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