ISC Daily News Summary

iNews takes a closer look at Labour's plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, including the creation of specialist units within mainstream schools. Such classrooms would offer tailored teaching, sensory areas, and small-group learning, helping pupils access the curriculum while staying close to their local school. The paper considers how these units, already piloted in Barking and Dagenham, can reduce costs and improve inclusion compared with traditional special schools. Speaking to the paper, Martin Nicholson, Barking and Dagenham's virtual headteacher for SEND, explains that one such unit for 12 children with autism is staffed by two full-time teachers alongside a small group of support staff. He says this "intense" staffing ensures pupils get the "best education possible", but adds that "significant" investment would be required to implement the strategy on a wider scale. By Connie Dimsdale.

As discussions about potential SEND reforms intensify, academics Rob Webster and Brahm Norwich write in Tes that ministers should pause and engage the public in an open conversation about the best path forward. Calling for a "citizens' assembly", they say: "In line with the kind of thinking that has prompted the government to lower the voting age to 16, young people with SEND have a right to express their views on public policy that affects their lives, such as how schools are designed." Rob Webster is a senior research fellow at the University of Greenwich and Brahm Norwich is emeritus professor of educational psychology and SEND at the University of Exeter.

Schools have been told to "trial and exhaust" supervised rest breaks for pupils needing extra support in exams before applying for 25 per cent additional time. New guidance from Ofqual notes that rest breaks are "often more effective and appropriate" for candidates, and that extra time "may not address the underlying issue". Schools are also reminded that it is their responsibility to produce evidence on an application, and requests from parents alone are not sufficient. By Ruth Lucas, Schools Week.

Schools must offer separate toilets and changing rooms for boys and girls to be used on the basis of a child’s biological sex, the Scottish government has said in updated guidance. Transgender students can no longer use "the facilities they feel most comfortable with", as had been the case, but schools are encouraged to offer gender-neutral facilities or access to disabled and staff toilets for the relatively small number of young people affected. By Libby Brooks, The Guardian. 

Four senior leaders share their experiences of life and work in Vietnam, a country where the international school sector has grown rapidly. Freya Odell, head of International Baccalaureate at Brighton College Vietnam, suggests teachers are sometimes more attracted to the country than to the role itself, so she recommends that those applying ensure they "show knowledge of the school and a reason for joining". At Viet Nam Tinh Hoa, a primary school of around 100 pupils in Ho Chi Minh City and part of North London Collegiate School (NLCS) International, John McEnhill, head of junior school, reflects on the realities of behaviour management in the classroom, which is largely universal in nature. "Someone coming here shouldn’t expect to not have to manage behaviour at all - a five-year-old is a five-year-old at the end of the day," he says. By Dan Worth, Tes.