In this third post in our Preparing your school’s Inclusion Strategy series, we bring together insights from Gemma Gwilliam and Dave Presky, two digital specialists working at the intersection of inclusion, technology, and school‑wide systems. Drawing on real‑world experience, they explore how digital tools can support inclusive practice, reduce cognitive load, and help schools translate their Inclusion Strategy into something pupils and staff experience every day.

One of the most consistent messages from the work I’ve done with schools is that inclusion improves fastest when it is treated as a design issue, not a diagnosis. The schools that have made the biggest gains didn’t start by adding new interventions; they started by looking honestly at their universal offer and where unnecessary barriers were being created for pupils every day.

How consistent is the pupil experience across your school?

A helpful starting point is to consider how predictable and consistent the pupil experience really is. Across many schools, barriers often came not from the learning itself but from the systems around it. In some cases, different platforms were used in different classes; in others, there were different expectations about how instructions were given, how work was completed, or how children were expected to respond. For pupils with SEND, this inconsistency added significant cognitive load and was frequently mistaken for learning need. Improving clarity and consistency across the school had a noticeable impact on those pupils, while also making learning more manageable for everyone else.

Are you making the most of what you already have?

Another key question is how effectively schools are making use of the tools they already have. Most settings already use platforms such as Microsoft or Google and devices like Chromebooks, iPads, or Windows laptops, all of which include powerful built in accessibility features. Tools for dictation, text to speech, captions, screen reading, visual adjustments, and structured templates can remove barriers immediately but only if staff understand what is available and pupils are explicitly taught how and when to use them. One recurring issue was that these features existed but were not part of everyday teaching, meaning pupils remained reliant on adult support rather than developing independence. Building time into the curriculum to teach all pupils how to use these tools is an essential inclusion strategy in its own right.

What about training?

It is also important to consider staff needs as part of the universal offer. Inclusion is undermined when tools are introduced without adequate training, shared understanding, or time to embed them. In more inclusive settings, schools invested in helping all staff feel confident using a small number of agreed approaches well, rather than expecting individuals to find their own solutions. This reduced workload, improved consistency, and made inclusive practice more sustainable.

Including the wider school community

Parents and carers are another group often overlooked in inclusion planning. Clear, consistent use of technology can either strengthen home school communication or create additional barriers. Where schools aligned their systems for pupils, staff, and families by using shared platforms, common language and accessible formats, parents reported feeling better informed and more able to support their children. This was particularly important for families of children with SEND, where uncertainty or confusion can quickly become an additional barrier to learning.

Robust and inclusive assessment provision

When thinking about Inclusive Mainstream Funding, the most effective use was rarely about purchasing something new. Instead, it was about investing in approaches that improved quality first teaching at scale, built staff confidence, supported pupil independence, and made better use of systems already embedded across the school community. This made impact visible in everyday classrooms and easier to articulate within an Inclusion Strategy.

Of course, there are points in the system where additional considerations apply, particularly around statutory assessment. Writing moderation at the end of Key Stage 2 and formal examinations at the end of Key Stage 4 bring legitimate requirements around evidence, standardisation, and compliance. In these contexts, inclusive approaches still matter, but they must be implemented carefully and transparently. In practice, schools have been most successful where they have worked with specialist organisations such as Crick Software to ensure that their everyday inclusive practice aligns with moderation and assessment requirements, including JCQ compliance. This has enabled schools to maintain a strong universal offer while ensuring that pupils can access assessment fairly and that outcomes remain robust and defensible.

Do our policies truly reflect their experiences?

Before drafting the strategy itself, my biggest piece of advice would be to map what pupils, staff and families actually experience day to day, rather than what policies suggest should happen. Walking through a typical lesson, communication or learning task from different perspectives often highlights barriers that paperwork never reveals.

And a useful final question to ask is: if a pupil with additional needs joined tomorrow, how much of our universal offer would already work for them, and how confident would the adults around them be in supporting that?

Gemma’s key takeaways for Inclusion Strategy planning

Inclusion works best when it is designed in from the start. Schools that improved inclusion fastest focused on strengthening their universal offer and removing everyday barriers, rather than relying on additional interventions once pupils struggled.

Consistency matters as much as support. Inconsistent systems, platforms and expectations created unnecessary cognitive load for many pupils with SEND. Aligning routines and approaches across classrooms improved access for those pupils and reduced pressure for everyone.

Use what you already have – and teach pupils to use it independently. Built‑in accessibility tools on existing platforms and devices can remove barriers immediately, but only if staff know them well and all pupils are explicitly taught how and when to use them.

Staff and families are part of the universal offer. Inclusive practice is more sustainable when staff are properly supported to use a small number of agreed approaches well and when parents and carers experience clear, consistent and accessible communication.

Inclusive practice and statutory compliance can coexist. With careful planning and specialist support (for example, from organisations such as Crick Software), schools can maintain a strong inclusive offer while meeting moderation, assessment, and JCQ compliance requirements.

As we plan for the year ahead, we have a purposeful opportunity to reflect on our inclusion strategies and consider harnessing Assistive Technology (AT) for universal design within our schools.

Leadership vision and culture

Before we explore the specific technology that can remove barriers to learning within our settings, we must firstly ensure we have a secure culture to enable quality outcomes. It is crucial that your leadership team has a clear vision of how and why this investment can support all learners. Then this vision must be clearly shared and fostered over time.

Infrastructure and training

Educators must then be given the tools to enable such a vision to become a sustained reality. Within this digital culture change toolkit, practitioners must be confident that IT systems are securely in place so software, devices, and networks can achieve the desired outcomes.

Once secure, staff CPD must be effective and continuous. As well as large-scale inset training, short burst top-up or reminder video content is really powerful to enable busy teachers. Team teaching and collaboration is another way to explore potential, with regular opportunities to report back to all staff and enable momentum, address issues, and inspire others.

Risk and experimentation

To effectively address digital change, risk is often inevitable. Through risk we have an opportunity to push boundaries within our lessons, giving our students the freedom to express themselves in different formats and remove their barriers to learning. However, with risk, sometimes not everything goes to plan, but freedom to explore can release potential and foster universal design.

Start with simple, trusted solutions

Simple solutions can facilitate such change. A student sharing knowledge through inclusive open-ended framework tools, such as Book Creator or Explain Everything, creates an inclusive moment to share knowledge. Equally, barriers to reading and writing can be removed through Voice-to-Text or Text-to-Speech software. Visual access to learning can be facilitated through Widgit Symbols, or barriers to writing can be addressed rather than bypassed through purposefully designed word processors such as Clicker.

If we strive to achieve an effective inclusion strategy, we have the opportunity to reframe learning, remove barriers and frustration, and release our learners' potential.

Find out more

• This post forms part of our three part series on preparing for the Inclusion Strategy. You can also read HeadteacherChat® founder Lucy Coy’s advice for school leaders and Abigail Hawkins strategy writing guide from a SENCo’s perspective.
  
  
• You can find out how Gemma Gwilliam and her “Portsmouth: The Digital City” team used technology to raise literacy standards across the city here.
  
  
• Hear from Dave and the rest of the York House School staff on how Clicker has helped their pupils to overcome barriers to writing in their success story video.

In this second post in our Preparing your school’s Inclusion Strategy series, Abigail Hawkins of SENsible SENCO offers a SENCo’s perspective on how schools can approach the Inclusion Strategy honestly and usefully.

Drawing on experience across many mainstream settings, Abigail explores how needs analysis, evidence‑informed practice, and clarity around impact can turn the Inclusion Strategy from a compliance exercise into a meaningful planning tool.

The requirement to publish an Inclusion Strategy by 31 December 2026 is one of the most significant accountability shifts to come out of the Inclusive Mainstream Fund guidance. Schools will need to describe not just what they do for children with SEND, but how they are deploying their funding, what evidence underpins their provision choices, and whether their universal offer genuinely meets commonly occurring and predictable needs.

The good news is that most schools already have the raw material. The Inclusion Strategy is, in essence, a more structured and publicly accountable version of what your SEND Information Report should already be describing. The question is whether yours is honest enough to be useful.

