Strategies for Fostering an Inclusive Classroom Environment

The world is changing and adapting all the time, and so is education and the children that we teach. With more needs being identified in the young people in our settings, it is more important than ever that we consider the inclusive classroom environments that we create in our own settings.

As adults, in our personal and work life, we all want to feel valued, safe, and to be supported. To do this though, we may all need something slightly different. Some of us want regular chats and check ins and some don’t. Some people need movement, some need to fiddle, to doodle and some of us need more breaks than others. We all work in different ways and we all need different things. The children in our classes are just the same. This is why an inclusive (and flexible) classroom is so important. When children have their own needs supported (learning, personal and physical), they will be ready and able to make the best possible progress.

In this blog, we will explore nine different areas/strategies to consider that could be part of your ongoing journey to creating your inclusive classroom environment.

What Do We Mean by an Inclusive Classroom?

In the simplest sense, an inclusive classroom means creating a space where every child, no matter what their individual needs are, is given the support to be able to achieve and succeed.

We need to look at the children in our class, identify what they need to be successful and then be flexible to change and adapt to make this possible for them.

This may involve creating bespoke, personalised plans to meet the needs of specific children, but could also be much smaller changes. For example, changing transition times, planning in class movement breaks, considering an accessible layout, recordable resources to support communication, calming spaces, and much more.

I like to think of it from three perspectives. Firstly, establishing an ethos which celebrates our uniqueness. Secondly, considering the environment (physical and emotional) to enable everyone to be included. Thirdly, supporting children’s needs through our high quality adaptive teaching.

1. Identifying and Understanding Diverse Learning Needs

For any inclusive classroom, it is really important to fully understand the strengths and needs of the children in it. Be curious and spend time initially learning about what your children are amazing at and then what they need more support with. For some, they may have a diagnosed learning, physical and/or social emotional need. For others, it may be our responsibility to be curious and identify these needs. Even when children have a diagnosed need, understanding what that means for the individual is vital.

One helpful strategy is to ‘Ask why five times (roughly)’. Often what we see on the surface is not always the area that the child needs most support with.

For example, you may have a child who is regularly fidgeting, lying down or leaning on furniture during carpet time. You start by thinking they need support with attention and listening skills. But when you ask ‘why’ a few more times, you may discover they are actually struggling with the sitting part. Therefore, their gross motor skills are the area we need to support first.

Only when we really understand the diverse learning needs of our learners, including those with SEND, can we implement the right support.

2. Adapting the Physical Environment

The physical layout of a classroom and being able to access it as independently as possible, can have a big impact on a young person’s ability to participate and feel included.

You might consider:

• Quiet zones or sensory corners with different resources, such as for those who are sensory seeking or sensory avoiding, to calm and regulate.
• Visual signs and supports, such as for directions, timetables or to label resources.
• Flexible seating to allow for movement and comfort.
• Acoustic factors and supporting children who find it overstimulating. High ceilings in classrooms can sometimes have a big impact, or the constant whirring of a projector.
• Smells at different times of the day, for example if you are near the kitchen before lunch can be a tricky time for some.
• Furniture that encourages independence and at the right height for pupils.
• Pupil positioning for easy access to resources, whiteboards, etc.

Take a step back and look at your learning space through the eyes of different learners. Do they have access to what they need to feel supported and included?

3. Inclusive Physical Resources

Start from the needs of the children and identify if there are any physical resources that could support. Having these readily available for everyone to access when needed, makes them simply part of the norm for all.

For example:

• For children who need movement to concentrate, you might use a wobble cushion, wedge, fidgety feet or stretchy chair band.
• To aid communication, you could use a recordable resource to help children verbalise their thoughts or a Chatterboard to communicate choices.
• For sensory support, children could have access to a fidget, a chew, a weighted resource, calming lights, something tactile, resources for spinning, twisting or pressure, or possibly ear defenders if noise is a personal trigger.
• Consider additional support to access learning such as manipulatives, vocabulary boards, etc.

Also, consider the representation in resources so that every child can ‘see themselves’ in the resources you have. For example books or posters with characters from different races, cultures and abilities.

4. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a proactive teaching approach that aims to support all learners by offering different/multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression.

Implementing UDL might look like:

• Presenting and teaching the lesson content in different ways, such as visual, auditory, or through hands on learning.
• Offering multiple options for students to demonstrate their understanding, such as written, artistic, verbally, through presentations, etc.
• Providing choices in tasks to increase motivation.
• Using scaffolding tools like graphic organisers, sentence starters, and checklists.

