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What are special educational needs?
What do I do if I think that my child is having difficulties with learning at school?
The Code of Practice
Initial Concerns
School Action
School Action +
Multi-Disciplinary Assessment
Statement of Special Educational Needs

School Policies

What are special educational needs?

Anything which gets in the way of your child's learning can cause a special educational need - it's as simple as that.

Some of the most common difficulties are

1. reading
2. writing
3. maths
4. behaviour

The cause might be an upheaval at home, an illness or one of a multitude of other reasons. During such time - it could be a few months or even a few years - some extra thought needs to go into your child's education. There are, of course, children who have learning difficulties because of physical difficulties, problems with sight, speech or hearing, a mental disability or a medical/health problem.

About one in five children might have learning difficulties at some time during their school life - so it's fairly common. Most get over their difficulties quite quickly and the majority of children with special needs are dealt with in mainstream schools. 'Mainstream' means your local primary school, as opposed to a special school which has specially trained staff and very small classes.

The first thing to do is to talk to the class teacher.

She might then suggest that you talk to the teacher in charge of special educational needs or the headteacher.

Remember, the better the partnership between you and your school, the more your child will benefit.

What the school does after you have spoken with the teacher depends on what you're worried about and how serious the problem is. But whatever's decided, the school will use something called the Code of Practice.

The Code of Practice is a guide for schools about the practical help they can give children with special educational needs.

The Code suggests a staged approach when dealing with special educational needs in school. The main stages are School Action, School Action +, a Multi-Disciplinary Assessment and finally the issuing of a Statement of SEN if required

1. You talk with your child's teacher and she might ask you some questions about your child at home.
2. The teacher will collect other information in school to help decide what to do about your child's needs.
3. The teacher might want you to help at home.
4. Your child might be asked about what help he thinks is needed.

John is seven years old and doesn't read or write as well as others in his class. For example, he takes a long time to write the letters and words he knows. So the teacher contacts John's parents and they give the school valuable information about John's life before he started school. Together, they decide that John's parents will encourage his reading at home and the teacher will make sure that John understands the tasks he has to do in school. A date is set for them to meet again to see how the plan has worked. At that next meeting, the evidence of John's work shows that he has made big improvements in both reading and writing. There is no need to go on to the next stage in special needs as John is now as good as most children in his class. The class teacher sets a date to look at John's progress once more just to make sure he continues to improve.

Sometimes, it can be a few simple actions - such as lots of encouragement - which make a huge difference to a child's progress at school!

1. The teacher in charge of special needs - the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) - will work with the class teacher and may want to talk to you about your child.
2. The school will draw up a plan with some targets for your child to achieve. This plan is called an Individual Education Plan (IEP). The school might ask you to help with some of this at home.
3. The school will set a date for a review to check on how your child is getting on with this plan and whether or not he is reaching the targets.
4. The review might show that the plan is beginning to work and that it should continue - perhaps with some new or additional targets. Your child's progress will then be checked at certain times. On the other hand, the review might lead the school to decide to go on to stage three.

Miriam is nine years old. She is a lively and popular girl. She has found school work quite difficult, however, and this year she seems to be making very little progress. Her class teacher is concerned and, after talking with Miriam's parents, she and the teacher in charge of special educational needs make up an Individual Education Plan for Miriam.

After a while, Miriam gets some extra help from the classroom helper.

At the end of each term, Miriam's progress is checked. Although she is making some progress, the school feels that she might well need this particular help for a while. A date is set to look again at her progress and decide whether any more help is needed, perhaps at stage three.

1. Someone from the school will contact you and probably explain that they want to get some help from people outside school to advise them about your child.
2. Your child might see a specialist teacher or perhaps an educational psychologist.
3. All the help your child has had already is written down and the information will be gathered together.
4. The specialist teacher and/or the educational psychologist will help the teachers to make a new Individual Education Plan for your child.
5. The school will keep a check on your child's progress and you will be invited to the review meetings.

