‘I like hard work’

February 19, 2025

Dear colleague

I’ve been revisiting the conversations John Tomsett and I had with colleagues for SEND Huh.

All of them, without exception, made the case that all pupils, regardless of their barriers to learning should be entitled to access an ambitious curriculum.

We also wanted to find out what a pupil with additional needs had to say.

So, we had a conversation with Harry who has special needs and his mother, Belle (names changed) about how Harry was getting on at school.

Harry said he enjoyed challenge in his lessons. I then asked him whether it meant that he did find lessons as enjoyable when they were too easy.

This is what Harry said:

“I like doing hard things because it’s learning, because if it’s easy, you’re not really learning because you can just do it, but when it is hard you are thinking, so it stays in your head.

“I like hard, because you have to think about the question, and that makes it stay in your head more.

“But easy, you don’t have to think – you’ve done it, and you just don’t think about the question.”

This is why we mustn’t make things too easy for our pupils, particularly those with additional needs – they are up for the challenge and they love learning ‘hard’ things, like Harry!

I will be drawing on research from Daniel Willingham, Julia Sutherland and Jo Westbrook to show that it is possible for pupils, including those with additional needs, to access an ambitious curriculum.

I’ll be taking Gary Aubin’s ‘automatic doors’ approach and show how we can use it to open up the curriculum for all our pupils in geography, history and RE.

The webinars will be live and recorded and each session will include a draft planning unit for KS1, KS2 and KS3.

The webinars are live and recorded and available with an annual subscription to Myatt & Co.

It’s just £150 a year (with a 7 day trial) and you’ll also get access to over 500 CPD films, including the popular primary and secondary subject networks.

Until next time

Mary