If the Inclusion Strategy feels daunting, it may help to think of it as a close cousin of something schools have been producing for years. The Pupil Premium strategy statement, introduced around 2013 and refined significantly from 2021, requires schools to publish a needs analysis of their disadvantaged cohort, set out their planned provision with an evidence base, and report on the impact of previous spending. The accountability structure, public publication, Ofsted scrutiny, and annual review is almost identical.

The Inclusion Strategy will very likely follow the same logic, with a needs analysis of your SEND cohort replacing the disadvantaged pupil analysis, your Inclusive Mainstream Fund deployment replacing the PP spend plan, and your evidence of impact replacing the PP outcomes review. The main difference is an additional emphasis on the universal offer: what the school provides at the level of everyday teaching and environment, not just targeted interventions. If you have been writing a PP statement, you already understand the shape of what is being asked. This is not a new skill. It is an existing one, pointed in a slightly different direction.

Start with four diagnostic questions...

1. Does your current documentation describe your universal offer clearly, or does it list provisions without explaining what a child actually experiences day to day?
   
   
2. Does it explain how your SEN notional budget is deployed, not just that it exists?
   
   
3. Does it describe the evidence base for your provision choices, or are programmes in place largely because they always have been?
   
   
4. And could a parent reading it understand what their child would receive at each layer of support, without needing a glossary or a meeting to decode it?

If the answer to any of those is uncertain, that is where the planning work begins, and the summer term is the time to do it, before the DfE guidance lands and the clock starts ticking.

On the funding side, the Inclusive Mainstream Fund is not simply a spending pot to allocate at the end of the budget round. It is a strategic planning instrument. Schools should be asking which interventions are most needed for their specific SEND population, which evidence-based programmes will be funded and why, and how deployment decisions connect to what the graduated approach is telling them about children's needs. A school that deploys this funding reactively will struggle to write a coherent strategy. A school that plans from a clear picture of its cohort's needs will find the strategy largely writes itself.

One practical step that often gets overlooked: pull your TA deployment data before the summer. The Inclusion Strategy will need to account for how support staff time is used. The EEF evidence is clear that TAs who are well-trained and positioned for structured, targeted support have a significant positive impact, but that impact depends entirely on how they are deployed. Knowing what your TAs are actually doing, rather than what you think they are doing, is one of the most useful pieces of intelligence a SENCo can have at this stage.

Finally, a note on what not to do. The most common mistake right now will be creating new systems and paperwork before the DfE guidance is published. The template is coming. What schools need between now and then is the evidence and the practice to populate it honestly. The discipline of making provision transparent and evidenced is good practice regardless of the policy requirement and schools that approach the Inclusion Strategy as a genuine account of how they include children will find it becomes one of the most useful planning tools they have.

Next steps

• Take a look at Preparing for the Inclusion Strategy Requirement, Abigail’s incredibly useful planning guide for SENCos covering cohort data-gathering, auditing the universal offer, TA deployment review, and a timeline to the December deadline.
  
  
• Check out Abigail’s video review of Clicker – which she describes as"a powerful resource to raise outcomes and reduce gaps without rewriting your scheme of work”.
  
  
• This post forms part of our three‑part series on preparing for the Inclusion Strategy. You can also read HeadteacherChat® founder Lucy Coy’s advice for school leaders and hear from digital specialists about the role that Digital and Assistive Technology can play in removing barriers to learning.

From December 2026, schools will be required to publish an Inclusion Strategy setting out how they are using Inclusive Mainstream Funding to strengthen their universal offer and remove barriers to learning.

For school leaders, the task ahead is translating a clear moral and educational commitment to inclusion into a coherent, evidence-led strategy.

In this first post in our Preparing your school’s Inclusion Strategy series, Lucy Coy, Co‑Founder of HeadteacherChat® and an experienced school leader, breaks down the key elements of the SEND reform and explores what Heads need to be thinking about now - from publishing an Inclusion Strategy and preparing for new funding routes, to communicating change clearly and confidently across the school community.

As school leaders, we know that creating an environment where every child can thrive is at the heart of what we do. The Department for Education has recently released significant updates regarding the future of SEND provision.

