Meaningful Inclusion Through Immersive Storytelling

While schools, carers and children face a growing crisis in SEND provision, at now>press>play, we firmly believe that high-quality immersive storytelling allows all children to learn together - in the same room, at the same time, in the same story. Our inclusive content means there is no need to leave any child behind. Instead, we create deeply inclusive and joyful learning experiences, where every pupil can engage at their own level while interacting with their peers. Here are two powerful examples from schools who’ve found that the now>press>play way helps every child feel included and inspired. 

At Grangetown Primary School, one third of pupils have been identified as needing SEND support. Here, a Year 1 teacher describes how the school uses now>press>play to provide inclusive, sensory learning:

“We carefully plan lessons to be as sensory and as hands-on practical as we can so that our SEND children are able to still achieve the objectives, but in a different way. So, it's thinking outside the box really, which is where now>press play really does fit in for us.” - Daniel Bowman, Year 1 teacher, Grangetown Primary School

Mr Bowman points out how now>press>play works for all his learners in the classroom, showing how a high-quality inclusion resource can help level the playing field:

"The SEND children are getting as much out of it as the children at a higher level, so across the board they're all engaged, they're doing their tasks, they're following the instructions."

Meanwhile, Stoke Hill Junior School in Exeter also has a higher-than-average intake of SEND pupils. Robyn Chard-Maple, a Year 4 teacher, recounts how one pupil with autism grasped the concept of trading during an Ancient Greece Experience: 

"When she put on those headphones, she realised: ‘I'm a girl in Ancient Greece, I'm now learning how to trade’. You could see her suddenly pretending she was picking up a basket of olives, passing it to her friend, pretending to exchange coins. I thought, 'She understands that trading means buying and selling,' which I know she wasn't grasping in the classroom." 

Ms. Chard-Maple also comments on how this confidence continues when participating in our follow-on literacy and oracy exercises, which accompany every piece of now>press>play content: 

"I'll ask them a question, and the responses I get are much more confident from those lower ability children in particular, and the SEND children. They're more confident, and I sense and see that they're happier to have a go. They've been able to access their learning in a different way, so they've been much more engaged in that subject." 

And finally, it’s not just Grangetown Primary and Stoke Hill Junior schools who are experiencing this impacts, as these survey results make clear: