- Concerns about school progress
- Assessment
- The role of the SENCo
- What support schools offer
- Specific learning difficulties
- Glossary of terms
Concerns about school progress
If you or the school is worried about the progress that your child or young person is making, the school will help. They will both provide extra support and begin to monitor their progress.
If things don’t improve, schools should then provide SEN support interventions and resources. This should involve an educational support plan.
The school will work with you, and may also work with other agencies, to support your child or young person’s learning journey so they are able to progress.
Our identification flowchart (PDF, 179.1 KB) is a guideline for parents and carers, which shows the process outlined in the SEND Code of Practice. The process may vary between schools, but the flowchart will support your conversations with your SENCo and education setting.
Assessment
As part of the educational support plan, assessments will be done to understand your child or young person’s needs. This is part of the 'assess, plan, do, review' cycle.
You can view an assess, plan, do, review diagram (PDF, 120.2 KB) which explains the cycle.
The plan should be put in place and reviewed with you at least every term. Holistic assessments can include observations, group work and in-school assessments.
If your child is still not making progress
If at the end of two termly reviews your child or young person is still not making progress as you’d expect, then you or the school can ask for a needs assessment from the local authority.
An educational psychologist (EP) must be consulted by the school as part of the 'assess, plan, do, review'. However, an EP can be involved at any point in the journey towards identification of need.
The school special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCo) or inclusion manager will help you through this. Assessment of SEND means getting information from you, your child or young person, teachers, and other professionals involved with you and your family.
Extra support following an assessment
Following school assessments, your child or young person may get extra support. In most cases, this will be provided by the school from within the funding they receive to support children with SEND.
The SEND information report on each school's website will tell you how they support children or young people with SEND. This may include:
- language and social skills to help children
- nurture groups to support emotional development and help confidence, so children and young people can begin to learn successfully in a mainstream classroom
- Place2Be, which provides time out for children, individually and in groups, to address their emotional needs
- tiger teams to help children with their motor skills, so they have more control over writing, playing instruments, artistic expression and craft work
- literacy and maths interventions, for example, Catch Up Literacy and First Class at Number
Education, health and care plans (EHCPs)
After the assessment, your child may be given an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This allows the school to get more funding to support their progress and meet their outcomes. An assessment does not always lead to an EHCP, though it may provide a clearer understanding of your child or young person's needs, and support that can be put in place.
For more information, see our Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) page.
The role of the SENCo
Every school is required to have a SENCo, who is also a qualified teacher.
The SENCo works in partnership with families whose children have been identified as needing SEN support.
Their responsibilities include:
- liaising with teachers and support staff
- helping to coordinate provision for children
- organising staff training
- liaising with outside agencies
What support schools offer
Find information about specific schools
To find information on what specific schools do to support pupils with SEND, visit the school’s website and look for their SEN information report. This will explain how each school identifies and meets the needs of children with SEND, and how they identify, assess and support your child to make progress.
The SEN information report should be written in partnership with parents.
School responsibilities
Schools and educational settings should try to remove or reduce barriers against disabled pupils. This includes making reasonable adjustments to ensure there is no discrimination.
Schools have access to a range of local authority documentation and support materials to help them meet the special educational needs of pupils. We have also written an inclusion handbook for all educational settings, which gives information and support for schools to meet these responsibilities.
Schools use the Ordinarily Available Provision (PDF, 3756.29 KB) to develop their inclusion offer. This outlines the resources, approaches and reasonable adjustments that the Local Authority expects to be made available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities across mainstream schools in Enfield.
Funding for children and young people to support their SEND
Within every school’s budget, there is some funding to support the school to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. This will vary from school to school and is based on the level of need in each school setting.
Specific learning difficulties
Specific learning difficulties include a range of conditions, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. The process for identification, and how children and young people should be supported in educational settings, can be found in our guidance for schools and parents (PDF, 687.46 KB).
Glossary of terms
Our Voice Parent Forum have put together a useful glossary of terms (PDF, 748.81 KB) which explain the different specialist terms and acronyms you are likely to come across in discussions relating to your child or young person. It is also available in Turkish (PDF, 752.93 KB) and Somalian (PDF, 751.23 KB) .