“Our whole approach is about access and equality,” says the secondary school championing inclusivity for students with - and without - vision impairment
Resource Manager Gail Taylor showing pupil Eleanor, who accesses the resource, and her sighted classmate a practical experiment in a science lesson.
RNIB’s Children, Young People, Families and Education (CYPFE) team visited the Toynbee School in Hampshire. Toynbee has a purpose-built Resource Base equipped to support the needs of pupils with vision impairment (VI), and RNIB was keen to see how this centre of excellence is enabling students with (VI) to thrive.
Matthew Longden, headteacher of Toynbee, a secondary school which incorporates the Resource Base, explained how it has successfully created an inclusive and equitable environment for all pupils.
Matthew said: “The children who come to the resource provision are Toynbee children first and foremost. They just happen to have a visual impairment. Our whole approach is about access and equality. It’s about everybody being able to do anything they want. And we have really skilled teachers who facilitate that.”
The Toynbee School Resource currently supports 18 students with vision impairment, aged from 11 to 16 and spanning Years 7 to 11.
Heather Sheffield, Learning Support Assistant at Toynbee, outlined one of the ways it supports students, by adapting resources for different levels of vision.
“Often a student who has modified resources doesn’t need their support assistant beside them throughout the lesson, and in some lessons is totally independent,” she added. “With many students struggling in adolescence to have positive self-esteem around their disability, being independent can really help.”
Lewis, a 16-year-old student, has accessed the resource since Year 7 and is due to move onto college this summer. Gail Taylor, Manager of the Toynbee School Resource, has worked with him since nursery and reflected on his progress.
“I remember watching him learning the braille code in the sand, now he’s predicted 9s in lots of his subjects and is doing so well. It’s great to see.”
Toynbee’s Peer Mentor Training enables pupils with vision impairment to work alongside their peers in addition to, or instead of, a Learning Support Assistant. Sighted students receive mobility training and attend awareness courses to support their classmates with vision impairment at school and on trips.
As part of the visit, RNIB’s CYPFE team were able to observe a Design and Technology lesson where Lewis worked alongside his classmate Adam, who is one of the school’s Peer Support Mentors.
Gail talked about the benefits of the training. “Apart from allowing them to have an equitable education, it also raises awareness within the school for our sighted students. This means that the general population at Toynbee has experience of supporting, working and empathising with students with vision impairment, making for a really supportive community.”
Toynbee School’s collaborative approach between mainstream staff and the resource base team of VI education specialists is an example of the Curriculum Framework for children and young people with Vision Impairment (CFVI) in action: enabling students with VI to be fully included in the life of the school whilst being supported to develop the specialist VI skills they need to have the maximum degree of independence and prepare for adulthood.
RNIB's team of regionally based Children, Young People, Families and Education Support Officers is here to help with any questions you have about getting the right support for your child. You can contact the team by emailing [email protected] or calling the RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999.