Class A

A primary class of six members with three teaching assistants. A very young group who respond to Makaton and do not communicate with effective vocal skills. One student (Pupil 1) is physically very energetic and is the most articulate of the group, but he struggles to focus on set tasks and often runs around when he grows bored of one exercise. This student occasionally listens when being told to return and focus, or sit down, however I noticed that the teaching assistants and PE teacher A sometimes find it necessary to physically guide him or even pick him up to get him back on task.

Another student (Pupil 2) who says very little tends to lie on the floor. I was surprised to learn that this pupil is actually physically able, he just fails to get motivated. The PE teacher spoke to me about how important it is to motivate the pupils in different ways so that they can make progress in their given tasks, but for this student it was difficult to work out what motivated him to do anything.

Pupil 3 requires a huge amount of assistance, being sat in a push chair a majority of her time. Though she can use her limbs, she cannot control them effectively enough to walk. A teaching assistant must always be with this pupil in PE to help her move either in or out of the chair. She says very little and does not display many palpable signs of cognitively processing information, though she may just simply struggle to articulate her thoughts.

Pupils 4 and 5 are very similar in that they are not vocally skilled but quite capable of moving within the sports hall, particularly when guided by the teaching assistants. The amount of guidance they often require suggests that they may be struggling to process the concepts delivered during the lessons, though they seem to get the hang of tasks when repeated.

The final pupil (Pupil 6) has little articulacy, though manages to make noises that posses potential, and is often very energetic, though not as much as Pupil 1. Her mood seems to be the most temperamental, expressing bouts of frustration for reasons unclear, but can be extremely well behaved and reasonably able when given a task; she requires less assistance to perform than the previous four pupils.

PE teacher A told me that the national curriculum states they need to be performing athletic activities i.e. running, jumping, rolling, balancing. He also told me that they seem to be a group whom respond better when entertained by something different, it was then that the teacher recommended to me using vocal intonation and perhaps humour to keep the students’ attention when trying to encourage them to perform.