Department of Education Inspectorate reports on education for young people with special educational needs in mainstream schools

The Department of Education Inspectorate has today published a thematic report on the provision of education for children and young people with special educational needs in mainstream primary and post-primary schools.

The report, Towards High-Quality Learning Experiences for All: Provision for children and young people with special educational needs in primary and post-primary schools, draws on findings from inspections in seventeen primary schools and twelve post-primary schools conducted in 2023. It acknowledges the good practice in supporting children and young people with special educational needs in many primary and post-primary schools and calls for a whole-of-system response to supporting schools to meet their needs in the most inclusive environment possible.

Inspections included in the report focused on the quality of teaching, the learning of children and young people with special educational needs, and the school’s management and use of resources to support them. In the post-primary schools, the inspectors also examined the effectiveness of structures to foster young people’s inclusion and holistic development.

The inspections found many examples of effective teaching across the schools. At primary level, the overall quality of the teaching and the learning of children with special educational needs was found to be good or very good in most of the schools. At post-primary level, the relationships between the young people and their teachers, and between the young people and their peers, were found to be very positive in many schools, and most had effective structures in place to support inclusion.

The inspections also found areas that require improvement to ensure that all children and young people with special educational needs receive a high-quality education. For example,

There was scope for improvement in assessment practices in almost two-thirds of the primary schools, and, at post-primary level, there were weaknesses in assessment practices across the schools inspected.
The way in which many of the post-primary schools timetable support for young people with special educational needs runs the risk of the delivery of supports being disjointed.
Overall, there was a need for schools to manage the resources they receive to support children and young people with special educational needs more effectively.

The report includes recommendations to address the main areas for improvement identified through the inspections. These focus on improving assessment practices across all schools, enhancing the use of the student support file, ensuring that teachers make best use of team-teaching approaches and supporting all post-primary schools to timetable their additional teaching resources more effectively.

Publishing the report, Chief Inspector, Yvonne Keating, said:

“This report acknowledges the good practice in supporting children and young people with special educational needs in many primary and post-primary schools. It also highlights important areas that require improvement to ensure that all children and young people experience high-quality learning experiences. The areas include the organisation of support lessons in post-primary schools and assessment practices across primary and post-primary schools. The Inspectorate is committed to working with all stakeholders in implementing the report’s recommendations.”

Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD, welcomed the publication of the report and said:

“I see provision for children and young people with special educational needs as central to the Department’s mission to support high-quality education and to improve learning experiences to meet the needs of all children and young people. I am pleased that this report highlights elements of good practice in many of the primary and post-primary schools inspected. I also recognise that there are areas for development identified in the report and these require careful consideration. Consequently, I welcome the report’s recommendations, which will be very useful as my Department continues to work to build capacity across the system to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs. The report is also timely as my Department sets out to implement the recent policy advice from the National Council for Special Education: ‘An Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Society.”

Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion, Hildegarde Naughton, also welcomed the publication of the Inspectorate report and said:

“Effective provision for children and young people with special educational needs is central to promoting an inclusive education system where all are supported to fulfil their potential. This report highlights some strengths in our schools and identifies areas of concern where further work is needed.

“For example, the allocation of additional teaching resources to schools is extremely important to provide high-quality learning experiences for children and young people with special educational needs. There are now over 40,000 teaching and Special Needs Assistant posts ring-fenced in the system specifically to support children with special educational needs. It is incumbent on schools to ensure these additional resources are used to optimal effect to support children and young people with special educational needs.

“I am pleased to say there has been a detailed review over the last eighteen months of the guidance material and other supports for schools in supporting children with special educational needs. As a result the Department will be issuing updated guidance to schools in the coming weeks which will greatly assist schools in addressing many of the recommendations in this report.”

Over the last eighteen months, the Department, in conjunction with the Inspectorate, the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), and our education partners, has conducted reviews of the supports provided to schools. Arising from this work, the Department will shortly issue a number of key guidance documents and tools, along with a new circular, to support schools in the organisation of their provision for children and young people with special educational needs.

These documents will directly address the key issues raised by the Inspectorate’s report and will provide guidance and direction to schools on areas including the deployment and utilisation of the special education teaching allocation, the Continuum of Support framework, Student Support Files and Student Support Plan, whole-school inclusive practices and effective timetabling.

The full report is available at: gov - Inspectorate publications (www.gov.ie)

For further information please email inspectorate@education.gov.ie

Notes to the Editor

Further information on provision for children and young people with special educational needs in mainstream schools

The Department of Education’s vision is an education system where every child and young person feels valued, included and supported to develop and realise their full potential.
The Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools to enable the inclusion of all children and young people and to address the challenges they experience in achieving their potential.
Over the last eighteen months, the Department, in conjunction with the Inspectorate, NEPS, NCSE, and our education partners, has conducted reviews of the supports provided to schools. Arising from this work, the Department will shortly issue a number of key guidance documents and tools, along with a new circular to replace existing circulars. This will support schools in the organisation of their provision for children and young people with special educational needs.
These documents will directly address the key issues raised by the Inspectorate’s report and will provide guidance and direction to schools on areas including the deployment and utilisation of the special education teaching allocation, the Continuum of Support framework, Student Support Files and Student Support Plan, whole-school inclusive practices and effective timetabling.
There were twenty-one special classes across the schools inspected. Special classes are classes located in mainstream schools. They are designed to provide a supportive learning environment to children and young people who are unable to access the curriculum in a mainstream class, even with support, for most or all of their school day. They form part of a continuum of educational provision that enables children and young people with more complex special educational needs to be educated, in smaller class groups, within their local mainstream schools. Almost all special classes cater for children and young people with autism; a small number cater for children with a hearing impairment, children with mild general learning disabilities or children with multiple disabilities. The full list of special classes is available on the NCSE website here
The NCSE provides extensive supports to school leaders, special education teachers and whole staffs to help them improve aspects of their provision for children and young people with special educational needs, including support for assessment and planning, Student Support Files, co-teaching and leading inclusive schools.
NEPS provides educational psychological services for schools, including access to a range of teaching and assessment resources to support the provision of high-quality learning experiences to children and young people with special educational needs.
The Department of Education’s Continuum of Support Framework is designed to assist schools in identifying and responding to special educational needs. The Framework recognises that special educational needs occur along a continuum, ranging from mild to more significant and from transient to enduring, and that needs may change over time. Its use enables schools to plan, monitor and review the progress of children and young people.