A best practice case of a school-based support team in an inclusive LSEN secondary school

M.Ed.With the changes in the „new South Africa‟ came a change of approach in the curriculum from content-based to outcome-based, with the movement to develop inclusive education. This was necessary to accommodate a diverse range of learning needs. This required teachers to adopt a new form of teaching and a new way of thinking for which many teachers were not prepared or trained for. With this movement came the need for school-based support teams (SBST) to assist teachers to cope with the new paradigm. The focus of this paper was to study a best practice case of a school-based support team in an inclusive LSEN (Learners with Special Educational Needs) secondary school. According to White Paper 6 the key function for any SBST is to support all the learners, educators within the school environment to ensure that the full range of learning needs is met. The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of the functioning of a SBST in an LSEN environment. A case study design was chosen as it allowed for an in depth investigation into the functioning of a „supposedly best practice‟ school-based support team within an inclusive LSEN Secondary school context. One LSEN school was used in the research as it was seen by surrounding schools as a „supposedly best practice‟ SBST. Focus group interviews were conducted with school-based support team members, SBST documentation collected, SBST meetings were observed (field notes made) and document analysis was undertaken