SEN0329
Written Evidence submitted by Spaghetti Bridge
The following submission has been written by Spaghetti Bridge Independent Special Schools Group, which is an organisation of seven special schools located in the South West and West of England. All students at Spaghetti Bridge Schools have an EHCP and many have had a negative experience of education prior to attending a Spaghetti Bridge school, often having been excluded from their previous education setting or engaging in school avoidance for extended periods of time; their diagnoses include but are not limited to autistic spectrum condition, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, pathological demand avoidance, social, emotional, and mental-health needs, attachment difficulties, and histories of trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
Spaghetti Bridge has developed a unique approach to reengaging students with education, called Enterprise Learning, which enables students to make ambitious progress towards their outcomes and aspirations. This approach is based in building trusting relationships with students and engaging in meaningful and real-world project-based learning.
1.1. The number of students with Education, Health, and Care Plans in England continues to grow, accompanied by declining mental health for children, increasing absenteeism and school refusal, and a rise in placements for students at special schools, including maintained and independent schools.[1] At Spaghetti Bridge, we have developed an approach called Enterprise Learning that has been shown to reconnect students with education, increase attendance, reduce risk, and achieve positive outcomes. We believe that many of the methods used in Enterprise Learning could be applied within mainstream school settings, thereby reducing the need for special school placements by increasing the inclusivity of the mainstream universal offer.
1.2. Key aspects of Enterprise Learning are:
1.2.1. an emphasis on building cultures of relationships and high expectations as opposed to rewards and sanctions[2]
1.2.2. designing beautiful school environments based on sensory practice and biophilic design principles[3]
1.2.3. using projects, real-world experiences and the public presentation of beautiful work to foster intrinsic motivation to learn[4]
1.2.4. working through emotions and teaching emotional regulation through neuroscientific principles such as triune brain theory and the integration of therapeutic models into the heart of the curriculum in order to improve student behaviour and engagement with learning[5]
1.2.5. a focus on “deep learning” through the use of open questions, student-centred practices, and seeing students as knowledge creators and active participants in the learning process[6]
1.3. In order to support the delivery of our Enterprise Learning approach, Spaghetti Bridge has developed a comprehensive staff training and development programme based on situated learning and experiential approaches
2.1. Long term absences: Many students struggle to attend school due to high levels of anxiety; this is commonly known as persistent absenteeism and emotionally-based school avoidance (EBSA). This is an issue for the student population in general, but even more so for children and young people with SEND.[7] In many mainstream schools, current approaches to this phenomenon include punitive measures such as fining parents, punishing students for absenteeism and lateness, reminding students of lost learning due to absence, sending school staff or the police to the homes of students who are persistently absent. However, these measures often fail due to the fact that they raise anxiety for both families and students around attending school and therefore exacerbate the problem.
2.1.1. At Spaghetti Bridge schools, we seek to reduce anxiety and encourage a positive relationship to school attendance through:
2.1.2. A well structured and phased pedagogical approach that allows teachers to set targets/milestones centred around building trust, fostering relationships and inspiring confidence and reduce anxiety around school attendance
2.1.3. listen to students and families about the reasons for non-attendance and to develop individualised strategies for encouraging increased attendance
2.1.4. A well structured three phased approach which recognises that anxiety is normal and and enables the adaptation of the curriculum to specific student needs
2.1.5. Following a ‘Beautiful Schools’ approach which lays out clear parameters on how the school environment fosters collaboration rather than containment and meets the sensory needs of all students
2.1.6. building expectations around attendance through agreed-upon shared values, not punishment
2.1.7. implementing a curriculum and learning approach that is experiential, fun, and challenging and builds on students’ interests
2.2. Home-schooling: many families have turned to home-schooling their children with SEND due to the belief that their children’s needs are not being met within the mainstream school environment and could be better met at home.[8] However, this places a tremendous burden on families and is only an option for families that have the resources and time to supervise and support the learning of their children at home.
2.2.1. At Spaghetti Bridge, we work with families to support their understanding of what their children are learning and why this is important and include families in co-planning student learning so that their voice is heard within their children’s learning programme.
2.3. Exclusions: many students with SEND at Spaghetti Bridge schools have a record of being excluded from either mainstream or specialist schools for challenging behaviour and this is part of a wider trend of students with SEND being much more likely to be excluded.[9] This often results in significant time out of education or in alternative provision of variable quality.
2.3.1. Our approach at Spaghetti Bridge uses a combination of research based relational strategies, curriculum structure and target frameworks to build trusting and positive relationships with students.
2.3.2. A three phase curriculum approach with embedded knowledge and skills targets structured around building relationships in order to prepare students for academic knowledge and skills acquisition
2.3.3. We also validate emotions instead of trying to control them and view behaviour as an expression of need and a form of communication. This is reinforced through our relational support policies where ‘behaviour management’ is exercised through boundaries rather than through punitive behaviour structures, which enables our staff to work through behaviour and rupture and to view challenging behaviour as an opportunity for learning and making better choices moving forward. This approach is couched in what we refer to as a culture of relationships, as opposed to a culture of control. The result is that many students who were excluded from their previous setting instead thrive at their Spaghetti Bridge School.
2.3.4. An example of the effectiveness and impact of this approach on student attendance is that at one Spaghetti Bridge school:
2.3.4.1. c. 33% of students on roll and attending had previously been out of school an average of 33 months
2.3.4.2. 66% of students on roll and attending had a previous placement at mainstream school which broke down
2.3.4.3. 50% of the students who had a previous placement at a special school which broke down
2.3.4.4. During Spring 1 2025, the average weekly unauthorised absence for all students was 3.81%
2.4. Recommendations: for mainstream schools to adopt the following:
2.4.1.1. A more relational, as opposed to punitive and behaviourist, approach, based in current psychological and educational research, to supporting student attendance, engagement, and behaviour.
2.4.1.2. For a skills/emotional target setting framework to be put in place to allow teachers to demonstrate that those students who are not prepared for straight academic learning to make progress.
2.4.1.3. For teachers and school administrators to be allowed to be more flexible and deviate from the national curriculum.
3.1. In order to ensure that all of our staff are supported to work to consistently meet the needs of all our students and support them to achieve their outcomes and aspirations through the delivery of Enterprise Learning, Spaghetti Bridge has designed and implemented a comprehensive staff induction and continuous professional development programme. This follows the insights of Ron Berger, author and founder of EL Education at Harvard, in seeing teaching as a high-skill profession requiring skill and craftsmanship.[10]
3.2. Our staff development programme is based in a number of key principles:
3.2.1.1. Delivery of staff development through a “situated learning” approach, in which staff members learn key concepts and skills, apply them through their work with students, and then reflect on how their practice develops as a result[11]
3.2.1.2. Development of staff awareness of their own mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing and how this impacts on their interactions and relationships with students[12]
3.2.1.3. Partnership with and co-development of staff training courses with external partnerships, such as Psychology Associates, the Jurassic Maths Hub, and external leadership coaching
3.2.1.4. Grounding all staff training content in current best-practice and evidence-based research
3.2.1.5. Provision of online learning tools to reinforce staff learning on a continuous basis
3.2.1.6. Creation of train the trainer courses to ensure the consistency of the quality of staff learning
3.2.1.7. Inclusion of comprehensive training around specific SEND needs- such as attachment, trauma, ASC, ADHD, PDA, etc.- how to recognise these needs and adapt pedagogical approaches for the needs of specific students
3.2.1.8. Extension of training beyond knowledge and skills to include a focus on staff acquisition a “teacher mindset”, characterised by curiosity, ambition, empathy, resilience, and creativity.[13]
3.3. An example of a Spaghetti Bridge course is the Fundamentals Course. All new staff join this course as part of their induction. The intention of the course is dual: participants are introduced to the key concepts of the Enterprise Learning Approach and then are expected to apply these concepts in the completion of a project overseen by an industry expert. In order to complete the project, staff must step out of their comfort zones, build relationships, work as a team, and acquire and utilise new skills. The result is not only that staff learn the concepts of Enterprise Learning, but in addition have a similar cognitive and emotional experience to that of our students, increasing staff empathy and understanding of our students’ perspective.
3.4. The result of this staff development programme is that Spaghetti Bridge staff have the skills, knowledge and mindset to consistently deliver and adapt our curriculum and approach to the SEND profiles of individual students.
3.5. Recommendation: for quality standards for high quality training and continuous professional development for all educational staff to be introduced for mainstream schools that focuses on situated and experiential learning, including a focus on emotional intelligence and self-awareness, backed by current best-practice research and includes modules around working with specific SEND needs.These standards should also include measurements of how a school fosters a “learning culture” and “teacher mindset” for all staff and the impact that this has on inclusion and SEND engagement and learning.
4.1. All students are unique and move through a school’s curriculum at different paces, yet the way in which the National Curriculum is currently designed and delivered does not allow for flexibility in relation to the rate of each student’s learning. This is even more true for students with SEND, as the curriculum moves forward whether they have mastered the material or not. This leads to gaps in their learning and an increasing distance between the expectations of the curriculum and the level of their learning.
4.2. However, there are also concerns that, without a solid curriculum framework with consistent expectations relating for all students, standards will be lowered for those who fall behind or have SEND, leading to less ambitious outcomes for these students, as well as implementing strategies such as segregation out of the classroom, ‘parking’ or ‘isolation’.
4.3. The third area of concern is that, in the desire for curriculum breadth, curriculum depth is sacrificed, meaning that students skim the surface of the curriculum without being able to engage in the deep learning that happens when students are supported to really investigate one particular area or topic in the curriculum.
4.4. Finally, the desire for breadth of knowledge acquisition and exam preparation can lead to “teaching to the test” and rote learning based in retrieval and identification learning as opposed to more dynamic pedagogical approaches oriented towards preparing students with both the necessary knowledge and skills to prepare students to thrive in their post-school lives in the world of the 21st century and beyond.