This blog breaks down the DfE’s information on the SEND reform to help you navigate the upcoming changes and understand the impact on your mainstream setting.

What is the SEND Reform?

The Department for Education has published the White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, alongside a consultation on SEND reform, called Putting Children and Young People First. These set out a plan to improve the lives of all children and young people.

The reforms will support all mainstream schools to become truly inclusive. Schools should take a whole-school approach to inclusion, with a curriculum designed for all learners and accessible provision beyond the classroom. All schools must support children with additional needs in mainstream, ensuring they receive high-quality, adaptive, early support without the need for a statutory process.

What changes are happening?

The reform introduces a structural shift in how support is categorised and funded. Key changes include:

• A system of three layers of support above the universal offer, with children able to access support across multiple layers and move up or down:
  
  
  • Targeted – which includes small group interventions based on evidence-informed strategies delivered by school staff.
    
    
  • Targeted Plus – which includes a new Experts at Hand service, bringing expert advice and services from education and health professionals (such as speech and language therapists and occupational therapists) into mainstream schools.
    
    
  • Specialist – which will provide support through nationally defined Specialist Provision Packages (SPPs). The provision set will underpin the entitlements in an EHCP.
    
    
• New Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND: a digital record of the child’s needs and day-to-day support provided by their school and developed in partnership with parents.
  
  
• Retaining and improving EHCPs for children with the most complex needs. Children with existing EHCPs will see no changes before September 2030 at the earliest, and transitions will only happen at the end of primary, secondary, or post-16, or until they choose to move to the new system.
  
  
• Funding changes: Funding will go directly into school budgets through a new Inclusive Mainstream Fund, a grant to equip schools with resources to become inclusive. After legislation, funding will be rebalanced from the high needs block, giving schools greater control over how they support children with SEND.
  
  
• New National Inclusion Standards will set out evidence-informed tools, strategies, and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs.

How can we prepare our school?

Preparation will be a phased process. Leaders should be aware of the following expectations and provisions:

What you'll receive:

• A share of the £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund over three years to embed inclusive practice.
  
  
• Access to £3.7 billion of capital investment to create tens of thousands of new places in Inclusion Bases in mainstream settings and improve building accessibility.
  
  
• National SEND training for all staff, backed by over £200 million.

What's expected of school leaders:

• Publish an Inclusion Strategy which sets out your plan to use inclusion funding effectively to embed inclusive practice based on the commonly occurring needs within your cohort.
  
  
• Prepare for every secondary school to have an Inclusion Base (either a Specialist Base or a Support Base).
  
  
• Participate in local school groups to share resources and improve support.

What information do I need to share with my team?

It is vital that staff feel empowered rather than overwhelmed. You should share that the DfE intends to:

"Invest in schools and empower staff to identify and meet needs early, and provide calm, supportive environments with high-quality adaptive teaching and inclusive, ordinarily available provision."

Staff need to know they will have access to the Experts at Hand service (Educational Psychologists, SLTs, and OTs) without the need for statutory processes, and that a new digital system for Individual Support Plans (ISPs) will be introduced to improve communication and transition.

What do Governors need to know?

Governors should be briefed on the timeline and the shift in financial responsibility.

• Phase one (2026-2028): Workforce training begins and the Inclusive Mainstream Fund is rolled out.
  
  
• Phase two (2028-2029): New legislation is expected to come into effect from September 2029.
  
  
• Financial oversight: Funding is being rebalanced from the high needs block directly into core school budgets, giving the school greater responsibility and flexibility over SEND spending.

What do parents need?

The reform emphasises partnership. Schools are expected to:

• Develop Individual Support Plans collaboratively with parents for all children with SEND.
  
  
• Reassure parents of children with existing EHCPs that they will see no changes before September 2030 at the earliest, unless they choose to move to the new system or reach a natural transition point (end of primary/secondary).

What do we need to consider?

To ensure your school stays ahead, check that the following operational steps are included in your school development plan for when the plans come into place:

1. Publish your Inclusion Strategy: You will be asked to set out a clear plan for how your Inclusive Mainstream Fund will be used based on the specific needs of your cohort.
   
