School action/school action plus

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The purpose of this booklet is to help you understand how provision is made in mainstream schools for children with special educational needs (SEN). A separate leaflet is available called ‘Special Educational Needs What Does It Mean?’.

Children learn at different speeds and in a variety of ways. It is likely there will be a wide range of ability within your child’s class at school. Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.

How can school help my child?

Every child is individual. They all develop and learn at different rates. This means that different teaching styles will be used in the classroom to support individual children with their learning. All schools provide a cycle of planning, teaching, assessment and evaluation that takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of children. Most children will benefit from these different approaches and will make appropriate progress, whilst other children may require more support.

If you have any concerns about your child’s progress at school you should arrange to have a discussion with them. There may be things you can achieve by working together without your child receiving extra support.

What if my child needs more support?

If you or the school are still concerned that your child is not making adequate progress it is possible that they may have special educational needs. It is good practice for the school to seek guidance from the SEN Code of Practice. You can obtain a copy of this by visiting TeacherNet or telephoning 0845 6022260.

Schools:

• have a duty to inform parents if their child has special educational needs and of the special provision being made.
• will have a member of staff appointed as the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)
• Must have a SEN policy

What can the SENCO do to help?

The SENCO will:

• help to decide if your child has special educational needs
• take the lead in further assessment of your child’s particular strengths and weaknesses that is necessary
• plan future support for your child called School Action or School Action Plus
• ensure that appropriate records are kept of their progress
• ensure that the appropriate school staff talk to you and other professionals involved with your child
• advise and support other members of staff in the school

What is School Action?

The school must tell you if they think that your child has special educational needs. From this point you may wish to contact the Parent Partnership Service (known as SENSS in Wiltshire). Contact details for SENSS are available below.

Your child’s teacher or SENCO will collect information about your child, which may include additional information from you and other people who work with your child. They will discuss with you what extra or different help is needed. This is called School Action.

You will be given information on:

• the three or four short-term targets for your child (small steps that your child can achieve)
• what special help will be given
• how often your child will receive that help
• who will provide the help
• how and when your child’s progress will be checked
• what help you can give your child at home

This information may be summarised in a document called an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Your child’s teacher or the SENCO will discuss your child’s targets with you. The school will review the targets at least twice a year and ideally termly. Wherever possible your child should be involved in the review process and setting of new targets. If your child is not involved directly then his or her views should still be considered.Sometimes the school will decide not to write an IEP but to keep the record in another form. They should always tell you how they are helping your child and what progress is being made. The school should also explain why they have not written an IEP.

School Action will continue either until your child has improved and it is no longer needed or it is decided that your child needs more or different help.

What is School Action Plus?

If there are concerns that the progress your child is making with support at School Action is not adequate the SENCO will ask your permission to seek further advice from external support services. They may want to ask for help from, for example, a specialist teacher, an educational psychologist, a speech and language therapy or other health professional.

The SENCO will usually develop a new Individual Educational Plan (IEP) based on this additional advice. You will continue to be involved, and your child's progress will be regularly recorded and reviewed in the same way as it was at School Action.

School Action Plus will continue until either your child has improved and they can move back to School Action, or it is decided that a request for statutory assessment may be appropriate. Wiltshire Council has produced a separate leaflet explaining what a statutory assessment is. More information on statutory assessment can be found here.

Last updated: 29 April 2009