The Making a Statement project: Final Report
A study of the teaching and support experienced by pupils with a statement of special educational needs in mainstream primary schools
Research from our previous Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) project showed that the day-‐to-‐day support for pupils with special education needs (SEN) in mainstream schools is often provided by teaching assistants (TAs) instead of teachers. We have argued that this is one main reason why the negative effect of TA support on academic progress, found in the DISS project, is greater for pupils with SEN than for those without SEN.
The Making a Statement (MaSt) project was designed to explore the teaching, support and interactions experienced by pupils with statements of SEN – a topic on which there is little systematic information.
The MaSt project findings are based on results from extensive systematic observations and detailed case studies involving 48 pupils with statements of SEN for moderate learning difficulties or behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. Observations of 151 average attaining ‘control’ pupils provide a reference point for comparison. Case studies were based largely on interviews with nearly 200 teachers, TAs, SENCos and parents/carers. All data were collected over the 2011/12 school year, and involved researchers shadowing pupils in Year 5 over one week each.
Spending a week at a time observing at close quarters, and discussion with practitioners and parents/carers, brought home how schools are making every effort to attend to the needs of pupils with statements amid a period of intense flux and uncertainty in schools and local authorities. However, quantitative and qualitative analyses identified five overarching concerns that capture the MaSt study’s key results.
Published : 19th February 2013
Author : Rob Webster and Peter Blatchford [ More From This Author ]
Publisher : Institute of Education, University of London [ More From This Publisher ]
Rights : Institute of Education, University of London
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