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Along with being a primary school teacher and leader, blogging is where this all started for Aidan. If it wasn't for his passion for writing and sharing his learning and experiences, he wouldn't be working as an education consultant with schools across the country today. Shared best practice should be available to all and here on the Aidan Severs Consulting blog you can get ideas for making a difference in your own school. The blog is also a great place to learn exactly the kind of work that Aidan can partner with your school on.
Curriculum For All: What Schools Need To Know About What The Curriculum Review And The New Ofsted Framework Say About Inclusion
The key thing you need to be aware of with regards to the final report from the government-commissioned Curriculum and Assessment Review is right there in the title: Building a world-class curriculum for all . The writers of the review are at pains to communicate that the biggest change that needs to happen is with regard to inclusivity - a curriculum which works for all children. This, by the way, tallies with Ofsted's latest inspection framework that has specific headings
Aidan Severs
Nov 174 min read
Rethinking Differentiation: The Mixing Desk Model for Responsive, Inclusive Teaching
The Challenge of Meeting Every Child’s Needs You know that the children in your class(es) have needs which are many and varied. You want to meet those needs. But meeting all the different needs is difficult, time-consuming and draining. But it's got to be done. Why ‘What Works for Pupils with SEND Works for All’ Isn’t the Whole Story You've heard that "what works for pupils with SEND works for all pupils" but can't shake that nagging feeling that it's not that simple. Becaus
Aidan Severs
Nov 45 min read
From SEND To Greater Depth: Taking Everyone On The Journey (And Getting Them All To The Destination)
Imagine your next unit of work as a journey into a city centre. In this post I'll use a journey into the centre of London because it was when working with a school there that I started to use this analogy. You want all your pupils to experience a visit to Buckingham Palace, so you plan a route on the tube. You plan the best route - its economical, its efficient, and, after checking the tube map for stops with wheelchair access, its accessible to all pupils. But you know there
Aidan Severs
Dec 10, 20245 min read
Backwards Planning: What I Got Wrong
Here's the resource that this blog post refers to - you can download it for free below: In the old iteration of the above planning framework, I had the following prompts in the very last step (step 5): Who are the children who will need extra learning steps prior to the ones outlined above? Who are the children who will need extra learning steps following the ones outlined above (NSFD)? In all my recent work around providing for pupils with SEND I have realised how mistaken
Aidan Severs
Feb 20, 20242 min read
A SEND-First Approach... To Everything
Imagine a world where children with SEND really were the priority. What would that look like and what would the impact be on all...
Aidan Severs
Feb 6, 20243 min read
SEND Provision Across The Curriculum: Start and End Points
“All pupils should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum . The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement states that teachers should set high expectations for every pupil , whatever their prior attainment. .. In many cases, such planning will mean that pupils with SEN and disabilities will be able to study the full national curriculum. ” - 6.12, The SEND Code of Practice "Schools should know precisely where children and young people with SEN are in their learning a
Aidan Severs
Jan 30, 20246 min read
Subject Leadership and Support for Pupils With SEND
Subject leadership can be a minefield at the best of times, and for many teachers and leaders looking at it through the SEND lens is potentially even more difficult. This blog post contains a number of starting points for subject leaders who want to improve teaching and learning opportunities in their subject for pupils with SEND. Each of these should be engaged with critically, with leaders thinking not of children with specific conditions or diagnoses, but thinking of those
Aidan Severs
Jan 26, 20243 min read
Provision for Pupils with SEND = Provision for All?
If you read articles or listen to podcasts about SEND you'll hear one phrase more often than others: "What works for pupils with SEND...
Aidan Severs
Jan 25, 20244 min read
Questions for Subject Leaders: SEND
Although by no means exhaustive, this list of questions that subject leaders might use as a reflective tool as they lead staff in the...
Aidan Severs
Oct 11, 20233 min read
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