Created by the LDI & EAL Team

As part of our ongoing commitment to inclusive education at Northfields, we are proud to share with you this new Inclusion Resource Website, developed in collaboration with the LDI and EAL team.

This site brings together key research, strategies, and practical tools to help every teacher build an inclusive and supportive classroom for all learners — including neurodiverse students, EAL students, those with additional needs, and students requiring assessment accommodations.

You will find:

✅ Up-to-date research on inclusion and IB philosophy

✅ Practical classroom strategies and visuals

✅ Behaviour and wellbeing supports

✅ EAL support tools

✅ Assessment accommodations guidance

✅ Links to trusted training courses and further reading

This is a live resource that will continue to grow and evolve — we will regularly update it with new materials, examples from practice, and the latest research to support our teaching community.

We hope this will become a useful go-to space for your professional growth and day-to-day classroom practice.

Let’s continue to learn and work together to make our school truly inclusive for every child.

LDI & EAL Team

Topic: Enhancing Specialist Teaching Through Reflection & AI

We’ve used Century AI across Language, Maths, and Science. Nuggets were assigned for homework, flipped lessons, and in-class formative checks. Tools like the Markbook, TeacherGENie, and Interventions helped us track understanding and support reflection.

We explored how to deepen our practice by completing the “How to Teach for Mastery of Science (Primary)” course via National College. This helped to shift our focus beyond fun science activities to developing real conceptual understanding. We now ask ourselves: Are we teaching content or teaching children to think scientifically?

Next Steps: Continue using the 5 enquiry types in science planning and explore more specialist training through National College for other subjects.

We found that while gross motor skills were generally well-developed, fine motor skills were consistently weaker across both year groups.

Next Steps:

• Increase daily fine motor activities (e.g. tweezers, peg boards, sensory trays)

• Plan small-group interventions targeting pencil grip, scissor use, and hand strength

Topic: Strengthening Specialist Teaching Through Resources 
 
We identified gaps in available teaching resources for Science and Drama. With limited equipment, it’s been challenging to deliver rich, hands-on experiences. We began compiling a list of what is needed, models, kits, costumes, and stage materials, to better support student learning. 
 
Next Steps: Prioritise resource development for under-supported subjects while also advocating for structured programmes in Language and Maths to ensure learning continuity. 

What is Social and Emotional development?

Social emotional is a crucial component of education and human development. It is  referred as Social Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL is the process by which all adults and children learn and put into practice the attitudes, abilities, and knowledge necessary to create healthy identities, control emotions, accomplish individual and group objectives, feel and act empathetically toward others, build and sustain supportive relationships, and make thoughtful and responsible decisions.

In early years, social-emotional development describes the slow transformations children undergo as they learn to comprehend, communicate, and control their feelings and social interactions.

Many educational institutions use the framework of CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic Social and emotional learning). There are five fundamental social-emotional learning skills listed by CASEL which can be taught in a variety of methods. They are as follows:

1.        Self-Awareness

2.        Self-Management

3.        Social Awareness

4.        Relationship skills

5.        Responsible Decision Making

Importance of Socio-Emotional Development in Early Years:

Social-Emotional lays the groundwork for a lifetime of wholesome, fulfilling interactions; the benefits are as follows:

• Better self-confidence

• Increased empathy

• Strong social relationships

• Decreased emotional distress

• More positive attitude

• Fewer externalising behaviours

• Increased resilience

• Better self-regulation

How to help young children develop social-emotional skills?

1.        Model appropriate behaviours

2.        Reinforce good behaviours

3.        Teach Empathy

4. Teach Coorperation

It is found that if a child is able to develop socio-emotional skills since early age, they have more ownership of their actions, sense of belonging, develop empathy and excel academically.

Encouraging Metalinguistic Awareness (Ages 4–7)

Goal: Help children make connections between French and their home language (usually English) to support memory and understanding.

How to do it:

Mini Language Detectives

Ask: “What does ‘chat’ sound like in English?” or “Do you hear a word inside ‘papillon’?”

Encourage children to compare sounds, word parts, or meanings without needing to translate directly.

🧺 Using Real Objects

Goal: Make learning tactile and visual, anchoring vocabulary to real-world experience.

How to do it:

Theme Baskets

Use baskets for topics (e.g., à la ferme = toy animals, le petit-déjeuner = real or toy food). Let children touch, name, and play with the items in French.

Sensory Games

Hide objects in a bag. Students feel and describe: “C’est rond. C’est doux. C’est une balle ?”

Matching & Labeling

Bring items from home (clothes, kitchen utensils, toys) and help students match them with flashcards or labels in French. Let them practice: “C’est une fourchette. Je vois une casquette.”

Story Retelling with Objects

After reading a simple book (e.g., La chenille qui fait des trous), give the children real fruits or felt props to retell the story using simple phrases.

These strategies deepen understanding, make learning concrete, and engage different types of learners (auditory, kinesthetic, visual).

Our group explored how cycle testing can drive mastery and support student progress in an inquiry-based PYP setting. We found that cycle data helped us identify gaps, plan targeted interventions, and celebrate growth—while still maintaining the integrity of inquiry learning.

In our document, you’ll find:
- Our key actions, including the use of revision packs and adding evidence to Toddle portfolios
- How we balanced assessments with authentic inquiry learning experiences
- Insights gained and next steps for strengthening summative and formative integration

We’re excited to share our learning journey with you! Please look at our document, and we look forward to your comments and reflections.

Our group : Aroona, Devi , Poornima and Rosyanne conducted a survey about :

our observations 

Impact of lack of auditory skills on learning

Training /Resources that could help in fostering auditory skills among our young learners

Behaviours Observed:

• Children struggling to follow multi-step instructions

• Easily distracted in noisy environments (e.g., during carpet time)

• Frequent need for repetition of directions

• Delay in speech and vocabulary development

• Difficulty identifying rhyming words or initial sounds in phonics sessions

• Impact of Lack of Auditory Skills on Learning 

• Delay in phonological awareness and early reading skills

• Low confidence in speaking and listening activities

• Difficulty participating in group storytelling or singing

• Behavioral concerns due to frustration or withdrawal

• Reliance on visual or tactile prompts over verbal cues

Training & Resources Needed

Useful Resources Requested:

• Practical classroom strategies and activities to improve listening skills

• Short workshops or webinars on auditory development

• Collaboration with speech and language therapists

• Checklists for identifying red flags in auditory processing

• Simple games and routines to improve sound discrimination and memory

• Parent-friendly handouts to reinforce auditory skills at home

 Final Thoughts

“There’s a real gap in understanding how much auditory skills influence early reading and attention. We need more training that is easy to apply within our daily routine.”

“Visual and kinesthetic learners are often better supported. More auditory-focused tools, like listening games, rhythm/movement activities, or sound-focused storytime ideas, would be really helpful.”