Universal Design for Learning focusses on planning lessons that are flexible in design from the outset, rather than needing to make adaptations along the way. Lessons will be responsive to the needs of the children and allow them to learn and present their learning in the most effective way.

 5. Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning can be a great way to promote peer interaction, and a sense of belonging in the classroom. When children work together, they not only learn from each other and gain different perspectives, but they also learn important social skills such as empathy and teamwork.

Some things to consider:

• Vary groups for different tasks – you may want to group children based on specific strengths and knowledge for different activities. This can allow all children to have a chance to be the group expert.
• Use roles within group tasks, so everyone can contribute.
• Celebrate how the groups work together and not just the end result.
• Explicitly teach collaborative skills, such as active listening and resolving conflict.

6. Behaviour ‘Management’

The most important thing to remember is that behaviour is a form of communication.  Children use their behaviour to try and tell us something they need us to know, and not always in the best way. Often the children who show us the most challenging behaviour, are the children who need our care and support the most. Many behaviours are connection-seeking rather than attention-seeking.

The strategies we put into place in other areas of the classroom, can often help support children’s behaviour rather than focussing on simply ‘managing’ it. We can be ‘curious’ about what is causing their behaviour and work to support them so we see the behaviours reduce.

It is also important to consider the starting point of children so that we don’t set unrealistic behaviour expectations. For example, if we know that a child has ADHD and for them, they find it challenging to sit and need regular movement to support them, we need to provide them with a tool/strategy for this. You may offer a wobble cushion or chances to get up and move. We know this is an area they are working to develop, so we need to adjust our behaviour expectations to reflect this.

Clearly communicating our expectations with visual prompts can also help, along with having consistent routines and expectations across different lessons and times of the day.

7. Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

A focus on social emotional learning gives children the opportunity to develop hugely valuable life skills, such as self-awareness, self-regulation and empathy. This is not an ‘add-on’ and can be built into your everyday classroom routines and activities. Model, reflect and share your own emotions and support children with strategies for emotional regulation. Provide space and time for them to practise these skills.

Build a compassionate inclusive classroom community. Let children see that they are a team of many diverse individuals!

For more detailed ideas, read the ‘Mentally Healthy Classrooms’ Blog series written by expert Ruth Lue-Quee.

8. High-Quality Adaptive Teaching

High-quality adaptive teaching is a phrase that essentially means we need to ensure our teaching is responsive to the needs of our learners.  We need to be flexible so that we can vary the way we teach, what we teach and the strategies we use so that all children are given the opportunity to meet expectations.

This could include (but is not limited to):

• Differentiating tasks by outcome, process, or level of support.
• Using formative assessment to identify where students are and adjust your teaching in the moment.
• Providing scaffolds or additional modelling to support independence with a learning task, such as physical manipulatives, sentence stems, or word banks.
• Breaking up tasks into smaller parts to support understanding or to allow for movement/regulation break.
• Considering the pace and time for activities – both speeding up or slowing down.
• Letting children choose how to present their learning in a way that suits them.
• Offering stretch and challenge for those pupils that need it as well as support for those who are finding it trickier.

 9. Take Time to Listen (to Children and Families)

Inclusion is a partnership. Take time to listen to the opinions and voices of all and particularly those it is most aiming to support – our pupils and their families. Just as we, as adults, want to be listened to and heard, the children in our classes are just the same. We all work better when we feel listened to and that our opinion matters. What we want may not always be possible – but our views have been acknowledged.

As with everything, start by listening to their strengths. What do they think makes them amazing? Then ask children to reflect on what they need. Children can often be the best advocates in explaining what helps them. For example, having a discussion about how they want to be supported in different situations, so they feel part of the decision-making process.

Listening builds trust and ensures that the strategies we use to support our learners are relevant, respectful, and responsive.

Final Thoughts: Inclusion Is a Journey, Not a Destination

Creating an inclusive classroom is an evolving and continuous process. It not only supports the individual needs of our children and young people, but also creates a community that values and celebrates diversity.

Although there can be many different strategies, tools and resources that can be implemented to create an inclusive environment, they all stem from one simple thing. Take time to understand the needs of pupils and be curious and flexible to put things in place to help them.

When we look at the classroom through the eyes of each of our pupils and place ourselves in their shoes, we can begin to understand how they feel and therefore what we can do to support them.