SEN support is provision that some children and young people with Special Educational Needs will receive in their place of learning.
A child is considered to have SEN if he or she:
“has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of the others of the same age.”
Or
“has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.”
SEN support is used to help children and young people make progress and to remove barriers to their learning. It is a four stage cycle which can also be called the graduated approach.
Access
Teaching staff should work with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) to assess the child or young person’s needs. They should involve parent/carer’s in this and seek the child or young person’s views. Sometimes settings will ask for advice from a specialist teacher or a health professional. They must talk to parent/carers about this first.
Plan
If the setting decides that the child or young person needs SEN support, they must tell the parent/carer.
The setting should agree with the parent/carer the outcomes that will be set, what help and support will be given to meet the outcomes and a date for progress to be reviewed.
Do
The SENCo will support teachers, teaching assistants (T.A) and specialist staff to put the plan in place
Review
The setting should review the child or young person’s progress and the difference that the support has made. Parent/carers and the child or young person should be involved in the review and in planning the next step.
If the child or young person has not responded to the help they were given, it should be decided what can be done next. This could be extra or different help.
If the child or young person is still not progressing or the place of learning is putting in far more support than they would for most children or young people with SEN, the next step is to consider requesting a needs assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
Examples of SEN Support
· Making or changing materials and equipment
· Helping the child or young person to take part in class activities
· Extra help from a teacher or a teaching assistant
· Making sure the child or young person has understood things by encouraging them to ask questions and getting them to try something they find difficult
· Advice and/or extra help from specialists such as specialist teachers, educational psychologists and therapists