Using Google Custom Search for pupils with SEN

An update to this article is now available from here.  Please refer to the update rather than the post below.

I teach pupils who all have low literacy levels and SEN.  They enjoy searching for information on Google, but struggle to pick out the signal from the noise.  They can’t recognise which sites are worth using.  The solution is Google Custom Search – which you can either set to only search a subset of websites, or to prioritise a set of results over Google’s default results.  You can find custom search here.

Setting up a custom search is quite straight forward, you will need to have a list of sites that you want to use.  You can also request that Google remove ads from the results if you are a school etc.  Once set up you have the option to customise your search further, e.g. by adding a school logo to the search results.  You can even add collaborators who might want to tweak the custom search as well (e.g. other department members).

Once you have your custom search you need to find an easy way for pupils to use it.  My preferred method is to use Google sites, in which I collate information and I embed material in once place for pupils to use.

Embedding into Google Sites

I took my custom search and embedded it into a Google site that I am using with my BTEC Science pupils.  This makes it easier for SEN pupils to access.

Embedding the custom search takes some hacking, steps listed below:

1. From the Google Custom Search management page, click on [homepage] for the search you want to embed.
2. Click on [Add this search engine to your blog or webpage] then [Get the code], copy the code into the clipboard and paste it into notepad (or similar)
3. Edit the code – remove the first part of the URL from the start of the web address so it starts http://
4. Remove the end of the code after the word gadget
5. Your code should now look like this http://www.google.com/coop/api/008651982711986384045/cse/alpnkp0upps/gadget
6. In your Google sites page, click on the [Insert] dropdown and go down to More… at the bottom.  When the Gadgets search box comes up you click [Add by URL] next to the search button
7. Paste your code into the box and [Add].  Pick suitable size settings for your page.

Your Google Custom Search should now be embedded on your Google site.  This makes it easy for your SEN pupils to locate and use.