Page 73 - SEN114 September/October 2021

Schools and colleges
About the author
Professor Sandy Toogood, BEM, is Honorary Professor at Bangor University, College of Human Sciences and leads on clinical and behavioural support at Abbey School for Exceptional Children.
abbeyschool.com @AbbeySchoolUK @abbeyschooluk
“Soft landings taper seamlessly to ongoing support”
Getting to know the pupil by sharing time together and learning from others is vital to ensuring a soft landing. This understanding should be built up in a number of ways, such as:
• Establishing rapport – making frequent ‘deposits’ in the ‘trust account’, and building sufficient capital before making a ‘withdrawal’.
• Discovering and building upon personal routines and following pupil preferences and ways of doing things.
• Being sensitive to cultural beliefs and practices.
• Creating autonomy and ceding control relative to pupil ability, age, and status.
• Encouraging the development of pupil gifts and talents in as many aspects of life as possible.
For both the preparation and implementation of a soft landing, clear and effective communication between multiple parties must be established. To do this, the residential school’s placement staff must be able to hear the pupil’s voice individually and collectively and they should pursue speaking and listening skills while developing the pupil’s sense of self. Well-defined and consistent expectations of behaviour and conduct can then be put in place by providing reliable role models and by giving regular positive feedback as well as timely error correction. In addition, communication, unless otherwise indicated, must remain open between the pupil and their family and communities of origin through frequent and regular contact, with the use of modern communications technologies to maximum extent where possible.
Soft landings require planning and co-ordination, which in turn depend upon thorough pupil-centred pre- and within-placement assessment. They also require that a range of options are available with sufficient flexibility to address a diverse variety of pupil preferences and needs across numerous areas of life, and with a capability to schedule transitions from small incremental steps to total and immediate immersion. In the end, soft landings taper seamlessly to ongoing support, so that pupils and their families thrive with psychological and emotional security.
The next soft landing
Leaving school is another significant event where a soft landing may be needed. At the end of placement, pupils may return to their community of origin or choose to remain close to the residential school they attended. They may transition from a residential school to a day placement at the same school, or to a day or residential placement at another school. Older pupils may attend a residential or day college or supported
■ Abbey School.
employment scheme. Some will move into adult community
living services or back to their family home.
Soft landing principles and practices apply just as much when leaving school as when joining. When a pupil leaves a residential school, the residential school placement staff will have come to know the pupil well, to understand his or her emotional, behavioural, and learning support needs, and have insight into his or her life conditions and ambitions for the future. The residential school has a responsibility to reach out and support the process of transition away from the school as well as into it. Arranging a soft landing is likely to include participating in a range of assessments and developing support plans with the same level of care and compassion shown when joining. Preparation for a soft landing may have a long taper with a great deal of the groundwork for a smooth, end-of-placement transition being undertaken during the placement itself.
All transitions require planning, collaboration and sustained co-operation between parties. Pupil-focused approaches are well known, understood, and increasingly deployed in education settings. In addition, the emotional and psychological wellbeing of pupils and others is receiving increased attention from research and practitioner communities. The added value of adopting soft landings as a concept is that it binds all of our thoughts and actions to our core values, with particular emphasis on empathy and compassion, and in the context of the many additional challenges residential school placements pose for pupils and their families.
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