As education providers, the most rewarding achievement we can make, is to create an environment which provides nurture, emotional, physical and social stability and support to best facilitate the developmental needs of each and every one of our pupils. 
In an inclusive educational setting it is essential that we endeavor to implement specific strategies that are directly linked to the specific needs of the students we are working with.  Working together with all agencies linked to individual pupils, we can create a learning environment which is almost ‘tailor made’ for these pupils.  With a sound understanding and knowledge of the pupils in our learning environment, we can provide well structured strategies within their lessons to best support them in their learning.  In doing this, we can encourage our pupils to feel confident and empowered to accept challenge in order that they can flourish and grow into successful and achieving individuals, whilst delivering learning experiences that are interesting, motivating and engaging.
In the school that I work, we are very lucky to have a well structured ALN department, with staff that possess a broad and varied wealth of experience.  It is essential to us to use the skills and experience of all staff to their maximum potential to enable us to provide our pupils with an equally broad and varied educational experience.  Ensuring that teaching assistants and support staff are allocated to offer appropriate support where it is needed across the entire learning environment. 

In my specific educational setting, there are a number of strategies that are employed by myself and my support staff during each day as part of the support provided for the pupils in our environment. Some of these strategies are implemented more than others dependent on the level of need and the purpose that they serve. 
One such strategy that is integral to the success of my class is mixed age range allocation.  My educational environment is a purposeful combination of pupils from Key Stage 3 (KS3) year groups 7,8 & 9.  The selection of the pupils is made by completing all the relevant assessments by our resident ALNCo, once the pupils have been allocated, the children are then strategically positioned on a seating plan in the classroom.  The purpose of this strategy is to maximise the support they can extrude from their fellow peers, seating younger, sometimes lower ability children alongside older students. Vygotsky tells us that combining mixed age ranges and mixed abilities of the learner, strategically positioned in a learning environment can tremendously improve the pathway to accessing their learning, this he termed as the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).   The older pupil is able to mentor the younger student and this in turn, helps them to consolidate their understanding of a concept.  The older student develops a strong sense of responsibility, which provides them with good experience for leadership and team building, this will prove to be invaluable later on as they progress towards work experience and ‘World of Work’.  From the younger pupil’s perspective, they are able to gain confidence in themselves as they develop in their learning and also obtain a role model to look up to.  This of course, as well as forming friendship relationships, also builds aspiration and the sense of wanting to achieve better and higher standards.  There is a distinct difference between what a learner would achieve when performing a task independently as opposed to how they would achieve when performing a task with support and guidance.  This is what Vygotsky terms as; Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
In order to gain an understanding of Vygotsky's theories on cognitive development, one must understand two of the main principles of Vygotsky's work: the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
Although the implication is that the MKO is a teacher or an older adult, this is not necessarily the case. Many times, a child's peers or an adult's children may be the individuals with more knowledge or experience. For example, who is more likely to know more about the newest teenage music groups, how to win at the most recent PlayStation game, or how to correctly perform the newest dance craze - a child or their parents?
 McLeod (2014)

