Inclusive Practices for Children with SEND in Hartlepool Schools 

Introduction 

IMPOWER’s Inclusion Network provides us with a regular opportunity to engage with head teachers across the country. In our most recent meeting, we heard from two headteachers in Hartlepool who shared how their schools are supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Despite significant challenges, both schools remain deeply committed to improving outcomes for their pupils through ongoing innovation. Their stories not only demonstrate the positive impact of inclusive practices but also underscore the inequalities that schools face when supporting SEND children across the UK. 

School A: Focus on High Needs in a Pupil Premium-Heavy Context
School A serves a community where 60% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium funding, and 33% are on the SEND register. The school operates in the context of significant socioeconomic disadvantage—an important factor that shapes and informs every aspect of its approach to meeting pupils’ educational needs. 

Key Initiatives: 

• SEND children ‘contributing factors’ evaluation: The leadership of the school recognise that significant contributing factors can impact greatly on positive outcomes for children with SEND and therefore invests and commits to providing support for the above – e.g. breakfast and fruit snack to all, non-teaching well-being lead, 50% contribution to uniforms and free PE kits for all, free educational visits, free beds, parent coffee mornings and support groups. 

• Transition Planning: A Year 6 teacher dedicates 60% of their time in the three weeks prior to transition to prepare for incoming students. A bespoke Transition Tool, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, gathers detailed information on pupils’ attendance, family circumstances, behaviour, and SEND requirements, ensuring smoother transitions and targeted interventions. 

• The Rainbow Room: This sensory-rich environment supports young children with complex needs (ages 2 to Year 1). Established in just two weeks and funded entirely by the school, it includes soft play and other tailored resources to support early development and prevent exclusion. It currently serves around eight or nine pupils. 

• Class 7 Provision: Designed for children with the highest needs who struggle in mainstream classrooms, this nurturing environment promotes positive academic outcomes, including success in SATs, framing academic achievement as attainable for children with complex needs when they are given the right support. It was created through an overnight staff restructuring, highlighting the school’s adaptability. 

• Hartlepool Change Program and Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS): School A has invested heavily in whole school CPD through utilising funded support packages of training made available through the ‘Hartlepool Change Programme’ and are now part of the PINS initiative to further support neurodivergent children in mainstream primary schools. 

Challenges: 

School A faces ongoing challenges due to a lack of formal recognition for its efforts to support SEND pupils. Despite operating in a context of high deprivation, it is still judged against the same performance benchmarks as schools with far fewer challenges. The absence of a national definition of inclusion further complicates the landscape, particularly around school exclusions. Nevertheless, the school remains committed to inclusive education, implementing proactive and personalised strategies to support every pupil. 

School B: Managing Complex Needs at Scale 

School B is a significantly larger setting, with 1,395 pupils, including 100 with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). It also serves a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils (33%) and has the highest number of Looked After Children (LAC), children with social workers, and young carers in Hartlepool. As one of School B’s feeder schools, around 30% of pupils from School A transition there for secondary education, creating a continuity of need across both settings. 

Key Initiatives: 

• Transition Tool & Team: This school also uses a COVID-era Transition Tool that compiles soft data on new pupils. A team of 10 staff members manages the tool, analysing demographics and identifying attendance concerns. This helps allocate resources effectively and tailor support for vulnerable students from the outset. 

• Operation Encompass: This is a joint police and education initiative that supports children and young people who are exposed to domestic abuse, through the sharing of information at the earliest point so the school can provide the appropriate support and care for the child from the moment they arrive at school, following a potentially traumatic event at home. More than 50 pupils are involved in this programme in School B where the staff go above and beyond to understand a child’s behaviour and emotional wellbeing. 

• Specialised Support for High-Anxiety Pupils: The school operates units such as the Pine Unit to help pupils with anxiety or phobias integrate into mainstream education, demonstrating a tailored, trauma-informed approach. 

Challenges: 

School B faces significant demographic pressures due to the high concentration of vulnerable students. These challenges are compounded by inequities resulting from non-inclusive ways of working and practices in other schools, which often shift additional need onto more inclusive settings like School B. With limited funding and few policy incentives to support inclusive practice, much of this vital work relies heavily on the dedication and goodwill of staff. 

Conclusion 

The work of these two Hartlepool schools illustrates the profound impact that committed and innovative educators can have on children with SEND. Their focus on proactive transition planning, nurturing specialist environments, and addressing the whole child stands out as best practice in inclusive education. 

However, these efforts also reveal significant systemic issues — a lack of local contextual understanding, inadequate funding, and inconsistent definitions of inclusion — that hinder wider adoption. There is a pressing need for national policy reform to incentivise and sustain mainstream inclusion, so that all children, regardless of need or background, can thrive. 

If you would like to learn more about the work being done in Early Years provision at School A, a representative will be speaking at IMPOWER’s SEND Shared Learning Event on 27th June at 10:30am. Please contact Cara Corbett for an invitation.