Wednesday August 26th 2026
Glasgow City Chambers, where councillors have been discussing the support available for pupils with additional support needs
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Sarah Hilley
Most teachers in Glasgow mainstream schools are acting as additional support needs (ASN) teachers, an education committee has heard.
City councillor Blair Anderson asked what support is being provided to staff to teach students with a variety of requirements.
Listing examples of the wide range of circumstances in a classroom, he asked what support a teacher would receive to teach a dyslexic pupil, an autistic pupil, a student with English as a second language, a pupil with a bereavement and a pupil with a parent in jail.
He said: “We are increasingly seeing high incidences of ASN in mainstream schools. A class can have a quarter, a third, sometimes half of children in there with additional support needs.”
Pointing out there is good work taking place with bespoke services including dyslexia, the Scottish Greens councillor asked: “What practical steps are we taking to support teachers and support for learning workers to be comfortable and confident teaching the breadth of ASN students in mainstream classes?
“Most teachers now are having to act as ASN teachers – they have ASN pupils – sometimes with very significant and varied needs.”
Addressing councillor Anderson’s points, education official Dr Carole Campbell said: “Classrooms now look very different to classrooms maybe in years gone by.
“Across Scotland 43 per cent of children and young people have additional support needs. It is no longer an add on – it is actually part of our day to day work.”
She said “there needs to be a real multidisciplinary approach and multi stranded approach” to make sure education is provided to meet all learners’ needs.
Ms Campbell added: “We have a continuum of support. That continuum of support starts with the universal offer. The universal offer is offered by all class teachers.”
She said there is a lot of work in terms of training and outreach support to support that universal offer.
Speaking at last week’s education, skills and early years city policy committee, she added: “It is having an inclusion lens in all of our development not just literacy and numeracy but health and wellbeing and across the curriculum so we can look at adaptations that are needed to meet the needs.”
“We have a programme of continual professional learning that we offer to schools – around increasing those universal supports. We have meetings people can attend when they want to do and know more.”
Among a range of measures, there is targeted support for pupils for a period of time – perhaps in small groups, as well as specialist support for longer lengths of time.
Commenting on the city’s specific additional support learning schools, the officer added: In Glasgow we have more specialist places than any other local authority in Scotland. They have grown considerably over the last few years.
The education manager said they cater for a “small percentage of children that can’t manage mainstream environments”.
She said there are some excellent practices of inclusion taking place in the city’s schools in general, which benefit children and parents.
She continued: “What we know is inclusive schools create inclusive societies.”
The support for teachers was discussed as councillors were presented with an education services standards and quality report.
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