Section 5

The Graduated Approach

SEN Code of Practice- 1996 (amended 2001)

Principles

  • A child / young person with Special Educational Needs should have their needs identified and normally be met in mainstream schools or early education settings.
  • The views and wishes of the child/ young person should be taken into account
  • Professionals and parents should work in partnership
  • Provision and progress should be monitored and reviewed regularly

Parents

  • Parents have a vital role to play in supporting their child’s education
  • Their unique strength, knowledge and experience of their child can be best used to support their child
  • Parents must be kept informed at the start of any Special Educational Needs provision and kept fully informed and consulted about any proposed changes and amendments

Participation

  • The ethos, organisation and culture of a school should fully support inclusion to maximise pupil participation
  • The views of a child/ young person with Special Educational Needs should be sought and taken into account
  • Pupils have a right to participate and express an opinion in any matter affecting them
  • Pupils need training and encouragement to help them participate and become involved in decision-making

Progress

  • LAs, schools and settings work together to ensure that any child’s Special Educational Needs are identified early
  • Where necessary increasing specialist expertise and high quality support should be available to support schools

Adequate Progress

  • Closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers
  • Prevents the attainment gap growing wider
  • Is similar to that of peers starting from the same attainment base line, but less than that of the majority of peers
  • Matches or betters of child’s previous rate of progress
  • May demonstrates improvement in the child’s behaviour
  • May demonstrate improvement in self-help, social or personal skills
  • Is likely to lead to an accreditation
  • Is likely to lead to participation in further education, training and/or employment

Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001

The types of needs are identified as:-

  1. Communication and Interaction
  2. Cognition and Learning
  3. Behavioural, Emotional and Social Development
  4. Sensory and/or Physical

There is a graduated approach of action and intervention:-

  1. Early Years Action
  2. Early Years Action Plus
  3. School Action
  4. School Action Plus
  5. School Action Plus Enhanced

(The Local Authority will consider awarding additional resources to pupils who continue to make inadequate progress despite the use of informed intervention without recourse to the Statutory Assessment Process)

  1. Statemented Provision

Statements of special Educational Needs

  • Local Authorities should make Statutory Assessments in accordance with prescribed time limits
  • Strengthening the right of a child with a Statement to a place in a mainstream school
  • Children with Special Educational Needs should be provided with a broad, balanced and relevant education
  • Statements should be clear, specific and show monitoring arrangements
  • Statements should be reviewed annually and amended accordingly
  • Individual Education Plans should focus on up to three or four key targets and should identify teaching strategies, review dates and success/exit criteria

Action to meet needs fall in 4 broad strands:-

  1. Assessment Planning, provision mapping and Review
  2. Grouping for teaching purposes
  3. Additional human resources
  4. Curriculum and Teaching Methods

All teachers should ensure in their planning and teaching:-

  • Suitable Learning Challenges for individual pupils
  • Response to pupils’ diverse learning needs
  • The attempt to overcome potential barriers to learning

Differentiation is no longer seen as special educational provision as defined by the Education Act 1996. All children should have their work differentiated as needed within normal classroom planning.

Individual Educational Plans

3 or 4 Individual Targets

Information on:-

  • The short term measurable targets set for or by the pupil
  • Teaching strategies to be used
  • Provision
  • Review details
  • Success Criteria

Changes ahead

The Government’s Green Paper:

‘Support and Aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’ published in March 2011 will begin to be implemented from April 2012.

There is an easy read introduction to the proposed changes on the DFE website:

GRADUATED APPROACH DOCUMENTATION

Introduction

The Graduated Approach should be seen as a ‘process’ that will enable schools to effectively manage and record the identification and assessment of pupils with Special Educational Needs. It should not be seen as a series of forms to complete when a request for Statutory Assessment is necessary.

Parents should be fully informed and involved at every stage. Wherever possible, pupils should fully participate in plans and decisions.

Once pupils have been assessed and identified as requiring input at School Action, the documentation should be started. The LA recommends that a file is opened on the pupil at this stage, in order to provide easy access to information for all professionals involved with the pupil.

  1. A copy of the child’s individual or group Education Plan with carefully evaluated outcomes should be kept.
  1. Should the decision be made to move forward to School Action Plus, the involvement of external agencies should be recorded.

Recommendations from external agencies should inform the revised IEP with carefully evaluated outcomes.

Guidance on how to complete SEN list

The purpose of this document is to enable the SENCO to summarise the needs and provision in place for each child with SEN within a class. A separate sheet should be used for each class or year group. Together, these sheets provide an overview of the SEN situation in the school. Maintenance of an SEN list is optional but many SENCOs find it useful.

N.B. The proformas provided here are suggested formats and are not compulsory.

Schools can devise their own if desired. The forms overleaf (School Assessment Form, Involvement of Outside Agencies and Contact Sheet) are generic, to be completed at each stage of intervention.

To be completed at each stage of intervention

Child’s Name: ______Date: ______Year Group: ______

Performance Descriptors (P Levels*) or National Curriculum levels child is working at:

  • Reading

  • Spelling

  • Numeracy

  • Personal and Social Development

  • Oral Language Development

Has child worked through National Strategies for either Numeracy of Literacy?

YES/NO (e.g. ELS/ALS/Springboard)

Standardised Scores for relevant tests

Standardised score / Date of test / Name of test
Reading accuracy
Reading comprehension
Spelling
Mathematics
Non-verbal reasoning
Verbal reasoning

Evidence from teacher observation highlighting the learning environment, the task and the teaching style

(a) Factors which have helped child to progress

(b) Factors hindering child’s progress

Halton recommend the use of PIVATS for all children working below expected level.

Completed by: ______

Position in School: ______Date: ______

INVOLVEMENT OF OUTSIDE AGENCIES

Agency / Date / Summary of support given or report enclosed

ATTACH COPIES OF ALL WRITTEN REPORTS/ADVICE

CONTACT SHEET

Name:Date of Birth:

Address:Setting:

Date / Record of contact / Outcome