SEND has rightly been reframed around 'inclusion' and the Ofsted toolkit echoes this approach through every evaluation area.

In this episode, we explore how leaders can ensure that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are fully included in classrooms, learning alongside their peers, accessing ambitious curricula, and being supported through careful scaffolding, adaptation and high-quality teaching.

We delve into the common reasons why inclusive practice can feel strong in some classrooms — but fragile in others.

In this episode of The Leadership Lens, we move beyond principle and into practice and system design.

Drawing on evidence from the SEND Code of Practice, the Education Endowment Foundation, and cognitive science, this episode explores:

- Why inclusive SEND practice succeeds or fails at classroom level - The importance of teacher responsibility within inclusive systems

- How adult deployment can either support inclusion — or unintentionally undermine it

- Why Quality First Teaching is the most powerful SEND strategy schools have - What responsive and adaptive teaching actually looks like in practice

- How strategies like scaffolding, explicit instruction and flexible grouping support pupils with SEND — without lowering expectations

- Why sustainable inclusion depends on systems, clarity and shared understanding, not heroics

Throughout the episode, anonymised examples from real schools and trusts are used to illustrate how leaders have redesigned systems to strengthen inclusive practice and improve outcomes.

What will premium hub members receive?

For premium members, this episode is accompanied by a tried and tested SEND Audit Tool aligned to the renewed Ofsted framework, designed to help leaders evaluate inclusion at classroom, leadership and system level — not for compliance, but for clarity and improvement.

If you would like to explore premium hub membership, please click here:https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership