I work in a school with 1 form of entry.  I have 1 class in my year group.  I have been reflecting on pupils with SEN and feel that they really get a poor deal.  We are told to rotate the different groups - so when I or my TA are not supporting these children ie 3 sessions out of 5 - they do "differentiated" work - much of it is well within their ability as any sign of difficulty and they are unable to cope independently. 

For example, when the rest of the class were researching books to write a report - they were simply writing CVC words etc.

Our head does not like the idea of these children being withdrawn from class - ie they need to be included.  But I feel that there is only so much you can differientiate with such a wide gap.  I am of the opinion that they SHOULD be withdrawn for literacy and numeracy and work in a small group.

I would be interested in hearing from others.

I currently have 11 children on the SEN register and luckily have a full time TA. The class are split into 4 groups ( although not all my SEN children are in the lowest ability group!) and my TA and I rotate round each group during the week. it really is important to me that they learn to work independently, too many will simply sit and wait for help! They are removed for group work but this is outside the literacy and numeracy sessions-otherwise they miss out on the input and parts of the lessons they can access. the work is differentiated for them, they can write sentences ( although not always easy to read!) and if they are working without support I ask them to do lots of paired activities or role play/speaking and listening/sequencing/matching activities rather than lots of writing. When supported, they do lots of shared and guided writing before writing independently. It really does depend on the mix of abilities you have ( mine go from L1c to 4C in writing and 1A to 4B in maths) and how independently your SEN children can work-but they can only work independently if you teach them how!

Last year our SEN children went in and out of lessons constantly to attend different support groups and it was a nightmare.  The teachers also felt that they didn't have to teach these children as it was all done in the groups. 

This year we have changed it and everyone says it has been much better.  The TA's now start work at 8.30 and everyone runs a support group before school until 9.00. Some children attend 5 sessions a week and others 3 or 2.  When the TA's work in the classroom they are there to support all pupils.