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After thoroughly brainstorming all three GCSE briefs for their non-exam assessment, a small group of my Year 11 students chose ‘addressing the needs of people with disabilities’ for their contextual challenge. To support this, I contacted a local special needs school to team up and work together with and was put in touch with Jason Swaine Hughes, who was a secondary teacher.

Last September I took fourteen students to visit Ash Field Academy, which is just a ten-minute walk away from our school. The visit began with a tour of the school by the students of Ash Field who were so proud of their school as they showed us all the rooms and different activities they all did. Back in their classroom our students interacted with each other to understand their disabilities and needs at a much deeper and personal level. They asked questions and interviewed each other about topics such as communication and mobility, allowing them to build and form relationships. What was supposed to be an opportunity to help my students gauge a

starting point for their coursework and carry out some research for their prototypes, actually turned out to be a whole lot more. When we returned to school that afternoon, we took some time to sit together as a group, to understand and reflect on our experience. Rather than discussing their coursework and types of products they wanted to develop, the students’ attention turned to considering the simple things that they did not even notice and take for granted, such as walking, talking and eating. They expressed how the students that they met at Ash Field seemed so happy and how they at Crown Hills complained about minor things like having to wear smart shoes or standing in the lunch queue to sitting on a hard assembly floor.

It was suggested by the senior leadership team and head of year that their powerful experience should be shared with the rest of the school and an assembly was suggested. I thought that it would have taken a bit of convincing from myself, but the students were so emotionally moved by their visit that they naturally wanted to share their thoughts

Stepping outside the classroom

After thoroughly brainstorming all three GCSE briefs for their non-exam assessment, a small group of my Year 11 students chose ‘addressing the needs of people with disabilities’ for their contextual challenge. To support this, I contacted a local special needs school to team up and work together with and was put in touch with secondary teacher, Jason Swaine Hughes.

Preeti Sagoo, Crown Hills Community College

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and encounters; we invited Mr Swaine Hughes from Ash Field Academy along too.

The impact of the visit was immeasurable on so many different levels for both my oblivious fourteen students and myself. I realised how hard the staff at Ash Field work to meet the needs of their children and came to understand that there was so much more to teaching and learning than the lesson objectives on our boards and how much more we learnt by actually stepping outside the classroom. This was a life experience and something that I could not have taught from a textbook or from an awarding body’s specification.

The visit clearly demonstrated that giving students a powerful starting point made them more socially aware and responsible. The visit has strengthened community cohesion as my students have said that they have met Ash Field students in the park or shopping and have started to recognise each other and say hello. Maybe without this GCSE brief this encounter would never have happened and these new relationships would never have formed.

The act of stepping outside the classroom and connecting through emotional engagement gave this group of young people an experience of immense value and a sense of realisation not just for coursework but also for their own personal growth and development.

An extract from Layla’s conclusion to the assembly

‘’I would like to conclude this assembly with about being grateful. The word grateful means feeling or showing an appreciation for something done or received. We don’t do either of these things. We take everything, whether big or small, to our advantage. We complain about everything and become so self-centred we don’t see everything or anything for what it is. Right across the road, less than 15 minutes away, lies a school for children with special needs.

Children younger and older than us, ranging from the tender age of four and even all the way to age 19, attend school but are deprived from basic needs – because their bodies can’t function – and have no choice but to be dependent on others. There is a big difference between them and us. I’m not talking about the fact that we are more able than most of them, but how they are. They were happy. Despite being unable to complete basic tasks, they are grateful. They are grateful for every little thing because they value life, yet we have more. So how is it that they are happier than us?

It all comes down to ignorance. Having everything makes a person ignorant. This is a known fact. We are ignorant. We are ignorant to the fact that there are children, not only 15 minutes away, but worldwide who must drink their food through straws, who can’t talk, and who will never be able to stand again. We are ignorant in the sense that we have so much that we can’t see what we have. And yet, we still want so much more and if we don’t get it, we complain.

After going to Ash Field Academy, I felt so guilty. I felt guilty because I can walk, I can talk, and I can eat but I didn’t know the value of any of these basic functions. I wasn’t grateful. But after this humbling experience, after seeing the children happy from ear to ear upon seeing us, I knew about the value of life. I know about the value of life. No longer will I complain about having to walk, no longer will I complain about having to excessively write, and no longer will I complain about having to do speeches. I am grateful for everything, for my parents, my friends and my teachers and I am grateful that you have taken time to listen to our presentation. I hope that you have learnt something, and we can all be appreciative for what we have. Thank you for listening.’’