David didn't join in with the other children at school. His teacher was concerned as sometimes David didn't appear to understand what he was supposed to be doing. His reading wasn't developing as fast as the teacher wanted. David's parents explained that he had often been ill when he was younger with constant colds and ear infections. During the next year, David had a lot of extra help from his class teacher and the Special Educational Needs Coordinator. His parents also took him to the doctor, who discovered that he had 'glue ear', which made his hearing poor sometimes. After David had grommets fitted in his ears, his teacher noticed that he played and joined in with the other children much more - he could hear what they were saying!

However, the school noticed, partly because of the reviews, that despite the extra help David had had, he had made no real progress in reading and writing.

The school decided to call in a specialist teacher. She made some assessments of David's work. Together with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator and the class teacher, she drew up some special work for David's teacher to do with him. David is starting to progress now and it seems probable that at his next review he will be moved from stage three to stage two.

If, after progressing through stages one to three, the schools' resources together with those of specialist support agencies are proving insufficient to meet the needs of your child, it may be necessary to ask the Local Education Authority (LEA)to carry out a formal assesment of his needs. This is sometimes referred to as Statutory Assessment or Multi-Disciplinary Assessment (MDA). All of the people who are involved with your child, including you as a parent, provide written reports about his progress to date and results of any tests and assessments that have been made.

These are considered by the LEA which will decide if additional specific provision is needed for your child. This may include access to other specialist services, additional teaching help or classroom support. This extra help is usually able to be provided in your child's local school but very occasionally if, his difficulties are particularly severe, a specialist school may be recommended. Most LEA's listen very carefully to parents' wishes regarding choice of school.

If it is decided that your child does need special provision either in his local school or another, a Statement of Special Educational Needs is issued. This is a document which sets out your childs needs and how the LEA intend them to be met. You will be asked if you agree with the Statement.

Once a Statement has been issued for your child, the school and other professionals involved will continue to work with you in reviewing your child's progress regularly. The Headteacher is responsible for arranging an Annual Review which reports back to the LEA on how your child has progressed. Usually the same professionals who were involved in the MDA and parents will attend the review meeting. In addition to this more formal review, the school will arrange regular reviews between the class teacher, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and parents. These are usually once per term but may be more frequent.

You have a right to be involved at all stages and schools must keep parents informed about their child's progress.

Every state school must have a policy for children with special educational needs and will give you a copy if you ask for it.

It will include

1. plans for deciding who has special help and how the school will give it
2. the name of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator
3. how the school plans to work with parents
4. a report once a year on how that policy is working
5. the right to see that report
6. how to complain if you're not satisfied with the school's special educational provision.
7. 

It's always best to try to talk your worries through with the class teacher and the Special Educational Needs Coordinator. If you're still unhappy, arrange to see the headteacher.

The jargon used in schools can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, but it can usually be sorted out easily if you ask. It helps to write down your concerns before a meeting so that you don't forget something important.

Don't be afraid to ask questions: you and the teachers want the best for your child and you must be sure you have all the information.

If you do not feel confident enough to talk things through with the teachers you can take a 'named person' with you to meetings if you feel you would like some support. A named person is someone chosen by you who can help you to say what needs to be said and offer you support, advice and information. The named person might be a friend, relative or a professional. Your local education authority has a list of volunteers who have been trained as named persons.

Remember, your school's special educational needs policy describes how to handle complaints, so you're likely to be listened to much more carefully if you follow that first.

If you are still unhappy, find out if your child's school is a local education authority maintained school. If it is, you contact the LEA. If it's a grant maintained school, you should contact the governing body.

You can also read Special Educational Needs - a guide for parents, which is published by DFE Publications Centre, PO Box 2193, London EI5 2EU. This booklet is also available in Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Gujerati, Hindi, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.

To Sum Up

Remember that the school wants your child to succeed and be happy and you want the same. It's the partnership between you and the school which will help that to happen.

Specific guides for parents are available for Dyslexia and Dyspraxia