Education can be a bit of a binary space at times, divided by the politics of “either, or”. This can be the case in special educational needs and disability (SEND) teaching, where collaboration between the specialist and mainstream sectors is variable to say the least. This is unfortunate, as there are a number of ways in which working together can have a transformative impact, on learning and on communities. When I was deputy headteacher at Frank Wise, a special school in Banbury, Oxfordshire, we made sure these cross-sector relationships were built - and they had a significant impact on both sides.

Possibly one of the most important things we did with our mainstream partners was to ensure that all of our pupils had access to mainstream-based education, irrespective of their complexity of need, for half a day every week. Through the development of direct partnerships with academies, faith schools, comprehensives and the independent sector, across primary and secondary, our pupils joined together with their mainstream peers to learn through collaborative activities.

It meant that every week, approximately 350 children came together to work in partnership in a reciprocal relationship that involved us visiting mainstream settings and pupils from mainstream schools coming to us. This had a profound impact on both sets of pupils and the staff who work with them, breaking down some of the barriers associated with the perceptions of difference.

Interestingly, it has also led to some of those mainstream pupils growing up and choosing to work with children with learning difficulties, including one who was last year appointed as a teacher at Frank Wise.

In addition to this, some pupils had further periods of time in the mainstream settings to address specific educational and social aims, whether that be particular subjects in which mainstream input supported their broader development or whether it was to ensure that they felt part of their local community.

This approach also, at times, enabled us to offer programmes of education that were beyond our level of subject expertise and resulted in pupils getting qualifications that we would otherwise have been unable to provide. Without support from mainstream this would not have been possible.

Reaching out

Finally, our school had a well-developed programme of outreach where we supported mainstream schools with training and advice relating to SEND. Unfortunately, my experience of this was often characterised by the “Houston, we have a problem” approach to early intervention.

A move away from seeing outreach as a responsive solution to a situation that is already at a critical point would potentially serve everyone better.

That would be possible only with a more strategic plan regarding both the creation of capacity within the specialist sector to meet that outreach need and in better recognising the early indicators that support is required.

It will need to be an approach characterised by open and honest professional reflection: an approach through which the recognition that needs are not being met is considered a professional strength rather than something to hide. One where support will be sustained and focused on developing expertise through an active partnership between the sectors, leading to improved knowledge and understanding for all.

How do we do that? Well, one area being considered by my former school is the development of better local partnership SEND expertise. The idea of schools buying in blocks of time from the specialist sector, at cost, to support continuing professional development in the mainstream classroom, may help to build pedagogical capacity with regards to meeting the needs of children with SEND. Rather than waiting for the challenges to get to a point where a mainstream education is no longer sustainable, we want to build partnerships that invest in the development of staff so that everyone is genuinely a teacher of SEND.

This collaborative approach is also being developed through the work of the Whole School SEND consortium (wholeschoolsend.com), which is working to bring about improvements in classroom practice through the shared development of supportive materials.

However, it is important to state that collaboration on SEND is not about special schools being the sole arbiter of specialist pedagogical knowledge. It is about fostering a mutual recognition of the roles that specialist and mainstream settings can play within an education system that recognises a collective responsibility for all of the children in it.

Simon Knight is director of education at the National Education Trust