Adapt learning

Adapt learning

It is important that the learning environment is adapted to suit the individual needs of each child and young person, particularly those experiencing barriers to attendance.

Children and young people experiencing barriers to attendance may need:

• Tailored learning tasks and curriculum activities;
• Work that is achievable and delivered appropriately in terms of the child or young person's needs;
• Work that is prepared, marked and returned to them even when they are not attending lessons to communicate that their commitment is being valued;
• Time to ask questions, explore ideas, have fun and challenge perceptions within learning activities;
• Be given the opportunity to take risks and make mistakes;
• Be given choices;
• Adults who are welcoming and accepting, who can reassure them that they will not have to catch up on work missed.

"I felt that there was support in that classroom and that was actually one of the only lessons I would ever turn up to" (young person).

“Individual young people will be working on a different timeline from their peers in similar situations” (multiagency professional).

"He has missed so much stuff that he probably feels he's got so much to catch up on he'll never do it" (parent).

“Some of the students I've worked with… it's very short- 15 minutes coming into an area, and then leaving, but with a clear timetable of how that increases every week. Again, it's on an individual basis. Sometimes students that have complex mental health issues and they can't look at a timetable because they're just taking a day or a week at a time” (school staff).

“He had an amazing teacher in year four; she had a child of her own with additional needs so she understood what it was for him to try, and she would facilitate all kinds of different things for him to try” (parent).

“We built a curriculum around him. And actually, he has different times of the day where he comes and goes and all of that works for him” (school staff).