How we identify, assess and review children with special educational needs

Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.

Early Identification of Need

In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:

• Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
• Consult with relevant external agencies
• Use assessment tools & materials
• Use observations
• Use Short Notes

SEN Support

Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.

This means that we will: 

• Assess a child’s special educational needs
• Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
• Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
• Review the support and progress

Our school uses a tracking system to analyse data and to identify gaps in children’s learning and to plan appropriate intervention when required. Different children require different levels of support to diminish the difference and to achieve age related expectations.

School staff may initially identify a concern. The class teacher alongside the SENCO will discuss the child’s needs and a meeting with parents/carers and/or the pupil would be arranged at the earliest opportunity. During this meeting a Short Note would be completed with agreed outcomes for the pupil and next steps. At St. Godric’s we see parents as partners in their child’s educational journey and parents are welcomed in contacting school if they also wish to discuss their child’s needs.

Once a Short Note has been completed, agreed targets and provision would be put into place and monitored by the class teacher, supported by the SENCO, to enable the child to meet the agreed outcomes. The targets on the Short Note are then reviewed and the class teacher will discuss progress towards the outcomes with parents/carers.

In some cases, sufficient progress may not have been made following the implementation of a Short Note and the next step would be to work closely with the class teacher, SENCO, parents/carers, the child and any relevant external professionals to design an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes and provision to meet those needs. The views of parents/carers and the child (where appropriate) are integral to this process.

SEN Support Plans are reviewed at least once a term in a meeting between the class teacher and parents/carers to update targets, monitor progress towards meeting outcomes and to discuss provision to meet individual needs.

A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.

The purpose of an EHCP is to make special educational provision to meet special educational needs of the child or young person, to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education (SEND Code of Practice p.142). It is a legal document that describes a child or young person’s special educational, health and social care needs.

We are currently supported by Speech and Language Therapy Teams, Occupational Health Services, Educational Psychologists and Communication Aid Services.

For more detailed information see the Local Offer

Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN

If your child has SEN, it may be important for us to carry out formal assessments to identify their strengths and identify their needs accurately. To do this, we will use a range of methods depending upon their needs. When your child enters our school, their current attainment is assessed to give us a ‘baseline’ from where they will progress. Depending upon their needs, other assessments may be needed. These could include:

• Speech and Language Assessment – which may focus upon sound production, language understanding and other relevant assessments.
• Educational Psychology Assessment – which may focus on memory, understanding, reasoning, logic and general skills assessment.
• Cognition and Learning Assessment – which may focus on a specific area of need such as numeracy or literacy.

Your child’s school progress may be assessed against the levels expected for children who are working on the National Curriculum, or they may be assessed against other measures for children who are not ready to work on the National Curriculum levels.

A child’s outcomes and school progress are shared with parents and carers at our termly Open Evenings and in your child’s termly School Report. An additional termly meeting to review SEN Support Plan targets and outcomes will also take place and additional assessment information may also be shared at these meetings to discuss progress towards small step targets identified within the Support Plan. If other external agencies are invited to work with your child, you will be invited to attend a meeting where the outcomes of these assessments and their next steps will be shared with you. These will also be used to review targets and will form part of the SEN Support Plan.

For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.