Education: Supporting Inclusion and Wellbeing BA (Hons)
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Gold award
Our commitment to high quality teaching has been recognised with a TEF Gold rating. The University has received an overall rating of Gold, as well as securing a Gold award in the framework's two new student experience and student outcomes categories.
Why choose this course?
Are you interested in supporting the mental health, wellbeing and inclusion of children and young people with additional needs from 0 to 25 years?
Are you already working or hoping to work in the special educational needs sector? Are you looking for a course that allows you work-life balance while you study? This degree enables you to combine academic study with work-based learning, develop your practice and become part of a strong network.
During the course, you will need to be working or volunteering for at least 16 hours per week within an early years setting, school, college, alternative provision, charity sector or local government. It is also relevant to those working in equality, diversity, and inclusion roles within charities, local authority or organisations that support or advocate for learning and development.
If you are not currently working in the sector, we can provide you with a suitable placement.
The course covers equality, diversity and inclusion, mental health, and wellbeing. You will explore the requirements of the Special Educational Need and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice and consider the voice, needs and rights of the child or young person.
You'll study developmental theories, systems to support learning, legislative frameworks that govern practice, multi-professional perspectives and working with families and carers. You will also explore current issues such as sustainability.
You'll develop reflective skills to enable you to consider how to improve practice. In your final year, you will collaborate with stakeholders on a small research project based around your own area of interest.
You will study one day a week at our Kingston Hill campus.
| Course | Attendance | UCAS code/apply | Year of entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education: Supporting Inclusion and Wellbeing BA (Hons) | 3 years full time (employment-based with part-time university attendance) | X010 | 2025 |
| Education: Supporting Inclusion and Wellbeing BA Hons (distance learning) | 3 years full time (distance learning) | TBC | 2026 |
| Main Location | Employment based, with some attendance at Kingston Hill |
Reasons to choose Kingston University
- This course gives you the opportunity to study the educational development of children through to adults with special educational needs (0–25 years) with an emphasis on inclusion, mental health and wellbeing.
- You will combine your experiences in your workplace or placement with one day a week on campus at Kingston University.
- This course can springboard you into employment or progression within a current or new setting whilst developing your future skills.
What you will study
This course covers inclusion and wellbeing, personal and professional development, developmental theories, current legislative frameworks governing practice, multi-professional perspectives, and working with children and young people, families and carers.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
In Year 1, you will build on your existing knowledge and experience of working with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and develop your academic writing and research skills. You will develop your knowledge of effective practice working with children and young people with special educational needs. You will reflect on the environment and society that our children and young adults learn in.
Core modules
Development Theories
30 credits
In this module you will explore the development of children from birth to 25 years of age. You will examine and challenge existing theories, approaches, legislation and policies, and relate these specifically to practice. You will have the opportunity to explore different theories of development (both seminal and emerging) and to reflect on their use within the English educational system. Through discussion and debate within organised seminars and group workshops, you will develop positioning and reasoning for advocacy and practical application of published perspectives. Furthermore, this module will enable you to reflect on how developmental theories can influence key policies and guidance.
Education for Sustainability
30 credits
In this sustainability module, you will have the chance to explore the interconnectedness of various systems: natural, social, and economic. Education for sustainability promotes a sense of individual and collective responsibility towards the environment and society. It promotes a deeper contextual reflection about the role of education as a catalyst to make informed choices. The module requires you to become an agent of change who promotes action that contributes to an ethos of sustainability within an educational context.
Effective practice in the field of special educational needs and inclusion
30 credits
This module will introduce you to the key principles of inclusive practice and its importance in supporting children with additional needs in the English education system. This module also encourages you to investigate how inclusive practice is evidenced in other settings. You will examine the principles of inclusion and their implications for practice. In addition, this module will explore the evolution of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) policies, inviting you to assess their influence on current educational approaches and the lived experiences of individuals with additional needs.
