Learn about what barriers to learning are and how we, as a school, begin removing barriers to literacy and learning in general.

What are Barriers to Learning?

Any unmet SEND needs, challenging home circumstances or mental health difficulties can be a barrier to effective learning.

Learning barriers can be split into emotional and motivational barriers. They're often influenced by learning disabilities and household circumstances.

Emotional Learning Barriers

A child's emotional state can detrimentally affect their learning in some cases. They may not be reaching their potential because:

• they're afraid of failing, or of specific subjects;
• they have shame or insecurity about their ability in relation to their peers;
• they may be wary of change, or worried about moving into a new environment;
• they may be overwhelmed by new subjects if they're struggling.

Motivational Learning Barriers

Children sometimes underperform at school because they aren't motivated.

• If a task is too challenging or too easy for a pupil, they'll lose motivation to complete it.
• If a child doesn't see an obvious goal, they may lose interest in the task.
• Children may procrastinate simply because they don't find the task interesting.
• Children may lose interest in learning if they don't like their learning environment.

Other barriers to learning also include:

• Learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia which are undiagnosed, or diagnosed but the needs of which are not being met.
• An unstable home environment.

Learning Barriers to Literacy

Literacy is essential for all learning, so literacy barriers can have a huge negative impact on a child's overall learning, not just in English lessons.

These are just some examples of learning barriers to literacy:

• Pupils with additional learning support needs may struggle to develop at the same pace or with the same teaching methods as other children in the class. It's important that pupils with learning barriers such as dyslexia or sight impairment are supported to learn equally.
• Underprivileged pupils may experience learning barriers to literacy through a lack of access to the correct equipment or materials for learning. For example, assigning homework activities that require pupils to have access to a certain book or computer at home could establish a learning barrier.
• Using unsuitable reading material can become a learning barrier. For example, insisting that a child read a text that's not suited to their skill level (or even simply doesn't engage the child and their interests) can disengage them from their learning. This may establish negative associations with reading that become barriers to their literacy development.

Leafield’s thread of inclusivity - what are we doing?

Have a look at our universal offer outlined in the document below.