Special Schools: Access the Curriculum
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- Thou art a villain.
- Thou art a villain.
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(narrator) In this programme,
we see two examples
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of special school pupils
accessing the curriculum.
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The "Romeo and Juliet" project
at Little Stanmore Primary School
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encourages participation
through signing.
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At Woodlands Special School
pupils explore a sense of time,
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with toys from the past,
in a history lesson.
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These two northwest London schools
will soon be collocating
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and we've invited key professionals
involved in that process
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to talk about how they planned the
delivery and evaluation of lessons.
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They focus on
how communication development
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is crucial to
differentiating the curriculum.
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The discussion
is led by Nick Peacey,
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who is a specialist in inclusion and
curriculum development strategies
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for pupils
with special educational needs.
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We heard of the work of SENJIT and
the Institute of Education and Nick,
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and it was having those discussions
with you in school
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that were the sparks of creativity,
if you like,
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that helped us move our thinking on.
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Rowan class
is our early years class.
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It has pupils in there,
who are aged, in fact, under three
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up to six years plus.
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They're a group of pupils
with fairly high dependency needs
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who have a severe
learning difficulty,
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but also have a more profound
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and multiple learning difficulties
in some areas of their functioning.
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Some people have
additional sensory disabilities,
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physical disabilities and,
potentially, medical needs as well.
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(woman) We're looking
at the National Curriculum
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and we're pulling out what
will make sense for our students.
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What kind of learning intentions
and activities would be meaningful,
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how are we going to assess it,
adapting it to our students here,
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so students are getting what they
need, exposed to various subjects,
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but balanced with that
the individual needs and targets
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are going on all throughout
the day across all subjects.
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My description of the class:
three- to six-year-olds
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who may need a little bit
more help in their learning,
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but, as all children do,
individualised stuff
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helps get them there.
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We introduced the history lesson
by having the room darkened
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so that we can focus on the clock,
with the torch shining on the clock
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and the song in the background,
which is "The Rhythm of the Clock".
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And that's just our way of cueing,
that this is now the history lesson.
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(music)
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We always share the lesson planning
with the teaching assistants.
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They have knowledge of the students
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so they're aware of what
the learning intentions are,
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what resources are needed, what
strategies are going to be used.
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OK, well done, everybody.
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Do you think it's a valid approach
to use subjects like this
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as the context for a whole lot
of communication learning?
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- Are you happy with that model?
- Yes, I am.
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I think it's challenging
for teachers, but I think that,
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number one,
our students are entitled
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to be exposed
to National Curriculum subjects.
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We're saying they're necessary
for students in mainstream schools,
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so why wouldn't they be appropriate
for our students as well?
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And I think it gives
teachers the challenge
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of working on those basic skills
of communication, for instance,
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in a lot of different ways.
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To signal the start of that lesson,
lights were dimmed,
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the environment in its whole look
completely changed.
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There was music consistent to music
happening at the start of a lesson.
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There was a clock shown
to signal that.
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The was lights very much for
the individual child in their face,
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so that they were
having that sort of understanding.
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Very little language was used, as
opposed to a mainstream classroom,
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where the teacher would say,
"We're going to start with history."
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"It's toys from the past."
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And in history, where we're thinking
about things a long time ago...
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At the start
of every history session
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we've been reminding ourselves
we're doing toys.
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Do you know what I have in here?
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We use the tap-tap box,
where each student
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has an opportunity to choose
a toy out of the tap-tap box.
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And we'll be remarking that that toy
is shiny or that toy is soft,
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describing characteristics
of different toys.
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What's in the box?
Sahand is gonna make a choice.
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What have you got?
Can we show everybody?
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Sahand's got a toy and it's
a toy that... Look what it does.
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We've got a jiggly toy.
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So we know that some toys
are a bit jiggly and tickly.
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Siv and Finn, not only were they
looking, but they were reaching out,
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and we saw Finn really reacting.
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And one shake of the tap-tap box
and you could see him just light up
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and physically react.
He knew what was coming.
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He was able to anticipate
what was coming next.
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Finn's chosen a little baby doll.
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Tap, tap, tap. What's in the box?
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Rukshar didn't need
very much encouragement.
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She was constantly looking and
she was engaging verbally, reaching.