Personal and Professional Development 1
30 credits
This module examines what it means to be a professional in the context of both early education and inclusive teaching and learning. This module is designed to enable you to engage in reflective practice by drawing on a range of theoretical models, literature and work-based experiences. You are encouraged to take charge of your own learning, reflecting on your professional knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviours (KASBs). This module will also introduce you to Future Skills through engagement with Navigate workshops and module resources. You will be guided to use the reflections from the Navigate workshops to identify career development pathways and how you can be supported to achieve these with the guidance of those more experienced than you. This will include utilising supervision mechanisms within the work environment as well as the support of mentors and communities of practice to enhance personal and professional practice.
In Year 2, you will further your professional practice, knowledge and expertise, learning about children's rights in a local and global society. You will develop your knowledge of equality, diversity and inclusion in educational practice. You will also learn about collaborating with other professionals, offering strategies and interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young adults with special educational needs.
Core modules
Children's Rights
30 credits
This module provides an in-depth exploration of the rights of babies, children and young people lensed through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UNICEF, 1989). You will evaluate the various rights afforded to children, the importance of safeguarding these rights, and the challenges faced in implementing rights-based approaches and initiatives locally and globally. It is essential that a range of issues within care and education are critically evaluated through the lenses of the UNCRC and rights-based philosophies to ensure that you are well informed about your professional role as advocates for children and their families. An exploration of relevant legislation, policies, curriculum frameworks and initiatives provides students with further opportunities to interrogate and critique the intentions, values and principles that underpin the range of provision within the UK, Europe and the Global South.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Practice
30 credits
This module will centre on the current constructs of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through the lenses of education. It will explore contemporary issues related to equity and equality. There will be opportunity to explore positive and limiting practices within educational settings, which promote or inhibit an inclusive culture between stakeholders and within stakeholder groups. In this module you will review educational approaches that can provide empowerment for marginalised, under-served or underrepresented groups within the community. You will examine your own dispositions, personal beliefs and values and how these impact on practice approaches and ethical decision-making. Intersectionality factors that influence and underpin the lived experiences of babies, children and young people will also be evaluated with a view to making suggested improvements to current practice approaches that promote an inclusive and equitable culture.
Personal and Professional Development 2
30 credits
This module provides the opportunity to explore and engage at a deeper level with the theories and models that promote collaboration and reflection in professional working contexts. You are encouraged to take an active role in shaping your personal, professional and pedagogical progress through engagement with the Future Skills Explore activities. The collaborative nature of working within the module will inform your subject knowledge as well as a range of transferable skills that are essential for a graduate to work effectively within and beyond the sector.
Understanding mental health and wellbeing
30 credits
This module explores the intersection of mental health and well-being within the context of children and families, emphasising the importance of multi-professional collaboration. You will explore theories, interventions, and strategies tailored to support the mental health needs of children and families including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The module content will explore factors that promote and impede positive mental health and well-being. This element will be a key focus, equipping you with the knowledge to identify and address barriers to positive mental health outcomes. You will have the opportunity to explore practice-based approaches and consider how you can work effectively with other educators, mental health professionals, parents and community members.
In Year 3, you will build on your knowledge of contemporary issues around the health and wellbeing of children and young adults (0–25) with special educational needs. You will study leadership and management in settings for those children and young adults. You will learn about collaboration and ethics when planning a research project.
Core modules
Leading Effective Inclusive Practice
30 credits
This module will give you the opportunity to critically reflect upon leadership models and approaches. The module content will lead you to appreciate the crucial role played by inclusive practitioner leaders in supporting change and how leadership can facilitate best special educational needs and inclusive practices for children and young people, parents, carers, practitioners and other professionals. There will be the opportunity to explore the importance of respectful partnership with these stakeholders. You will be led to explore educational issues related to the special educational needs and inclusion through sociological, political, psychological, economic, philosophical and political lenses. The voice of the child and young person will be a central focus in the proposed change management process. You will be encouraged to evaluate methods, strategies and approaches that you use to manage yourself and others. You will reflect through experiential learning opportunities on your existing areas of strength and identify areas for further development.