   
2. Audit accessibility: Utilise capital investment opportunities to ensure buildings are accessible and to prepare for the creation of mandatory Inclusion Bases (for secondaries) or Support Bases.
   
   
3. Engage with Local Strategic Partnerships: Work with local authority-led groups to guide the development of the Experts at Hand service to ensure it meets your pupils' needs.
   
   
4. Adopt the graduated support layers: Begin to prepare your interventions to align with the new Targeted, Targeted Plus, and Specialist tiers.
   
   
5. Upskill all staff: Ensure all staff engage with the national SEND training on adaptive teaching and creating calm, supportive classrooms.

References

For further reading and to access the full consultation documents, please refer to:

• Department for Education (2026). Every Child Achieving and Thriving: Schools White Paper.
  
  
• Department for Education (2026). Putting Children and Young People First: A Consultation on SEND Reform.
  
  
• Department for Education (2026). Information on SEND Reform for those leading and working in mainstream schools.

Next steps

• Want to share Lucy’s guide with other staff members? You can download a handy printable PDF version here.
  
  
• The HeadteacherChat® Community is a space where school leaders can connect, collaborate, and share solutions to everyday challenges in education. You can join the conversation and become a member of the community here.
  
  
• If you’d like to explore how Crick Software’s inclusive support tools could supercharge your universal offer next year, book a free discovery call to see how other schools are using Clicker and DocsPlus to support writing success and curriculum access for all.
  
  
• Take a look at the next post in our Inclusion Strategy series from SENsible SENCo’s Abigail Hawkins, which offers a SENCo’s perspective on planning an effective, evidence-informed strategy!

We’re excited to be showcasing Clicker and DocsPlus in the SEND Village at Bett 2026.

This global EdTech event will take place at ExCel London from Wednesday 21^st to Friday 23^rd January. Thousands of educators will come together to share ideas, network, discover new technology, and attend expert sessions by industry leaders.

Are you planning to attend? With so many talks to choose from and over 600 exhibitors, it can be hard to know where to start!

That’s why we have compiled our must-see sessions for any SENCos who will be visiting Bett this year:

Wednesday sessions

Empowering every learner: Equitable, immersive, and inclusive EdTech

21^st January 11:15 – 11: 45 / Teaching & Learning Theatre

This session will be led by Antoinette Hamilton and Dr Stella Schâringer from The Stour Academy Trust. (You may have already read the fantastic Clicker success story from Stour on our website!).

They will be exploring how technology can empower every learner through equitable access, immersive experiences, and authentic creativity. The session will demonstrate how existing classroom tools can remove barriers to learning and allow every child to express themselves.

Building an assistive technology literacy toolbox

21^st January 14:10 – 14:40 / SEND Theatre

Claire Harrison, Interim Director of CALL Scotland, will be leading a session designed to equip educators with assistive technology tools to support reading and writing for learners with SEND. She will cover practical strategies for using assistive technology in the classroom and ways that educators can enhance their support to meet the diverse needs of their pupils.

Empowering every learner: Unlocking writing potential with Clicker

21^st January 14:50 – 15:10 / SEND Theatre

Our very own James Cheesman will be leading this session. He will be exploring how assistive technology like Clicker fits into the national SEND agenda.

If you’re interested in learning more about how writing tools work within existing pedagogy, how to empower pupils to choose the right support when they need it, and what classroom technology should and should not do, then be sure to come along!

Beyond awareness: Equipping all staff for effective SEND practice

21^st January 16: 25 – 16:45 / Tech in Action Theatre

Catrina Lowri, Special Needs Teacher and SENDCo at The National College, will be leading a session designed for all staff with SEND responsibilities, including SENDCos, teachers, and support staff.

She will discuss how to move beyond surface-level awareness and develop consistent, effective SEND practice across the whole school. This includes strategies for early identification and targeted support, and an exploration of how an online platform facilitates a whole-school approach to SEND.

Thursday sessions

SEND and Inclusion: Ofsted’s new approach

22^nd January 12:10 – 12:40 / SEND Theatre

This is the perfect session for anyone with questions about the increased focus on SEND and inclusion in the new inspection framework.

