Most students find lockdown very difficult, and many feel demotivated and isolated without the face to face interaction from their peers and teachers.

However, students with special needs can often find the situation to be even more difficult.  Some of the challenges faced by these students can include:

• Students with ADHD finding it difficult to stay on task.  In a face to face lesson, it is easier for the teacher to notice that a student is off-task, and a well-timed word or question can bring them back to attention.  This is much harder online.
• Some students finding it difficult to follow the routine from home, for example struggling to motivate themselves to get out of bed, get washed and dressed and engage in home learning.
• Some students on the Autism Spectrum may find online communication to be challenging, and may struggle with elements of it such as showing their face on screen, understanding social interaction without seeing the other person face to face, or finding it difficult to cope with the lack of barriers between home and school.
• Some students may also find it difficult to navigate between different windows, for example navigating between a window with the teacher giving an explanation at the same time as well as other windows giving the task instructions and another one for the student to write their answer.
• The lack of certainty regarding how long lockdown will last or how assessment will be carried out can be very unsettling for a student on the Autism Spectrum.

There is no easy answer to these challenges.  Even though students with special needs are able to attend their schools in person, not all will choose to do so.  Nevertheless, we owe it to these students to do all that we can to support them.  Some of the things we are doing as a college, in addition to providing the high quality live teaching which benefits all of our students, are:

• Having a flexible, individualised approach.  For example, some of our students are not comfortable showing their faces on camera so, although we do encourage all of our students to be on camera, we allow those who have parental permission not to have to show themselves.
• We have maintained daily form times and weekly year group assemblies.  Each assembly is followed by an extended form time where the students can discuss any issues with their tutor.  Having such regular contact with the students means that many small issues have been picked up early on before they have become more problematic.
• Parents are contacted if a student even misses one online lesson.  This is an essential step in ensuring that any students prone to poor attendance are highlighted early on before a negative pattern is established. 
• For students who struggle with organisation, online homework trackers have been created and these have been shared with parents and the student so that the student’s homework is all in one place.
• Regular check-ins with parents and students who may be academically vulnerable.
• Students with special needs are encouraged to drop in to receive individual help where needed.  For example, one student was struggling with using Google Classroom, so he had a 1:1 session with the Head of GCSE to build his confidence in this area
• Students are warmly welcomed into College when we identify that their approach isn’t working at home and they need a change and to re-establish their routines. Staff are on hand to provide informal support in a Covid-safe environment with staff and students being tested twice a week.

There is no perfect solution. One resource which we are currently developing here at EIC is a free of charge resources hub where our teaching and learning resources can be shared with the wider public.  This should help any student who feel that they aren’t currently receiving high quality resources from their school but, as SENCo, I hope that this will be especially helpful for students with special needs as they will be able to access a bank of clear resources in their own time and at their own pace.  If all schools followed our lead, just imagine the richness of resources which would be available to all learners, regardless of their needs, location or family situation.