Personal and Professional Development 3
30 credits
The module expands on the professional graduate skills developed across the first two years of study. You will refine and critically evaluate professional reflections in relation to your own professional identity and specific subject pedagogy. You will become an expert in your subject and evolve leadership and advocacy through personal reflective tasks and collaboration with others in a range of professional contexts. You will retain active engagement with continued professional learning activities and apply new knowledge to your own professionalism whilst reflecting on your evolving personal skillset. Reflection around skills to excel in your career after graduation forms an essential element to this module. Therefore, you are encouraged to explore a range of career opportunities and network with other professionals in readiness for the next stage in your professional journey. The Future Skills Apply Learning Outcomes are delivered in this module.
Research Informed Approaches of Collaborating with Others
30 credits
This module will support you to think critically about planning a small-scale enquiry that requires the collaborative participation of other stakeholders. You will explore the ethical implications as well as the methodological approach that underpins your proposed enquiry. You will examine evidence-based approaches that are currently drawn on in the field of education and beyond. You will critically reflect on challenges and ethically sound practices that promote meaningful collaboration.
Contemporary Issues in Supporting Health and Wellbeing in Education
30 credits
This module explores key issues related to health and wellbeing in educational settings. The teaching content frames health and wellbeing issues through various lenses including neuroscience, sociology, psychology, policy and guidance. The roles and responsibilities of adults that work with the children, young people, families and communities will be explored and you will consider factors which promote or impede holistic development. This will provide you with a critical appreciation of the complexities of addressing practice-based contemporary issues that support the holistic development of children and young people within health and wellbeing.
Future Skills
Knowledge to give you the edge
Embedded within every course curriculum and throughout the whole Kingston experience, Future Skills will play a role in shaping you to become a future-proof graduate, providing you with the skills most valued by employers such as problem-solving, digital competency, and adaptability.
As you progress through your degree, you'll learn to navigate, explore and apply these graduate skills, learning to demonstrate and articulate to employers how future skills give you the edge.
At Kingston University, we're not just keeping up with change, we're creating it.
Entry requirements
Teaching and assessment
Who teaches this course?
The tutors for your course are experienced practitioners in the field of SEN/D and inclusive education. They continue to be actively involved in a range of education-related activities, such as further study, research, and direct work with schools, community stakeholders and other educational settings.
Course fees and funding
Additional costs
Depending on the programme of study, there may be extra costs that are not covered by tuition fees which students will need to consider when planning their studies. Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessment and operating University facilities such as the library, access to shared IT equipment and other support services. Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees.
Where a course has additional expenses, we make every effort to highlight them. These may include optional field trips, materials (e.g. art, design, engineering), security checks such as DBS, uniforms, specialist clothing or professional memberships.
Facilities
The Kingston Hill campus features an outdoor learning environment where trainee teachers lead curriculum-linked natural sciences activities with children. It includes a specially built 'cubby house', outdoor pond, beehive and nature trail. It offers early years students the opportunity to simulate teaching and learning with natural materials.
There are a number of teaching rooms set up to replicate actual classrooms. Each classroom is subject based – such as an art room, science lab – and is equipped with all the relevant facilities you will need to practise your lessons before taking them into school.
Our library (the Nightingale Centre) has an excellent range of teaching resources to help you plan and teach your lessons, such as a range of children's topic books, music and nursery rhymes on CD, as well as artefacts and kits that can be used to illustrate historical periods, different religions, science, mathematics and music.
After you graduate
This qualification will help you progress in your career.
Many students return to Kingston University for postgraduate and continuing professional development studies including Early Years Initial Teacher Training leading to Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS), the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and masters qualifications such as the Education MA at Kingston University, subject to meeting course requirements.
Please note: to progress to EYTS or QTS, you will need GCSE (minimum 4 or C) in English Language, Maths and Science.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Course changes explained.
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
