It is not at all unusual for children, at some stage in their school life, to have some difficulty in learning or behaving. These difficulties may be temporary and overcome by the school, usually with the help of the parents. Minor difficulties will probably not be recorded. If your child has more significant and/or longer lasting learning or behavioural difficulties the school will make a written assessment to decide how best to help your child.
An assessment involves:
- finding out what your child can and cannot do;
- deciding what your child needs to learn next;
- planning how best to help your child learn.
What are School Action and School Action Plus?
Depending how great your child’s needs are the school will put him or her on their School Action or School Action Plus stage of the Code of Practice.
School Action means that the school can deal with the difficulty without seeking outside help.
If help from outside the school (see list below) is needed your child will be put on the School Action Plus stage of the Code of Practice.
The Plus means additional professional help from outside the school will be called on.
The school must tell you if it thinks your child has special educational needs.
What happens then?
School Action
If the school is meeting your child's needs through School Action:
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the class teacher or subject teacher will talk to you about any concerns which they might have about your child;
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the class teacher or form tutor and the Special Needs Co-ordinator will gather information about your child, make further assessments of their strengths and weaknesses, monitor and review the action and keep records;
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the Special Needs Co-ordinator and the class teacher or form tutor will decide on the action to help your child to progress;
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this action should be recorded within an Individual Education Plan (IEP), which should be reviewed at least twice a year, and ideally each term;
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the IEP should have three or four targets, chosen from the areas of communication, literacy, mathematics, and behaviour and social skills to match your child's needs. Parents should be asked to contribute to the IEP.
School Action Plus
If the school is meeting your child's needs through School Action Plus arrangements for School Action should continue and, depending on your child's needs, any of the following professionals might also be involved:
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specialist teachers of pupils with hearing, visual, and speech and language impairments;
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teachers providing more general learning and behaviour support services;
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educational psychologists;
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advisors or teachers with knowledge of information technology for children with special educational needs;
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additional support e.g. a teaching assistant, equipment etc.
The Local Authority (LA) may also offer a range of services through the Education Welfare Service;
- the Connexions Service;
- the Learning and Skills Council;
- the Health Service, including the GP, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, as well as doctors and the school nurse;
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). They provide specialised health services for youngsters referred to them, and can also provide advice, support and consultation to family members and carers;
- Social Services.
Voluntary agencies and groups have an important part to play in meeting the needs of pupils with special educational needs. They provide services and in some cases offer their own provision.
Why would my child be put onto School Action Plus?
Your child’s difficulty may be such that outside help is needed immediately, for example some physical difficulties may require advice and support from medical practitioners. If your child’s need is at this level they will go straight onto School Action Plus.
The trigger for moving a child from School Action to School Action Plus would be that, despite having an IEP and being given support under School Action, your child is still not making adequate progress or improvement.
Your child would be on School Action Plus if he or she:
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has sensory or physical needs, and extra specialist equipment or regular advice or visits by a specialist service;
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continues to make little or no progress in specific areas over a long period;
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continues working at National Curriculum levels well below that expected of children of a similar age;
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continues to have difficulty in developing literacy or mathematical skills;
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has emotional or behavioural difficulties which interfere badly with the child's own learning or that of the class group, despite having an individualised behaviour management programme;
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has communication difficulties that are stopping them from making friends and badly affecting their ability to learn.
What is an Individual Education Plan?
Teachers call this an IEP. An Individual Education Plan is a detailed plan of work that sets targets for your child to achieve and a date for a review to see what progress they have made.
The Individual Education Plan will have:
- what the school wants your child to achieve;
- what the staff will be doing to help your child meet these targets;
- what extra staffing, resources and other arrangements need to be made for your child to make progress;
- when the plan will be reviewed;
- how your child's success will be measured;
- what needs to be achieved for the plan to be withdrawn;
If your child's plan is withdrawn then the school is indicating that he or she no longer has a Special Educational Need.
Statutory Assessment (considering a Statement)
If your child still does not make adequate progress then he or she will be referred to the Local Authority. This may be for additional funding (audit) or for a statutory assessment (also known as mpa).
You may request a statutory assessment if you think that your child's needs either cannot be met or are not being met within the normal resources of the school.
The LA may decide after the statutory assessment to make a statement of special educational needs.
What if I am not happy about what the school is doing to help my child?
In the first instance you should talk to your child's class teacher in a primary school, or head of year in a secondary school.
If this does not resolve the matter you can ask for a meeting with that teacher and the SENCO to discuss your concerns.
If you are still not happy you can talk to the head teacher or one of the school's governors. This may be the Chair of Governors, the governor responsible for SEN or the parent governor. The school secretary will be able to give you the names of these people.
The ask Parent Partnership Service can help by listening to your concerns and giving you advice and providing one to one support.
Meetings
You may be invited to meetings held in school to discuss and review your child's progress.
Your child will benefit from you working closely with school staff so it is important that you attend if possible.
Think about what you want to say before the meeting.
You may want to know:
- what they think your child's needs are;
- what they are doing to meet those needs;
- whether or not what they are doing is working;
- how your child feels about what is happening;
- how you can be involved.
You may want to take a friend, relative or Independent Parental Supporter with you to the meeting.
Finally
Remember
- Your child will receive help according to the difficulty he or she is having and the amount of support needed to make progress.
- You may be invited to meetings held in school to discuss and review your child's progress. It is important to attend.
- If things have gone well the school may suggest a reduction in the level of School Action or a return to the normal differentiated curriculum.
- It is your right to ask the LA for a statutory assessment. Remember that the LA will expect the school to show that it has done its best to meet your child's needs and that your child's learning difficulties are significant before a statutory assessment will go ahead.
- Your child will benefit a great deal from you and the school staff working together to help them. Ask school staff if you feel you would like ideas about how best to help your child at home.
Be confident! You have the right to be involved and to have your views taken into account.
