Special School Placement

I didn't know what to expect before my special school placement, but honestly, I couldn't have had a better experience. The head teacher was so friendly and inviting, and the entire school was so welcoming to us all. 

I was placed in a through school with children with moderate learning difficulties, and my class was a group of 12 truly lovely 12-14 year olds. The class was laid out with one big table in the centre of the room, where the children, teacher and TA sat together, creating more of a community feel than rows of seats. There were a few comfy seats on the other side of the room, facing away from the main table to act as an escape for children who needed a break, and a table in the far corner for one of the boys who hated to work in groups. 

This term's topic was castles, so a lot of their learning revolved around that particular theme. For their literacy lessons during the week, the children first had to think of a well known story, and describe the beginning, middle and end of it, to create a timeline of events. I worked with a girl with Down's Syndrome, as she described to me the story of Frozen. It was strange to be working with children who were of secondary school age, who could not read or write properly, but they were so keen to learn, I adapted pretty quickly. Once they had set out the three parts of a known story, they had to come up with their own. So to start with, they drew their own castle and labelled it, to act as their setting. They then drew and described four characters before writing their own beginning, middle and end. This was a lot easier for them to focus on than writing the whole story, as it segmented the process into more manageable chunks, and it was really interesting to see the stories they came out with. 

In numeracy, the children were learning about the value of money. As the head teacher explained at the start of the week, they put a lot of emphasis on real life experiences so that the children find it easier to live independently in the future. This was put into practice in numeracy. We used plastic coins so that the children had a visual representation to follow. We started simply by reciting the number bonds of ten, and then asking "how many 1ps are in a 5p/10p/20p coin" etc. Some of the children responded better than others, but the teacher and TA were fantastic in supporting the lower attainers. We then gave the children a plastic wallet each with a mixture of coins adding to the value of 20p. This was their bank balance. We explained that they can earn money to add to their balance by doing "jobs" around the classroom, such as tidying up and cooperating with each other well. We then turned the classroom into a tuck shop, allowing the children to buy items such as fruit, crisps and chocolate with their money. Every item was worth a different amount, and it was up to them whether they wanted to spend or save their money. The tuck shop ran every day in the week I was there. This is the perfect example of using every day experiences to show the children how to spend and save money. 

I found that the lessons were a lot more "hands on" than I've seen previously. For example, they have a gardening lesson once a week, where they grow their own vegetables. Those same vegetables are then used to make food in their cooking lessons! The children responded brilliantly to this, as they got to see the process of their vegetables growing, and then cook and eat them afterwards. In Science, they cut open their vegetables to observe the seeds, which aligned with their lesson about reproduction.

I absolutely loved my special school experience, and has completely opened my mind to the possibility of working in a special school.