Section 3

CATERING FOR THE NEEDS OF INDIVIDUAL PUPILS

Pupils with special educational needs

Special educational needs are those which require the school curriculum to be adapted to the needs of an individual pupil. Pupils with such needs include abler pupils; those whose difficulties are of short duration; pupils with sensory impairments; pupils with social and emotional difficulties; pupils with severe, complex or profound difficulties.

Art and Design, Drama, Music and Physical Education provide opportunities for creativity and offer a means of extending personal expression and developing modes of communication. The attainment outcomes and targets for the expressive arts have been developed with all pupils in mind; all pupils, including those with severe and complex learning difficulties, will benefit from access to a wide range of appropriate experiences in the expressive arts. For many pupils with special educational needs it is in this area that they will find their main opportunities for creative enjoyment and achievement. Progress in other areas of the curriculum is likely to be enhanced through such experiences.

It is recognised that within any class or group, pupils will be working towards targets across a range of levels. For some pupils with learning difficulties, the acquisition of basic skills in particular areas will take longer and have to be broken down into smaller stages than those suggested in the attainment targets. Other pupils will attain particular targets very quickly and will need to be offered greater challenges in these strands. Variations in provision may include, for example, providing access to additional specialised resources for pupils with visual or hearing impairments or creating challenging programmes for a musically gifted pupil. However, such differentiated provision should always be set in the context of a broadly-based expressive arts programme and offer each pupil the widest possible range of experiences. All schools should be aware of the need to provide a safe and secure environment for activities in the expressive arts, appropriate to the circumstances of individual pupils.



The expressive arts offers each pupil with special educational needs a variety of ways in which to achieve success. Some will thrive in the stress-free, enabling and therapeutic environment which good expressive arts teaching can provide. For others it will be working towards the goal of participation in a particular event which will provide the motivation for learning and achieving.

The responsibility for meeting varied special educational needs should be a shared one. The most powerful means of successfully implementing the curriculum for the expressive arts lies in cooperation and sharing of expertise among class teachers, learning support and specialist teachers, non-teaching staff and parents.

Increased awareness of the variety of special educational needs, sensitive curriculum planning and appropriate differentiation should result in a classroom ethos which is supportive of all pupils and will provide opportunities for each to demonstrate individual potential, thereby developing self worth and self esteem.



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© The Scottish Office Education Department, June 1992