Your child in school

What support is available in school for my child?

The most important thing to remember is that your child is not alone. Many children have learning difficulties of one sort or another at different points in their education.

If you think your child is having difficulties, talk to their teachers. They will know how to find out if your child has special educational needs. The Local Authority provides training in a wide variety of special educational needs, which is available to all teaching staff.

There is also a person in every school called a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO). This person is responsible for planning the provision for all children with SEN in the school. They will usually have extra training and experience in teaching children with special educational needs. The Local Authority provides training accredited by Nottingham Trent University which is available to all newly appointed SENCO’s.

You can also raise queries or concerns with the head teacher and the school’s governing body. It is recommended that the teacher(s) and SENCO are approached first of all, as they are the people who have the day-to-day contact with your child. It may therefore be possible for them to address your queries or issues, most quickly and effectively.

If the school feels that your child has special needs, there are a number of things that they can do to support them. This support will vary depending on the nature of your child’s needs and may change as your child grows and develops. This is called the Graduated Response.

There are two levels of support in school called School Action and School Action Plus. (If you child is under 5 and attending day care provision the levels of support are referred to as Early Years and Early Years Action Plus. These are comparable with School Action and School Action Plus).

School Action will include: writing an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for your child.  This is a written plan with short-term targets designed to help your child’s learning or behavioural needs. It is a working document for all teaching staff. Your child’s class teacher will be responsible for writing the IEP and reviewing it with the SENCO, teaching assistant, you and your child. The IEP should be reviewed, ideally, once a term, but at least twice a year.

The school may decide to use special materials, such as particular books or individual timetables to help your child.

The school may use a teaching assistant (TA), who will assist the teacher in meeting your child’s needs. They may prepare work or materials for your child, work with small groups of children in activities planned by the teacher, and help your child to take part in the work of the class or help your child with social skills.

If the school feels that more action is necessary, they will move to School Action Plus. This means that the school will ask for outside support and advice from a variety of different support services such as Inclusion Support Service, Educational Psychologists, Behaviour Support Team or Speech Therapists.

You can get more information about School Action, School Action Plus or IEPs from your local Parent Partnership Service on 0115 9482 888 or by going to www.ppsnotts.org.uk/publications

In a very small number of cases, you, the school or the LA may feel that the child’s needs are not being met by support available and a more detailed, written assessment is needed. This will then lead to a request for a Statutory Assessment.