Hero Inclusion - The Problem & How It Works

Observed, but not captured.

Observations, emotional check-ins, session notes, moments of breakthrough or struggle. That information takes many forms - handwritten notes on post-its, jottings in lesson plan margins, a quick message to the SENCO, a corridor conversation.

In a busy school day, there is rarely a moment to convert those insights into records. Through no lack of care or commitment, that information stays hidden - observed but not captured, captured but not connected.

It never builds into a coherent picture of a learner, feeds the plan, or reaches the SENCO or the parent.

Work can be invisible. Information is stuck and isolated.

Teaching assistants hold some of the most intimate, consistent knowledge of any learner in the school - the one who withdrew on Tuesday, the one who finally connected with a peer on Thursday. None of it is captured in a way that builds a coherent narrative. It stays in memory - until it's lost.

"They do careful, important work that nobody ever sees."

Teachers carry detailed knowledge of how their SEND pupils are doing - academically, socially, emotionally - but have no efficient way to record it, share it, or connect it to the formal plan.

SENCOs are chasing, not supporting.

With caseloads of 30, 40, or 50+ students, maintaining the APDR cycle meaningfully is close to impossible. Plans are produced from templates rather than from a living, continuously updated picture of the learner.

Inclusion is a whole-school responsibility. The review cycle was never designed to be the SENCO's job alone - every adult who works with a learner holds a piece of the picture.

Observations that never reach the record

Post-it · TA desk "Amir joined group today - first time in 3 weeks"

Notebook · p.14 "Zara - transitions difficult since new timetable. Worth flagging?"

Voice note "Check Marcus re: reading - seems to have gone backwards?"

Obs. sheet · Year 3 "Layla - 20 min sustained focus on phonics, asked for help unprompted"

Margin note · lesson plan "Priya withdrawn again Mon–Wed. Check in w/ teacher after lunch"

Quick chat "Can we have a quick chat about Sam's progress?"

How can this be added to the narrative?

Where the knowledge lives

Teaching assistant

Held in memory. Shared in corridors. Lost at the end of term.

Teacher

In a notebook, in their head, or buried in an inbox. Rarely at hand when needed.

Parents

Messages, calls, context that never makes it into the school record.

Student

Books, notes, artwork, scribbles, conversation, body language.

Everyone cares deeply. The system just has no way to receive what they know.

A typical SENCO caseload

50+

students on a typical SENCO caseload

Manual

evidence assembly from scattered sources

Spreadsheet

where provision mapping currently lives

What we've been building

Hero Inclusion is built around how inclusion actually works in schools.

Two distinct parts. One continuous workflow. Designed to make high-quality SEND practice a natural byproduct of the work people are already doing.

01

The Capture App

A simple mobile tool for TAs and teachers - designed to be used in the moment, not at the end of the day. Take a photo of a handwritten note, speak a memo, or type a quick note. AI structures it instantly. No retyping. No extra steps.

02

The Inclusion Hub

A web-based case management tool for SENCOs, built around the APDR cycle. Registers, student cases, outcomes, provision, and review evidence - all in one place. Information flows in from the Capture App automatically. No chasing, no collating, no waiting.

Works alongside your existing MIS - Arbor, BromCom, and others. It fills the gap they were never designed to fill.

The Capture App — in the moment

The Inclusion Hub — SENCO view

How it works

Capture · Summarise · Review · Analyse

01

Capture

Staff capture what they observe using the Hero Inclusion mobile app - a quick photo of a handwritten note, a piece of student work, a voice memo, or a typed note. Digital evidence is just as easy: a forwarded email, a screenshot. The aim is zero friction. Staff don't need to change how they work - they just need a way to make what they already know visible.

02

Summarise

From the stream of daily captures, Hero Inclusion automatically generates weekly summaries for each learner - drawing together observations from TAs and teachers, measuring progress against the learner's identified outcomes, and surfacing patterns over time. The SENCO sees a living picture of every learner on their caseload, updated continuously, without having to chase anyone for it.

03

Review

When review time comes, the work is already done. Hero Inclusion generates reviews from the weekly summaries - linked to the learner's plan and formatted to the required template, whether that's a termly plan, Individual Support Plan, or EHCP. Reviews become a genuine reflection of what has happened, built from the collective knowledge of everyone who has worked with that learner.

04

Analyse

The Inclusion Hub gives SENCOs and school leaders a view across the whole SEND cohort - not just individual learners. See which interventions are working, where provision needs to be adjusted, and how outcomes are tracking across the school. Reports for governors, trusts, and Ofsted can be auto-generated from the same rich data set.

In the classroom — capture & enhance

Weekly summary — auto-generated

Termly review — ready to share

Inclusion Hub - school overview

34

Active SEND cases

91%

Reviews up to date

Intervention outcomes this term

Reading support

78%

SEMH programme

63%

Speech & language

85%

Everything that follows came directly from schools.

The knowledge is captured but scattered - on paper, in memory, hard to collate.