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

The majority of children with SEN (with or without a diagnosis) will have their needs met through Quality First Teaching (QFT) strategies. In order to establish whether needs are being met, staff use a range of assessment methods to monitor children’s progress.  At St Patrick’s, assessment is carried out by staff who work together to moderate children’s work. This moderation is supported by the Local Authority on a regular basis. The school uses a tracking system to analyse data and to identify gaps in children’s learning and to plan appropriate intervention when required.

A child may have a special educational need if they:

  • Continue to make little or no progress from their starting points over a long period of time
  • Continue working at a national curriculum level substantially below that expected of children of a similar age
  • Continue to have difficulty in developing literacy and mathematics skills
  • Have emotional difficulties which substantially and regularly interfere with the child’s own learning or that of the class group
  • Have sensory or physical needs that require additional specialist equipment or regular advice or visits by a specialist service
  • Have ongoing communication or interaction difficulties that impede the development of social relationships and cause substantial barriers to learning

At this point staff will refer to the ‘practical approaches to support inclusion’ guides devised by the Local Authority.  These documents provide an overview of need and describe the type of support that early years providers, schools and colleges should be making for pupils and whether it may be necessary to initiate the graduated approach.

The practical approaches to support inclusion guides can be viewed here.

The graduated approach takes the form of cycles of “AssessPlanDoReview”.

This means that we will:

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

The class teacher will initially discuss the child’s needs with the SENCO and will then arrange a meeting with parents/carers and/or the child/young person at the earliest opportunity.  During (or just following) this meeting a Short Note would be completed with agreed outcomes for the child/young person and next steps. The Short Note would be actioned, assessed and reviewed.

Depending on how the outcomes have been achieved, the Short Note may cease, or it may be necessary to complete an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s specific needs, outcomes & provision in more detail.  Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to this process and we will continue to work closely with them each term when reviewing outcomes and planning next steps.  As with the Short Note, if outcomes are consistently achieved and the child continues to make progress, the SEN Support Plan may cease.

If there is still significant concern, it may be necessary for the SENCO to arrange for the involvement of specialist support or advice for example, Speech and Language Specialists, CAMHs, Educational Psychology, SENDIASS (Parents Advice and Support Service), Cognition and Learning Team, Occupational Therapy or another education, health or social care professional.  It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to ‘label’ or ‘diagnose’ children but to seek advice or strategies to enable them to achieve their full potential.

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.  Where, despite the school having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet the SEN of a child, or the child has not made expected progress towards the outcomes on their SEN Support Plan the school or parents should consider requesting an Education, Health and Care Assessment.  Parents or school are the only partner who can request an Education, Health and Care Assessment through the local authority.  To inform the decision as to whether an EHC assessment will be initiated the local authority will expect to see evidence of action taken by the school including:

  • Records of regular interventions, strategies, reviews and their outcomes
  • The pupil’s health including the child’s medical history where relevant
  • Early learning goals and national curriculum levels of attainment in literacy and mathematics
  • Educational and other assessments, for example from an advisory specialist support teacher or an educational psychologist
  • Views of the parents and of the child
  • Involvement of other professionals such as health, social services or education welfare service
  • Costed provision maps

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 and into adult life (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.  An EHCP includes the following and will be reviewed annually:

  • The pupil’s name, address and date of birth
  • Details of all of the pupils special needs, including health needs
  • Identification of the special educational provision necessary to meet the pupil special educational needs
  • Short term targets for the child to work towards
  • Identification of the type and name of the school where the provision is to be made
  • Relevant non-educational needs of the child
  • Information on non-educational provision
  • Reports and views of any other specialist involvement

Some children/young people may join St. Patrick’s with a need already identified, and with parents/carers having a clear understanding of their child’s needs. In this case we work together with parents/carers, the young child and education, health and social care professionals to ensure that the appropriate support is in place as detailed above.

For more detailed information see the Local Offer

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