Teach-Primary-Issue-19.8

8 RULES TO LIVE BY 1 Don’t force conformity. Instead, let pupils use their own coping strategies. 2 Ask yourself: “Is it disruptive, or just different?” 3 Use special interests to drive engagement. You won’t believe the difference this can make to a pupil’s time in school and their engagement. 4 It can also be useful to focus any reward system you have around these special interests and give pupils time to engage and explore them – they might just lead to employment in later life. 5 Prioritise EHCP goals over a generic curriculum – this means teaching what a pupil needs to thrive, not what the curriculum tells you to teach. 6 Please don’t use isolation booths or isolation rooms. 7 When supporting behaviour (with any pupil), consider what the pupil is saying rather than jumping to detentions/ breaktimes, etc. That pupil might be struggling and need help. 8 If you are working with a pupil who can communicate vocally, ask how you can help them to learn and what they need to meet their potential – honestly, this might be the most important thing I’ve said here. Teach what matters Potential looks different for everyone. For pupil A, playing the next Sherlock Holmes could be the goal; another might want to design a gene-sequence machine for cows that produce cool chocolate-milkshake straight from the teat. At Chatten Free School, we phrase it as ‘happiness, independence, respect and being part of the world in a way that is meaningful to them’. What I’m getting at, is that learning is hard; it involves being outside of your comfort zone, therefore, it must have a purpose that means something to the pupil and helps them to reach that potential. For example, if Jonny doesn’t have spoken communication and finds transitions distressing, forcing him to write his name hand-over-hand probably isn’t a good use of your time or his. I’m not saying Jonny doesn’t have that potential to learn to write; but it might not be most productive approach right now. Essentially, it comes down to teaching the skills that will help children to meet their full potential, as opposed to the skills the DfE tells you to teach. But surely this involves a whole separate curriculum, which would require more work on your part, plus access to specialist knowledge? Well, yes, and no. Maybe to start with. Ultimately, though, you have the EHCP to work from; that is your curriculum, and I would encourage you to feed into local services such as school improvement partners. Once you have something up and running, it won’t take a huge amount of maintenance. This is going to save all that time you spend trying to force relevant learning around an irrelevant topic. Your child will do work that is specific to them and their journey. If you’re not sure what this looks like, the Chatten Curriculum would be a great place to start. It’s on our website, and it’s free ( tinyurl.com/tp-Chatten ) . Empowerment over conformity My final takeaway point is that, inevitably, you will spend a lot of your time on situations where dysregulation leads to behaviour that challenges. But the great thing about this approach is that by being flexible and allowing pupils to use their self-management techniques while also teaching relevant skills, the likelihood is strong that pupils with autism will be far less stressed, and you’ll see less of those behaviours. When you consider the skills pupils need and allow them to use their own coping strategies, you don’t just help them to reach their potential, you empower them and give them permission to be proud of what makes them amazing. TP chattenfreeschool.co.uk Adam Dean is head of school at Chatten Day school . www.teachwire.net | 35 F EATURE S S END