Scottish Government

MOVING FORWARD!
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR LEARNING

Supporting staff

34. Key elements in delivering an inclusive approach to education are the professionalism and expertise of staff. We have established a Ministerial Strategy Committee on Continung Professional Development (CPD) to develop a National Framework for CPD to enable teachers from probation to headship to develop and maintain their skills and expertise. An inclusion subgroup of the committee is looking at how the CPD framework can address inclusion and equality issues, and ensure that teachers can develop the skills they need to work with children who require additional support to learn. The framework is based on three Standards - full registration, Chartered Teacher and Headship. Chartered Teacher programmes will be available from August 2003. The Executive will continue to work with teachers, local authorities and training providers to promote a national quality-based CPD framework which can both enable teachers to maintain professional status and adapt to meet the evolving support needs of all children.

35. We are also examining what is required at the initial teacher education (ITE) stage to ensure that student teachers receive the training they require to prepare them for working with pupils. The review will include consideration of what level of knowledge and experience student teachers should acquire to help them work with pupils who require additional support for learning.

36. Inclusive schools need the support of professionals ranging from class teachers to integrated specialist support teams. These can include support for learning staff, guidance, and behaviour support teachers, ancillary staff, health and social work colleagues, school and local authority managers and staff. Teachers and other staff can benefit from parents' knowledge of their own children, and the parental perspective is one which local authorities should consider when arranging in-service training opportunities for their staff. Under the New Community Schools approach staff are encouraged to see children and families within their wider social context. Such an approach requires the continuing professional development of staff including, where appropriate, joint training between education, social services and health staff. In 2002-03, the Scottish Executive has increased its support for the development and training of staff working with children who require additional support to 8.4 million (up from 5.4 million in 2001-02).

37. The Executive also funds national and local voluntary sector organisations in the education area working in partnership with local authorities and schools. For example, the Executive supports the Edinburgh University-based CALL Centre and the Scottish Sensory Centre. Both centres provide training and assessment support for staff working with children with severe language and communication difficulties and/or visual and hearing impairments.

Supporting pupils

38. A central aim of schools is to help pupils develop self-discipline, positive attitudes and expectations, and to respect themselves and other people. Schools have always had to address the needs of the broad range of children from their own communities. Schools that successfully address the needs of children who require additional support are likely to be ones which successfully address the personal and social development of all children. Inclusion of pupils who require additional support, where it is properly prepared and well-supported, can help schools to develop a positive ethos within which all pupils can thrive.

39. Teachers may encounter a variety of disruptive behaviour in the classroom ranging from low-level indiscipline to extremely challenging behaviour by troubled young people who face considerable difficulties in their lives. We worked closely with teachers, pupils, parents and a wide range of other professionals and interested parties, to produce the Discipline Task Group report "Better Behaviour - Better Learning". The report highlights the inescapable links between good discipline and effective learning and teaching. It recognises that it is vital that we find ways of re-engaging and supporting disaffected pupils. All members of the school community can bring a range of skills, expertise, experience and commitment to working with children and young people who have social, emotional or behavioural difficulties. We are working with local authorities and schools to implement the report's recommendations and to promote an environment where teachers can teach effectively and children can learn.

40. The Executive-funded Scottish Schools Ethos Network researches and disseminates good practice in establishing and promoting positive school ethos. We also fund a number of other initiatives aimed at, or impacting on, discipline in schools. These include the Alternatives to Exclusion Programme, which as part of our National Priorities Action Fund is providing 10 million per year to local authorities to help support pupils who have been, or are at risk of being, excluded from school. We also recognise that bullying in school can be an extremely distressing and difficult experience for all concerned and can act as a barrier to learning and teaching. We, therefore, fund the Anti-Bullying Network which offers advice and information to pupils, parents and teachers throughout Scotland.

School environment

41. Pupils' responses to the national debate on education revealed the importance they attach to the physical environment of schools. Issues of classroom space, physical access, acoustics, signage and colour schemes can be crucial factors in ensuring effective teaching and learning for children who require additional support. Under the Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002, education authorities (and independently run schools) have a legal duty to devise an accessibility strategy. This strategy aims to remove any barriers that disabled pupils might face in securing the educational opportunities that are the right of every child. The first strategies will be in place by April 2003 and must address, over time, improving physical access to buildings, improving access to the curriculum, and improving communication with disabled pupils. We are making 43 million available over an initial 3 years to assist education authorities meet the new duty.

42. We are working with local authorities on a School Estate Strategy which is focused on providing better public services to children, young people and communities, through the school environment. The first stage of the new school building programme announced in June 2002 represents a 1.15 billion package of investment. Local authorities will be able to embed their accessibility strategies within their general plans for school building and refurbishment of provision in their area.

ICT and learning

43. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is rapidly changing the world we live in. It is changing the nature of society and is therefore changing the requirements placed upon schools. Increasingly, ICT has a greater role to play in meeting the needs of all learners. ICT can motivate and encourage learners, enable them to achieve successful learning outcomes and stimulate information handling and communication skills. Recent developments involve multimedia (the use of text, sound, image and video), computer networking and communications. These represent new opportunities to reduce the feelings of isolation felt by many pupils who require additional support and those who support them.

44. We have invested over 90 million between 1999 and 2002 in supporting schools to make the most of ICT and the opportunities it provides. Ongoing support to local authorities is 20 million annually. Through the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) programme we are spending considerable sums (over 3 million in 2002-03) to develop digital content and services, much which is delivered free to schools either by CD or online via the NGfL Scotland web services.

45. Through our Innovation Grants Programme we have supported a range of projects aimed specifically at supporting the education of children who require additional support. These include projects such as the ICT for All support pack for teachers working with pupils who require support for learning; Stories in the Air BSL Dictionary project; RNIB Scotland Digital Audio in Visual Impairment project; and the CALL Centre project Introducing Voice Recognition Technology in Schools.