Interview with Lindsay Cooper Smith, Director of Inclusion for St Christopher’s Academy Trust

“I would wish all children to be educated locally with their peers and to get the support they need at the earliest possible opportunity to make sure there is a genuine holistic approach to inclusion with the family, school and professionals involved.”

Lindsay has been teaching in primary education for 20 years in various settings working with children from Nursery to Year 6. Her passion for inclusion has led Lindsay to achieving the SENqual and becoming a SENCo. Previously, Lindsay worked with other agencies across Plymouth to develop person-centred practice and in 2018 she developed a nurture provision for primary school children at risk of exclusion, which was highly successful in supporting children and was partially funded by the Local Authority. 
 
Lindsay now works as the Director of Inclusion at St Christopher's Academy Trust and is a Specialist Member of the SEND Tribunal and a Trustee at Ted Wragg Multi Academy Trust. She enjoys working with schools across the South West and is proud of the inclusive practice which is in the heart of every one of the St Christopher's Schools. 
 
Lindsay loves her role as a Facilitator for SWIFT of both the Early Career Teacher Programme SEN Group and for the NPQSENCo. Last year she co-authored, “The A-Z of SEN” - something she never thought she would achieve and is incredibly proud of this accomplishment. 
 
We were pleased to ask Lindsay more about her thoughts on Special Educational Needs and inclusion practice. 

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1. What do you consider to be most personally rewarding for you as a Facilitator for the SWIFT ECTP and NPQs programmes?
Firstly, it was lovely to be asked because even though I have been doing this job for 20 years now, when I am asked to do something, my first response is always, there must be someone better than me who can do it! But it is a rewarding and proud feeling to be asked (thank you Team SWIFT).
 
I have always been concerned about the Initial Teacher Training programme for teachers and the level of SEN content. When SWIFT explained they wanted their new Early Career Teacher (ECT) to have a SEN cohort and that they would like me to facilitate it I was thrilled. It is great to bring all those new teachers with passion and drive together to share ideas, best practice, and help and support each other, rather than SEN teachers feeling side-lined. This collaborative spirit is very important.
 
With the NPQ for SENCOs, it is encouraging to work with new SENCOs who have got a real determination to make a strategic difference to children with Special Needs in their settings.
 
I love being a SENCO and I often think we can get a bad rap for being miserable or overworked. Yet I do not find this to be the case with the SENCOs in my team and certainly not with the SENCOs who are on the NPQ for SENCOs. I have appreciated listening to them, hearing the peer support they give each other. The coaching element of the NPQ for SENCOs has been valuable to all the SENCOs and very rewarding to me. Each term when we meet up and I ask about their previous actions, they tell me their successes.... this child is now no longer at risk of permanent exclusion, or a child has got a placement at a Special School. Priceless!

2. What has been your greatest professional learning curve in inclusion in SEND and how did you overcome it?
I had to think about this one for quite a while!
 
I think the thing that I still find quite challenging is to understand that people have a different view of inclusion. Challenges when you might hear someone say:
 
“Well, you know, they're choosing this behaviour, or this child shouldn't be in this setting, or it's the parents' fault.”
This kind of dismissive behaviour towards children with Special Educational Needs was a big learning curve for me because at first I would get angry or walk away and stewed on such words. But now in the moment, I have had to learn to offer alternatives:
 
“Okay, so you think it could be to do with parenting at home, but why are the parents struggling with this child? Do you think the parent wanted to impact the child's wellbeing?”
“Or where do you think this behaviour is coming from?”
“Or you think this child should be PExed, but what is going to be the trajectory for that child if that is what we do?”
 
Posing challenging questions, picking it up in the moment and being brave is important because this is what the children deserve. This was a big challenge for me because I was shocked that people do not all think the same about inclusion or hold the same value of our children with SEN within our schools.

3. What do you consider to be the biggest current challenges for supporting children and young people with SEND in Schools and Trusts?
I think the biggest challenge for us has been the SEND sufficiency in the South West.
In Plymouth, Devon and Torbay, there are limited spaces in Special Schools available, which means the complexity of children we now have in our mainstream settings is much higher than we have seen previously.
 
It means that we have had to start to think differently. Ten of our Trust Schools at St Christopher’s have now got either an intervention base or an inclusion classroom, so there is space for children with Special Educational Needs to go and access either targeted intervention, regulation breaks or support. Or an inclusion classroom where children can work alongside their peers on a bespoke curriculum to meet their needs with trained and qualified staff.

That is not where we were 20 years ago, and probably not even five years ago, but it is developing and I am very proud of my schools and always impressed when the leadership teams think differently and come to me with ideas. Recently in our West Devon schools isolated on the Moors, the leadership teams are working as a group of schools in recognising the need to explore how they can work together to see what they can do for the greater good in a collaborative way.

4. What would be your top three tips for effective inclusion?
Number 1 is collaboration and that is with parents, children and professionals, the multi-agency team around your children to make sure that everybody is on board, and you are getting the very best advice. Ensuring people are being open and honest with each other and not missing anything. Collaboration here is key and as with our Inclusion classrooms, we require collaboration either with stakeholders within the Trust or externally. You cannot do anything by yourself.
 
Number 2, I think, links back to what I previously said about relationships and my passion for inclusion. I do not think you can be a good SENCO and have an inclusive school unless you are using relational approaches. Building those positive relationships with all stakeholders, including professionals and families, to make sure voices are heard and everybody feels psychologically safe to challenge to get the best for the children within that school environment.
 
Number 3 is impact. Everything we do within SEN can be costly: either of time, adult support or financially and we need always to be thinking about how we are going to measure the impact. With Inclusion classrooms, we need to make sure that there is progress happening:
 
Is the child's attendance improving? Are there reduced behaviour incidents?
Can they now do their times tables?
 
There are many different ways to measure impact.
Is the pupil voice positive? Is the staff voice positive?
 
In doing that, we can ensure that the provision that children are getting is appropriate, suits their needs and is pushing them forwards to continue to make progress. When we see a lull or a stagnation in that progress, that is when we know we have to think differently or to look elsewhere for answers or support for these children.

5. What are your hopes for inclusion and send in the future educational landscape?
I really liked what was written in the recent SEND Reform White Paper.
 
I would wish all children to be educated locally with their peers and all children to get the support they need at the earliest possible opportunity to make sure there is a genuine holistic approach to inclusion with the family, school and professionals involved.
 
My hope for the future is that what is stated in the SEND Reform has the impact, I hope it is successfully embedded and implemented so that children feel part of their communities.

We thank Lindsay for her upbeat and positive reflections on her work on Special Educational Needs and inclusion and for being one of our valued Facilitators.

​Interview by Jude Baylis, SWIFT Executive Assistant