all be studied in a project modelled after this exhibition. It almost felt like cheating since the idea came to me, not when I was agonising over the state standards or feverishly writing up drafts at my desk, but rather while I was out looking at art and doing something I enjoyed. From this outing, my 35mm Revolution project was conceived. In this project, students choose a revolution to research and write about and then choose one scene to re-enact in a photographic portrait. We plan to unveil the studentsâ artwork at High Tech High Chula Vistaâs 2009 Festival Del Sol.
After the âart aha momentâ as I now refer to it, I started thinking about projects while doing all sorts of things I love to do. Checking out music at local venues, I thought about starting a local artist Rolling Stone magazine to teach writing, photojournalism, editing and advertising. Running through the city, I thought about âwalking a mileâ in the shoes of someone who was homeless. Hiking up in the Sierras, I thought about nature reflections, the history of natural parks and the preservation efforts in California. It seemed that every time I was doing something I truly enjoyed, a new idea for a potential project sprang into my head. Some of the project ideas had been done before, but somehow, this new revelation made them feel fresh, pristine.
Do what you love and let the project drive the curriculum. These are the mantras of my wise teaching partner, Rod Buenviaje. Rod would listen patiently as I voiced my concerns about my inability to come up with what felt like meaningful projects. At the end of each conversation, he would repeat these mantras. I would nod in agreement and stare blankly out the window. I could never fully comprehend what he meant. After viewing Antinâs exhibition, however, the mantras made sense. I was doing something I loved. I was passionate about it. I wanted the kids to see it. I wanted to teach it. It turned into a project that would guide the curriculum.
So, where do projects come from? My answer is this: they are born in the places we love to visit, the things we love to see, the tasks we love to lose ourselves in. They are the things we find exciting. They are the things we deem worthy of writing essays and graphing charts about. They come from teachers who fall in love with something and decide to share that something with their students.
To read this article online, and to see High Tech Highâs full collection of project cards, visit:
https://hthunboxed.org/blog/unboxed_posts/where-do-projects-come-from/