{"id":60104,"date":"2024-11-07T11:28:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T11:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=60104"},"modified":"2026-03-10T17:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:25:17","slug":"creating-an-inclusive-classroom-for-children-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/creating-an-inclusive-classroom-for-children-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"6 top tips for creating an inclusive classroom for children with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carly is a SEN tutor. She teaches young people who are deafblind<\/a> and\/or have complex needs<\/a> at Sense TouchBase Pears in Birmingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What I love about my job is that no two days are ever the same. Everybody has different needs, and learns in different ways, which keeps things interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sense College<\/a> I work in has a few different pathways for learners. Some students are focused on getting into employment, or learning practical life skills. Others are working towards educational qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outside, someone might look at what we do in the classroom and think it\u2019s not learning \u2013 because it can look so different to mainstream education. But it\u2019s just about thinking outside the box and doing things differently from the norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, I\u2019m going to offer my six top tips for teachers who want to create a more inclusive classroom<\/strong>. But if you\u2019re even reading this blog, I think you\u2019re already doing the right thing \u2013 because you\u2019re thinking about how to include people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might not get it right every time. I definitely don\u2019t. But having these conversations, and thinking about inclusion, is the most important step. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Get on your students\u2019 level<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In my classroom, a lot of work takes place on the floor. It\u2019s just practical \u2013 a lot of my students are wheelchair users, and it\u2019s not necessarily a good thing to be in those chairs all the time. So they enjoy being able to move more freely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the floor, everyone\u2019s even. That\u2019s really important to me \u2013 I don\u2019t want there to be a perceived hierarchy in my classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to me that we don\u2019t see anyone as being better or more intelligent than anyone else because they can do something like walk or talk. I\u2019m always trying to find ways to level the playing field for everyone in the room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get down on the floor with my learners, because I think teachers shouldn\u2019t stand over students. I\u2019m not better than them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Treat all communication as valid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We all have our individual ways of communicating things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Sense, that\u2019s especially true: I work with people who use AAC<\/a>, PECS<\/a>, sign language<\/a> and lots of other types of communication<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There can be a lot of stigma around some ways of communicating, but I want my students to be given the confidence to keep trying to reach out and start conversations, however they\u2019re able to.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If one of our students asks me something using on-body signing, I\u2019ll on-body sign back to them. I\u2019ll honour how they\u2019ve communicated to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s really important to show students that however they\u2019re communicating is valid. There can be a lot of stigma around some ways of communicating, but I want my students to be given the confidence to keep trying to reach out and start conversations, however they\u2019re able to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone deserves to feel respected and heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Prioritise routines \u2013 but also don\u2019t be afraid of change<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Routine is really important in my classroom, as a lot of my students can find disruption or change upsetting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But our curriculum is about preparing young people for life, and life doesn\u2019t always have a routine, so it\u2019s also important to learn about change sometimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Sense, we have a lot of students who are deafblind, so we use things like objects of reference<\/a> and music cues to communicate routines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When something is going to change, we try to give students as long as possible to get used to the idea. For example, if a new person is joining the class, we start telling them about the new person weeks in advance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We often use social stories<\/a> \u2013 short stories about social situations \u2013 to get students used to the idea of new scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. See all behaviour as communication<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At Sense, we see challenging behaviour<\/a> as a form of communication. It tells us that things aren\u2019t going okay for that young person, and they\u2019re struggling to cope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we respond by asking, how can we support them to cope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it\u2019s about identifying and removing triggers. For example, we\u2019ve realised that animals can be a trigger for challenging behaviour from our students, so we don\u2019t plan any trips to the zoo! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When our students show challenging behaviour, that\u2019s them in crisis. I would never want them to judge me when I was in crisis. So I do my best not to judge them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Measure each person\u2019s progress individually<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t do any standardised testing here at Sense, because it\u2019s just not the best way to measure everyone\u2019s progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone is different, and we try to reflect that in how we assess students and celebrate their milestones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some students put together a portfolio of their work. Portfolios can be a really inclusive way of assessing progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For other students, just seeing them start to engage and respond more in the classroom is amazing progress. Everybody\u2019s goals look different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Work collaboratively <\/strong>\u2013 you can\u2019t do it all alone!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You definitely couldn\u2019t do this job and be an island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fellow SEN tutors Chloe and Hope support me, and I support them, when the job gets overwhelming or when we feel like we\u2019re not making progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re supporting a young person with disabilities, it\u2019s not just you in the picture, but also their parents, carers, therapists and medical professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to collaborate, because everyone brings different kinds of expertise. Together, you can achieve the best outcomes for the young person, and support each other along the way, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carly, a SEN tutor from Sense College, gives her top tips on teaching disabled students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":60109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[1331],"class_list":["post-60104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-carly-jackson"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60104"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=60104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}