How can we make history source work more accessible for pupils with SEND?

Keep the historical question, reduce the access barrier

Choose a clear enquiry, such as what a photograph can tell us about one classroom in the past. Decide whether the pupil should notice a detail, use it to support a claim, compare accounts or consider a source’s purpose. Difficulty reading handwriting, scanning a photograph or writing an answer should not automatically exclude a pupil from that historical thinking.

Check the actual obstacle with the pupil: unfamiliar vocabulary, missing background knowledge, print size, uncertain chronology, too many questions or not knowing how to begin. Ask what helps, and draw on relevant family information and existing professional advice. Match the adjustment to that barrier rather than assuming one approach suits everyone with the same label.

Make the source usable without disguising it

Provide a clear image, manageable extract or accurate transcription alongside the original, as appropriate. Explain unfamiliar words and give enough context to place the source in time. Label a modern explanation, translation or reconstruction honestly; it is not the original record. Preserve the author, date and other source information needed for the question, including when these are unknown.

If a photograph is cropped or a document shortened, make that clear and retain access to the fuller item when it matters. Simplifying language must not silently change the writer’s meaning or remove the very detail pupils need to consider. A short source considered carefully can be more useful than a large pack that the pupil cannot access.

Separate observation, inference and unanswered questions

Model three prompts: “What can I see or read?”, “What might that suggest?” and “What can this source not tell me?” Point to the detail behind your interpretation. Give the pupil a supported turn, then a new detail to consider with less prompting. A simple three-column organiser can help, but it should not become a compulsory writing test.

A worked example: one photograph is not every school

Imagine a teaching photograph whose checked catalogue information identifies a classroom in 1905. Several pupils are seated in rows. Model: “I can see rows of seats. This suggests how this classroom was arranged when the photograph was taken. It does not show that every classroom in 1905 was arranged like this.” This is an invented teaching scenario, not a description of an identified archive photograph.

Ask what else the pupil would want to know: who took the photograph, why it was made, whether people were posing, and what lies outside the frame. Compare it with a suitably explained second source. A different arrangement need not mean one source is false: it may show a different place, date or purpose. Keep conclusions proportionate to the evidence actually available.

Use accessible responses without doing the reasoning for the pupil

Accept pointing, selecting a detail, a brief spoken explanation, typing or a labelled drawing when extended writing is not the objective. Offer a prompt such as “I think… because the source shows…” and reduce it as the pupil gains confidence. In paired work, ensure the pupil chooses evidence or contributes a question, rather than only copying a partner’s conclusion.

Introduce who made the source, when and for whom as meaningful questions, not a checklist of labels. An eyewitness source is not automatically accurate, and a viewpoint does not make a source useless. Help pupils consider what it can contribute to this enquiry, alongside other evidence and relevant contextual knowledge. Choose sensitive material carefully and follow the school’s established support arrangements.

Review the historical learning

Keep brief examples of details noticed, claims supported, limits recognised and prompts needed. Try another suitable source to see whether the approach transfers, and ask the pupil which adjustment helped. If barriers persist, discuss the pattern with the history lead and SENCo while preserving access to the class topic. This is general teaching guidance, not an individual assessment or a guarantee that one scaffold will work.