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You choose, that's right.
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Primarily, in the class,
my aims will be
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what each individual student
may need.
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Can you feel that, Chloe?
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Looking, perhaps, or listening
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or visual tracking
or responding, communicating -
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all of those basic targets, but
it's wrapped up in a history lesson.
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And if the students
are able to pick up
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on concepts around history,
that's a great bonus.
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Good choice, Rukshar.
I like that toy.
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All right.
Who else is ready for a turn?
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Because the children have
medical needs, you have to judge
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their involvement in the lesson
on how well they're feeling.
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So Patrick and Arjun's reaction
today isn't typical of them,
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but it's just demonstrating
that they're not quite there.
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Today's learning outcome for them
was they were encountering history.
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Patrick has chosen a toy
that's shiny and sparkly.
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Working with Stacey,
as a speech and language therapist,
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around educational aspects
and curriculum development,
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brings a completely other dimension
to the work that we're doing.
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Paddy was given the box.
He took out a string of beads.
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And he just did this with the beads.
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And Jill, as the teacher,
and Siobhan, as teaching assistant,
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didn't expect
anything more from that,
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because that fitted in
to the communication level
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and the learning intention
for that child,
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which was to encounter
an experience.
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Whereas for Sahand, in the same
activity, in the same lesson,
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was, if you like,
more was expected from him.
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Jill maybe was expecting that
he would make a choice consistently,
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that he would express preference.
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In the planning process,
did you deliberately look
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at communication issues as a sort of
unifying force within the curriculum
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within the learning
of the students?
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We determined, I think,
from our experience, very quickly,
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communication was a core part
of children's learning.
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It's one of the aims of our school -
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enhancing children's
communication development.
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So we knew it had to be there,
although we weren't defined
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in our thinking,
at the beginning, as to how.
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Then Stacey and I
and Jill and people in school
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started to have conversations about
communication in the curriculum.
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And Stacey has come up with
a kind of... Framework, Stacey?
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Yeah, it's just
looking at communication
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in terms of its development from the
earlier stages, all the way through.
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And trying to have that almost
as an overlay to the curriculum,
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so that every child would
be potentially placed on a scale.
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And then, depending
on where they are on that scale,
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the way you teach them
or differentiate the curriculum,
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or the way
that they access the curriculum,
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is therefore correlating
and relating.
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And in terms of evaluation,
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when we set learning intentions
for the students,
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we can tie in, hopefully,
the communication development.
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What you're describing, the debate
in school amongst teachers
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and the teaching assistants, too,
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is to what degree you differentiate
the learning intentions,
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so when you evaluate the lesson
on our planning format,
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do you evaluate for individuals?
What learning took place for them?
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I may be shifting my mind to highly
differentiated learning intentions.
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We were talking about
old toys and new toys.
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When it comes time for me to record
on my lesson plan,
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I'll make notes that will refer
to my learning intentions.
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So my first learning intention
may have been, for example,
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for students to handle
a variety of old and new toys.
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Do you remember we looked at an old
toy? An old toy might be broken...
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And we're looking
at old toys and new toys,
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and that's when I brought out
the new toy in the package
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and then the old toy
that went into the bin.
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Rukshar was very enthusiastic about
putting the old toy into the bin.
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Can you do it for us?
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Thank you, Rukshar.
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Next, we introduced today's lesson,
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which was looking at a toy
that was popular a long time ago -
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the spinning tops.
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And we had the opportunity
to look at a variety
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of different kinds of spinning tops.
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In Rowan class, it's a lot about
process, not so much product.
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So we take a lot of photos
during lessons
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so we have evidence of learning, cos
we may not have the physical things.
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We look at the photos,
we evaluate those.
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That's part of our recordkeeping, so
we can see over time to start with
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they weren't looking or touching.
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Then later on,
they were touching and looking.
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What happens if you touch it?
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There it goes, right on the floor.
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Also, with the foundation stage
students, occasionally we will do
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a time sample or a running record
for five minutes or so.
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You'll write everything they do and
evaluate against the stage documents
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or the lesson plan, depending
on which key stage they're in.
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So evaluation,
as far as you're concerned,
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is a collaborative process, with you
working with the teaching assistants
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to decide what progress