Activity 10.

4 Peer feedback
The piece of work you will provide feedback on was written by an Open University
student, Amy (not her real name), as part of an assignment with requirements that
were very similar to the TMA 02 that you have just completed. The requirements for
the parts of the assignment we want you to provide feedback to Amy are set out
below.

1 Introduction to the TMA and the child or children (about 200 words)
Use this section to set out your intentions for the TMA. Describe briefly the
child or children you are focusing on, their specific needs and any involvement
you may have had with either the children or the support provided for them.

2 Rationale for additional support (about 400 words)

In this section you should explain in more detail what the child’s or children’s
needs are and why the children are considered to require additional support for
their learning and participation in the classroom. When describing why the child
is considered to need the support, you should demonstrate your understanding of
what inclusive practice means in your setting by referring to school policies and
module materials.

Your feedback should relate to the following two criteria only.

Criterion 1
Extent to which requirements for the assignment have been met (i.e. ethical
considerations, content and coverage, word length and referencing)

Criterion 2
Extent to which the assignment is linked to the module materials in terms of thinking
about the relationship between educational theory, policy and practice
Amy’s assignment
The names of all participants mentioned in this assignment have been changed in
accordance with The British Educational Research Association (BERA, 2011)
guidelines pertaining to confidentiality and anonymity.

Introduction

I have chosen to focus on a child with speech and language needs and who has very
low level reading/writing and poor memory/information retention. This child requires
1-1 support during lessons, specific lessons planned which have been adapted from
the other children in the class. I work with this child to provide 1-1 support in the
classroom, as well as taking the child out from the classroom to perform lessons.

It is essential this child is offered adapted work and my lesson planning to ensure this
takes place is very important. Not only the work given to the child is key, it is
required that other individual planning is maintained. For example, this child requires
more time to undertake his work. His low level reading ability impacts on the average
time a child would be expected to complete certain lessons. Further to this, the child’s
poor memory and information retention, requires me to allow additional time to repeat
instructions and information (Lunn, 2013).

Rationale for additional support

This child has speech and language needs, very low level reading/writing and poor
memory/information retention. He is unable to access most of the lessons the other
children take part in as he functions on a very different level to his peers in the
classroom. The difficulties this child faces each day include: keeping to timescales set
for completing work; not immediately understanding instructions; dealing with
challenges faced by having a poor level of reading; coping with the frustration of
forgetting what was learnt in the lesson.

By having 1-1 support and adapting the work he completes, he is allowed to become
involved with the class as well as feel a sense of achievement and progress.

Inclusive practice is allowing the child to be involved both in the class and outside
socially, whatever their needs are. It also provides the child with the means of having
a sense of belonging to the class. The child can also feel valued and respected, both
valuable for his future development.

Inclusive practice also extends to ensuring all children from different ethnicities,
religions, class, different genders and those with disabilities are considered and
included equally in the running of the school to all others. For example in my school
environment there are several pupils with various physical disabilities and the school
implements several policies to ensure that they are able to thrive at their time in
school. These policies are: ensuring they have 1-1 support when required, adapting
the school environment (such as disabled ramps and disabled toilets.) The school also
will make other pupils and staff aware of these children and encourage the children to
help the student (for example ask a classmate to assist the child when moving through
the corridors) This helps to eradicate any isolation and by teaching other children
about different disabilities this allows them to understand, sympathise and integrate
the child into the class.

In my setting, the school has policies such as ensuring children have various
interventions from the SEN department. These may include 1-1 sessions; encouraging
higher level children to interact with SEN children to model behaviour; ensuring the
child is able to stay in the classroom (the child may not be able to stay within the class
due to his/her behaviour). Therefore the school will combat this by encouraging the
right behaviour. They do this by setting up reward charts/praise for right choices and
behaviour.

For those children not entitled to 1-1 support and not on school action plus, the school
will try to ensure the child is able to receive support from the teaching assistants or
members of staff from the SEN department. The national curriculum is followed,
however varying methods used to help the child understand in a way they are best
able.