Before I start this blog, I want to make it clear that I am 100% not the sort of person that does anything just for the sake of it. And that includes SEND case studies.
Schools are particularly well-versed in self-monitoring and evaluating their own practice. To put it bluntly, it is without doubt the only way to recognise what you’re doing well on a day-to-day basis and what might need improvement…and I think we can all agree that systematic reflection and action is a much more powerful tool for school development than simply being judged and told what to do by OFSTED once in a while.
Anyway…you could be forgiven for thinking that creating specific, individual case studies is not an especially useful exercise, due to the fact that they are indeed just that i.e. highly individualised one-offs, and therefore they may well not be representative of SEND support across a setting, and that is true to an extent. But, done well, case studies can offer insight into real-life situations and students’ experiences, and collectively, they can provide a useful picture of SEND provision within an institution. By exploring and analysing individual cases, school leaders can begin to measure the quality of support provided to students with special educational needs and disabilities, identify areas of strength, and pinpoint areas for improvement. Case studies therefore can serve as concrete evidence of a school's commitment to inclusive education and its ability to meet the diverse needs of its students.
So, what does a case study look like?
There really is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ template for a case study and I have personally found it can be useful to create examples which look at something quite specific e.g. successful phase transition, the impact of staff training, the introduction of a new intervention. But, generally speaking, you’d expect to see all or most of the following in a case study:
- a summary of the individual’s needs/presentation
- their strengths/weaknesses/barriers to learning etc.
- the details of that person’s ‘journey’ so far i.e. the graduated approach to support - which might include information about assessment, their response to intervention over time etc.
- examples of successes and challenges – and how they’ve been overcome
- feedback from parents/carers
- next steps/further recommendations
Click here for… Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
Compiling and summarising information about school practice can actually be a really positive experience for staff, and it can be a useful thing for those within the SEND team in a school to do together, for example as part of a staff meeting or on an INSET day. There is a definite ‘feel good factor’ seeing in black and white that what you have done for a student has made notable improvements to their experience at school or their progress and attainment. So, if you’ve not yet got around to evidencing your good practice or evaluating the impact of what you are doing for a student, think about when you might start building your case study bank. And, just for the record, OFSTED do tend to like them too. Just saying…