Two of Ofsted’s Deputy Directors of Inclusive Education, Claire Stewart and Adam Sproston, will explain what the new framework looks like in practice and how school context is considered, and share some insights from the first inspections under the framework.

They will also take audience questions to provide further advice for both mainstream and special schools.

Transforming SEND strategy in the mainstream: Operational excellence across trusts

22nd January 14:10 – 14:50 / Operational Transformation Theatre

This is a great opportunity for any trust and MAT leaders who are coordinating SEND support across their organisation. The session will be run by four speakers: Simon Tanner, Director of School Improvement SEND for Authentic Education; Emma Balchin, Chief Executive of the National Governance Association; Mark O’Brien, Managing Director of Enabling Brighter Futures; and Susan Hamilton, Chief Finance and Operations Officer of Authentic Education Group.

They will explore how executive teams can lead trust-wide transformation through strategic alignment, strong governance, and effective resource management. The in-depth discussion will cover building systems that support early identification and targeted intervention, address key challenges such as rising pupil needs, and provide practical tools to strengthen SEND operations across the trust.

Friday sessions

Making EdTech work for your school: Partnerships, policy, and implementation

23^rd January 11:15 – 11:45 / Teaching & Learning Theatre

Attendees can hear from a legal and policy expert, a director of technology for an educational institution, and a senior education strategist as they discuss the most effective ways to design and scale EdTech Solutions.

Lupe Sampedro, Partner at Cooley LLP, Emma Darcy, Director of Technology for Learning at Denbigh High School, and Laurie Forcier, Vice President, Strategy of EDT&Partners, will lead the discussion. The session will be moderated by Kate Lee Carey, Special Counsel for Edtech and Education Regulatory at Cooley LLP.

If you'd like to connect with us at Bett 2026, you can find us at stand NF92.

If you're interested in learning more about the role of assistive technology in SEND provision, book your place on our CPD day, ‘Transforming SEND support with assistive technology’ in Birmingham this March, or read our recent blogs on the topic:

• So, what is assistive technology?
  
  
• Building digital literacy confidence in schools
  
  
• Using assistive technology to support autistic learners

Before the end of the academic year, we spoke with Helen Pearce and Gabrielle Deed from the Learning Pathways Academy Trust to hear how Clicker has impacted their teaching and learning.

As SENCo and Head of Inclusion at their respective schools, both had a key interest in Clicker’s ability to support a wide range of needs and remove barriers to learning. Gabrielle’s school, Lyons Hall, were focusing on using Clicker as a writing tool for younger children, and Helen’s school, White Hall, were utilising Clicker’s tools to support pupils with speech and language needs.

Both schools found great success using Clicker to support their focus groups and have identified countless positives when using the software.

Gabrielle

“…the versatility, the user-friendly tools, the way it empowers our children to achieve success in their writing, the confidence boost Clicker gives them… it’s hard to pick just one!”

Helen

“Clicker is just so different from anything else out there. For what you get in Clicker – you might be able to find other products that enable you to do certain aspects, like the talking books or recording activities, but with Clicker, everything’s there all in one place, all child-friendly and accessible – that is just amazing.”

They were also amazed by Clicker’s bank of ready-made resources, LearningGrids, and the different levels of scaffolding they provide.

Gabrielle

“[it’s] one tool that can support children with many different literacy difficulties across the school.”

Helen

“There’s support and resources for History, for Geography, for Science… Clicker’s not just for English or Literacy, it’s for everything.”

Both Gabrielle and Helen have had stand-out successes that they shared with us, where Clicker has significantly helped the progress of pupils, including:

• A pupil who struggled to share their fantastic knowledge due to writing and reading challenges
• A Year 5 pupil with significant speech difficulties
• Children who needed to regain ownership of the writing process

You can read all about their progress in detail on our website - Learning Pathways Academy Trust - Clicker success story.

As part of Book Week Scotland, the Scottish Book Trust gave out the three new books that were shortlisted for The Bookbug Picture Book Prize 2023 to all Primary 1 children in Scottish schools.

