It can appear to teachers that making adjustments for a young person with SEND is something very mysterious, involving lots of complicated ingredients. It is one reason why accommodations and adjustments remain undone: we fear what we don’t know, so we put it to the bottom of our to-do list and hope that it will somehow sort itself out.

Sadly, that’s not a policy that is ever going to work. But luckily for us, there are plenty of un-magical and decidedly uncomplicated things that we can do to make our classroom SEND-friendly. Even better, when we do them, we find that our lives become easier, too.

1. Tidy up

As a person who is programmed to enjoy chaos and ignore mess, it pains me to say it, but keeping your classroom tidy and organised really does make a difference. Take a leaf out of every primary teacher’s rule book and label everything. Put symbols on your labels if necessary.

2. Room layout

Make sure children and young people can access the room safely; if you need to instigate a one-way system, do it straight away. Ensure everyone can get to the bookshelves, the sink and the exit. You may have a young person who has an issue that means they have to leave the room quickly (this could be anything from anxiety to toileting or medical issues, such as diabetes). Think about where the children are going to sit in relation to their needs. This also goes for access to you or the whiteboard for children with sensory issues, such as hearing or sight impairment.

3. Displays

Display is an art form in itself, but it can, at worst, be a factor in sensory overload. Lynn McCann has some excellent advice on display in her book, How to Support Pupils with Autism Spectrum Condition in Primary School.

Think about whose work you are putting up on the wall and, if you like to print out encouraging statements that set out expectations for everyone, make sure that they include everyone. Children can very quickly see where something doesn’t apply to them and they begin to define themselves as something ‘other’ to their peers.

Pedagogy isn’t a narrow thing, confined to subject knowledge and classroom conduct. It has breadth, because everything we do has an impact. Even something as simple as the way you set up your classroom has a surprisingly large effect in ensuring that everyone is ready to learn.

Nancy Gedge is a consultant teacher for the Driver Youth Trust, which works with schools and teachers on SEND. She is the Tes SEND specialist, and author of Inclusion for Primary School Teachers