COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Special Educational Needs
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1656230
This article is part of the Research TopicInclusion in Non-formal Education Places for Children and Adults with Disabilities Vol. IIView all 7 articles
Case study: Co-creating Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)-friendly science resources for families
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- 2RAL Space, Didcot, United Kingdom
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This community case study presents the process a multi-partner project took to develop accessible and engaging science-related activities for children with SEND and their families. Designed for use in museums, community outreach events, or at home, these resources reinforce science learning beyond the classroom. The History of Science Museum, RAL Space and Iffley Academy - a specialist school for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - co-created a suite of outreach activities to be used by educators, ambassadors, parents or guardians to engage pupils with SEND in science. The project followed a relational model of engagement with classroom consultations with the same 11 pupils over several months, guided by a community outreach officer. Students made direct, significant contributions to the design and content of the resources. Co-creation ensured the resources were accessible and fostered an inclusive whole-family learning experience. The project has influenced the museum's and RAL Space's approaches to inclusive resource development and evaluation, while significantly improving the students' science capital and social-emotional development.
Keywords: SEND, co-creation, informal science learning, Space education, science museum, accessible resources
Received: 29 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pooley, Millward, Hall and McCormack. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Helen Pooley, helen.pooley@hsm.ox.ac.uk
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