The gifted books were:

‘Stuck Inside’ by Sally Anne Garland
‘Scaredy Bat’ by Jonathan Meres and Anders Frang
‘My First Book of Sea Creatures’ illustrated by Zoë Ingram

CALL SCOTLAND have created some brilliant symbolised resources and Clicker Sets to work alongside these books. Anyone who has Clicker can access the resources and support their pupils in writing and reading tasks that use these wonderful books as their stimulus.

Each of the books has its own Clicker Grid Set with two activities:

1. A Clicker Sentence Set to support pupils to retell the story (perfect for early writing).
2. A Clicker Connect Set which helps pupils to write their own book review.

You can find out all about these resources and download them by clicking the link below.

As well as Clicker’s Scottish voice, ‘Rhona’, learners have access to another seven wonderful Scottish voices that CALL SCOTLAND have created in collaboration with the Scottish Government. They all work brilliantly with the Clicker Picture Book Prize resources and provide a friendly, familiar voice for pupils as they learn.

There are both male and female, adult and children’s voices that schools can download for free and give their pupils the opportunity to choose their favourite voice for their Clicker speech feedback! You can access all CALL SCOTLAND’s voice options here.

If you have any questions about these Clicker resources or would like to see them in action then just get in touch to book a short meeting with me.

Former secondary SENCo Georgina Durrant is a popular blogger and published author on a mission to ensure that all children with SEND are fully included and receive the best possible support.

Georgina’s SEN Resources Blog is an award-winning site founded to share her thoughts, recommendations, activity ideas and favourite learning resources.

Georgina has just reviewed DocsPlus, and we wanted to share her fantastic feedback with you!

“I’ve had the pleasure of trialling the software over the last few weeks, and I can’t tell you enough how refreshing it is to find a word processor that’s actually designed for education and meets the needs of secondary school students with SEND. It has some absolutely amazing features that will make a huge impact on children with SEND.

When I was a secondary SENDCo we’d have to use the regular word processor on the computers, and whilst they obviously do their job, they are predominately designed with adults in mind and don’t offer the support that many children with SEND need. Looking back, I really wish I’d had DocsPlus then!

This is everything I wish a word processor would be. This might sound a little over the top, but I genuinely mean it. I’ve sat countless times with secondary school students in the computer room writing up work (as well as supporting students that use word processors to write their work instead of pen and paper) and been frustrated on their behalf that the word processor they use couldn’t help them just a little bit more! Apart from spelling and grammar checks (which can be problematic for lots of children in the usual form… how are they supposed to know which of the spelling suggestions it provides is the correct one?) there isn’t that much extra that word processing software offers kids in terms of support. DocsPlus solves this problem. It is fantastic. It somehow manages to delicately find the balance between offering great support whilst still feeling ‘grown up’. It’s easy to use, has tons of clever features, and makes writing more accessible for children of all abilities.

For students who have fantastic ideas but struggle to get them onto paper, this is a game changer!”

You can read Georgina’s review in full, including a rundown of her favourite DocsPlus features, on The SEN Resources Blog.

Here at Crick, we’ve all been working hard to get ready for the launch of Clicker Books for iPad and Chromebook. Now it’s here with beautiful illustrations and a huge range of resources, I can’t wait to share what’s in store for you and your learners.

Clicker Books makes lesson content more accessible and engaging for children of all abilities. Watch your pupils’ reading confidence and topic comprehension grow as our talking books bring the primary curriculum to life. Alongside Clicker 8 and Clicker Writer, this latest addition to the Clicker Apps family is available to everyone who has a current Clicker subscription.

 “We’re using the pre-made Clicker Books to introduce topics on a one-to-one basis. In the new academic year, we plan to use them on the interactive whiteboard for whole class work. I’m really amazed by how much there is in LearningGrids – the scope and variety of resources is incredible.”
- Anita Clarke, SENCo at Cringleford Primary

New app, new resources

As many of our staff members have worked in education, we understand how short on time teachers are. That’s why our new app comes with hundreds of age-appropriate books available for immediate use.

Whether you’re looking for timeless tales like Jack and the Beanstalk or non-fiction resources to introduce the stages of the water cycle, our LearningGrids portal gives access to an extensive collection of creative stories and curriculum-based books.

Plus, our wonderful curriculum team will be adding exciting new titles regularly.

Build independence in your readers

Clicker Books offers the fundamental reading support that we love on the PC version of Clicker. Features like speech feedback and word highlighting provide instant visual and aural reinforcement, which is so powerful for early or struggling readers.

One of our most important aims for Clicker Books is to boost confidence in our users, so we have included a simplified “Read It Yourself” version with many of our book sets. Specifically created to encourage children to access the content unassisted, these resources help pupils explore words they’re unsure of independently and build a greater sense of personal achievement.

Helping readers become writers

As your pupils grow in confidence, Clicker Books also provides a creative way to show how much they’ve learnt.

Unleash your children’s artistic flair by helping them write their own stories using our ‘Make a Book’ sets. With customisable writing support and the ability to add in their own photos, drawings and videos, creating a book that’s theirs will get even the most reluctant of writers excited about literacy again.

Take Clicker Books anywhere

Of course, no application would be complete without the ability to seamlessly transfer from device to device and continue where you left off. For those with a Clicker Site Licence, children can continue work at home on their own devices too.

Free access for current subscribers

We’re excited to welcome Clicker Books to the Clicker Apps family and can’t wait to update you on some other new additions we have planned for later this year.

Clicker Books is completely free to access for our Clicker 8/Clicker Writer subscribers - these easy-to-follow support guides will help you get started.

Don’t have Clicker?

If your school doesn’t have a Clicker subscription and are interested in finding out how it can benefit you and your pupils, we offer free 15-minute consultations where we’ll discuss your needs and how Clicker can help.

Contact us here and a member of our team will be in touch to find a time that suits you best.

Earlier this term, my daughter brought home a list of Year 1 common exception words that her school would like us to practise spelling with her.  

Whilst we have spent some time writing these out, we realised during lockdown that she engages more enthusiastically with tasks like this when we approach it in different ways and bring Clicker into the mix!

First, I created a quick Matching activity where she could listen to the target word and then try to match it with the correct choice from the list. She really enjoyed being able to work her way through this independently.

Next, I opened LearningGrids and selected the ‘Word List One A – Z’ resource - a speech-supported Word Bank containing common words that early learners are likely to meet during their reading, including common exceptions.

For each word, my daughter started off by trying to find it in the Word Bank. If she got stuck, she was able to have Clicker read the choices out to her. Once she’d found it and had a look at it, we minimised the Word Bank and she attempted to spell it out using Clicker’s lowercase onscreen keyboard. Every time she completed a word, Clicker read it out to her, offering an opportunity to check if she was correct. This also encouraged her to attempt the next word.

Young emergent writers (particularly left-handed ones like my daughter and myself!) can find the process of physically writing quite arduous at times. Clicker enabled us to strip the activity right back and focus purely on the core learning objective of reading and spelling target words. It’s also a lot easier to go back and change things when you make a mistake, which is particularly useful for my child as she gets frustrated when she ‘spoils’ her writing with crossing out or smudges.

Most importantly, she was really proud of what she managed to achieve, was eager to practise her spellings again the next day and is making great progress.

I think that’s one of the best things about Clicker – you can take any topic or learning objective and in a matter of minutes watch a child experience real success as they access it at a level that’s just right for them, in a way that they find fun!

Do you use colourful semantics in your classroom? Colourful semantics is an approach designed by Alison Bryan to help pupils develop their grammar skills and support them with sentence structure. Sentences are cut up and the words are colour-coded by their role in the sentence.

Recently Tom McDonald, of access: technology, explored using Clicker to help with colourful semantics.

"Coming from a teaching background I am familiar with the time it takes to create resources for colourful semantics. In the past I would create the symbols I would need all with the right coloured background. I would then print, laminate and cut the symbols. I would then sometimes even add Velcro to the reverse. If this is sounding familiar to you, then please rest assured that there is another way which can cut the time it takes to make the resources as well as being able to include the pupil in the process at the same time. All this is done using Clicker."

Tom shared a short video about how he created an accessible colourful semantics activity centered around Julia Donaldson’s story “Zog”:

On LearningGrids, you’ll also find Clicker Sets to support colourful semantics and lots of other grammar activities.