In a class of mixed age children who are also a group of mixed ability children, it is imperative to strive to find strategies to best support their needs both individually and collectively.  Building on confidences that the learner gains by taking strength and understanding from their peer group. 
A strategy that is used in my learning environment, which has proven to be of great benefit to children’s reading skills is ‘Activating Prior Knowledge’.  At the beginning of each lesson, the teacher uses effective questioning to promote thought and ‘kick start’ memory banks of the knowledge gained in previous lessons.  The pupils are encouraged to respond and make links to their learning with personal experiences, which helps them to think visually.  The teacher will model this practice and use her own personal experiences to bring a reality to text and to concepts learned in class.  In using effective questioning about ‘What do we know already…?’ this promotes stimulation for the pupils to be curious and formulate questions towards what they would like to know, hence building a hunger for exploration and investigation.  Children are naturally inquisitive and once a genuine interest has been ignited, the teacher can then introduce graphic organisers.  These are a valuable resource that can be created by a talented teacher on any subject, and tailored to any ability.  They provide a visual stimulus and enable the learner to concentrate on smaller chunks of text, rather than feel daunted by pages and pages of meaningless text which will lose their concentration and limit their understanding.
Using strategies like this one, provide the learner with the essential building blocks or scaffolding to aid and consolidate their learning, these are also known as schema, a way of organising knowledge and building upon it to increase it and develop further. A learner does not develop knowledge by just knowing something, more by the way it is translated into what makes sense in relation and context to something else.  It is completely relative to where information is stored in order to be recalled and expanded upon at a later date. 
A  schema  is a cognitive  construct  that  organizes  the  elements  of  information  according to  the  manner  with  which  they  will  be  dealt.  An  early  discussion  of  schemas  was presented  by  Bartlett  (1932).  He  demonstrated  that  what  is  remembered  is  only  partly dependent  on  the  information  itself.  Newly  presented  information  is  altered  so  that  it is  congruent  with  knowledge  of  the  subject  matter.  Knowledge  of  subject  matter  is organized  into  schemas  and  it  is  these  schemas  that  determine  how  new  information  is dealt  with.  For  example,  consider  schemas  that  deal  with  common  objects  such  as  trees. No  two  trees  have  identical  elements  but  each  tree  seen  can  be  instantly  incorporated into  a  tree  schema.  
Sweller (1994).
Some strategies are less obvious than others and following the new curriculum proposals in the Donaldson report, it is apparent to me that the strategies in place in my learning environment are already in line with the changes ahead.  Initially, being trained in Primary teaching and learning, myself as the teacher have always adopted the strategies of cross-curricular teaching and discovery.  Applying real-life scenario to all aspects of learning in the classroom.  Using association as a link between subject matter, for example, current world affairs that are a direct effect on all our daily lives, can be absent from the subject teachings in the classroom.  However, employing a cross-curricular effect, enables us as educational practitioners to incorporate the hugely important bigger picture into our lessons.  In a Religious Studies lesson, we can combine geographical elements to ascertain location of certain religions, artistic flair to promote an aesthetically pleasing and visual understanding, ICT in order to research and also use historical influence to link from the past to present times.  Cross-curricular teaching and learning is a strategy that brings learning into context and brings a reality to what the children are learning.  Having greater knowledge of the world we live in, is what enables the learner to make informed, considered and mindful decisions based on facts.

Professor Graham Donaldson places great emphasis on the need for effective teaching and learning that is both stimulating and engaging.  The kind of education that promotes challenge and encourages pupils to embrace challenge with the confidence and appropriate support in order to raise overall standards of achievement.  Also to ensure that all students have the opportunity to access a broad and varied education no matter what their learning difference.  
“There was a recurring view that the curriculum had become unwieldy, overcrowded and atomistic, and that it was inhibiting opportunities to apply learning more holistically in ‘real life’ situations, or to use that learning creatively to address issues that cross subject boundaries.”
Donaldson (2015) p.5
The structure of the curriculum should:
Embody the entitlement of all children and young people, including those with severe, profound or multiple learning difficulties, to a high-quality, broad and appropriately balanced education throughout the period of statutory education.
Donaldson (2015) p.12
Time for change has arrived and we have an opportunity to improve the value of our children’s education, using strategies proven to support them in their learning.

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References

Donaldson, G. (2015) Wales: Department of Children and Education, Report on the Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales, Successful Futures, Welsh assembly Government. (p.5 & p.12)

Malaguzzi L. (1993) Your Image of the Child: Where Teaching Begins, https://www.reggioalliance.org/downloads/malaguzzi:ccie:1994.pdf

McLeod, S. A. (2014). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

http://coral.ufsm.br/tielletcab/Apostilas/cognitive_load_theory_sweller.pdf