4.5. Therefore, Spaghetti Bridge has written its own curriculum framework, following the guidelines set out by the Ofsted curriculum research project. This framework covers the same knowledge domains as the National Curriculum, but structures these domains according to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy into factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge.[14] In addition, the curriculum also contains a skills framework, with such areas of learning developing a learning mindset, executive functioning, and the ability to think creatively and divergently.
4.6. This curriculum has particular advantages for students with SEND:
4.6.1. through the inclusion of procedural knowledge, students are able to apply their learning to practical situations, making learning more meaningful, interesting, concrete, and memorable
4.6.2. by eliminating the false choice of a curriculum based in the acquisition of knowledge or skills, the framework emphasises the importance of both skill and knowledge outcomes
4.6.3. a curriculum based in practical learning, open questions and problem solving reduces anxiety around “getting it wrong” and rewards positive risk taking and resilience, which can be a significant barrier to engaging in education for many students with SEND[15]
4.6.4. the flexible nature of a practical and project-based curriculum allows students to experience both broad and deep deep learning, increasing interest and engagement in the curriculum and allowing the curriculum to be adapted to their rate of learning
4.6.5. the curriculum structure allows staff to plan students’ curriculum starting with their interests and abilities while simultaneously providing pathways into wider learning as part of a spiral curriculum design and maintaining high standards for students with SEND’s learning
4.6.6. the skills framework provides a structure for assessing students with SEND’s’ barriers to learning according to their Education, Health and Care plans in the main areas of SEND: cognition and learning, communication and interaction, social, emotional and mental health, and sensory, motor, and physical, integrating these into the wider curriculum as part of a holistic learning programme; this can also reduce the need for extra-curricular therapeutic interventions
4.7. Recommendations:
4.7.1. for mainstream schools to adopt more practical and experiential approaches to curriculum delivery for SEND students, harnessing their intrinsic motivation to learn and natural curiosity
4.7.2. for more flex to be enabled in the curriculum so that students can both engage in deep learning and not move on in the curriculum until they have mastered learning is a specific domain, particularly for students with SEND
4.7.3. clarify what exactly is meant by “knowledge” and “skills” through well-articulated framework and include skills such as emotional intelligence, creativity, executive functioning, and a learning mindset in all subjects, which would benefit all students but would be particularly beneficial for students with SEND
5.1. Spaghetti Bridge is committed to supporting the ability to the education to meet the needs of all students, particularly those with SEND, and to create more inclusive schools so that students with SEND are not traumatised by their experience of education to the point where they refuse to attend school, are no longer willing or able to engage in learning, or engage in behaviour that disrupts their own and/or others’ learning to the point where these students are excluded from school. It is our belief that small changes in the ways in which many mainstream schools relate to students, train their staff, and design their curriculum offer could make a significant difference for a large number of students with SEND.
5.2. In order to make this happen, though, many schools will need to shift their mindset towards students who have diverse needs. This new mindset should involve being curious about who students are and how they experience their world at school and beyond on the way to understanding better how to meet their needs. This would be the first step in creating more inclusive school environments that will enable students to thrive and discover what they can achieve when their needs are met.
January 2025
[1] IFS Report. “Spending on special educational needs in England: something has to change”, (2024); NHS, “Mental health of children and young people in England 2023”, (2023); National Audit Office, “Support for children and young people with special educational needs”, (2024).
[2] Baker and Simpson, “Why our school has no sanctions or punishments”, TES (2020).
[3] NDRC, “Bringing in the outdoors: the benefits of biophilia”, (2020).
[4] Filippatou and Kaldi, “The effectiveness of project-based learning on pupils with learning difficulties regarding academic performance, group work and motivation”, International Journal of Special Education Needs, (2010).
[5] Morganti et al., Index for social emotional technologies: Challenging approaches to inclusive education, Routledge (2019).
[6] Mehta and Fine, In search of deeper learning, Harvard University Press (2019).
[7] Students with SEND are 21% more likely to be persistently absent from school compared with those without SEND, Shao et al., “Persistent absenteeism: who is missing from school since the pandemic?”, CEPEO UCL (2023).
[8] BBC, “More families being ‘forced’ into home education”, (2024).
[9] Department for Education, “Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England: Autumn term 2023/2024”, (2024).
[10] Berger, An ethic of excellence: Building a culture of craftsmanship with students, Heineman (2003).
[11] Atwal, The thinking school: Developing a dynamic learning community, Hatchette, (2019); Korthagen, “A foundation for effective teacher education: Teacher education pedagogy based on situated learning”, in The SAGE handbook of teacher education, (2017).
[12] Paris et al., “Exposure to challenging behaviour and staff psychological well-being: The importance of psychological flexibility and organisational support in special education settings”, Research in developmental disabilities, (2021).
[13] Husni et al., “The impact of growth mindset on teaching practices in special education”, Journal of social science and education studies, (2024); MacDonnell et al., “Teacher mindset is associated with development of students’ growth mindset”, Journal of applied developmental psychology, (2021).
[14] Krathwohl et al., A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational ObjectivesI, Longman, (2001).
[15] Filippatou and Kaldi, “The effectiveness of project-based learning on pupils with learning difficulties regarding academic performance, group work and motivation”, International Journal of Special Education Needs, (2010).