Concerns about school progress
If you’re worried about the progress your child is making at school, you should speak to your child’s class teacher or form tutor to discuss your concerns. You may also need to meet with the school special educational needs coordinator (SENCo).
Ordinarily available provision
The school will be able to offer advice and support as required. This may involve some of the strategies that can be found in ordinarily available provision (PDF, 3756.29 KB). This outlines the resources, approaches and reasonable adjustments we expect to be made available for children and young people with SEND across mainstream schools in Enfield.
SEN support and the graduated approach
Where concerns remain, the school SENCo will discuss the provision of SEN support interventions and resources with you. This will include putting in place an educational support plan.
As part of this plan, further assessments may be done to understand your child’s needs. Holistic assessments can include observations, group work and in-school assessments. The plan will outline the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle (the graduated approach).
The plan should be reviewed with you at least every term to allow for regular monitoring and review of the support in place.
The graduated approach
Assess
Use of screening tools, observations and informal or formal assessments to identify strengths and needs which lay the foundation for forward planning. This may involve external agencies. These assessments may form the baseline for measuring progress and outcomes.
Plan
With the child or young person, their parents or carers and key members of staff, plan interventions and/or strategies that can be used to address needs identified at the assessment stage. Identify expected outcomes.
Do
Implement interventions and/or strategies as agreed at the planning stage. Regular monitoring and record keeping should be in place.
Review
With the child or young person, their parents or carers and key members of staff, celebrate any success(es) and plan next steps where outcomes have not been met. Refer to baseline assessments to highlight progress made.
School support for children and young people with SEND
Following school assessments, your child or young person may have additional interventions. In most cases, this will be provided by the school from the funding they receive to support children with SEND.
To find information on what specific schools do to support pupils with SEND, visit your school’s website and look for their SEND 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.
Examples of support may include:
- language and social skills groups
- nurture groups to support emotional development
- counselling and mentoring support
- Tiger Teams to help children with their motor skills
- literacy and maths interventions
The school will work with you, and may also work with other agencies, to support your child’s learning journey so they are able to progress. These agencies include:
- Enfield Communication Advisory Support Service (ECASS)
- Enfield Advisory Service for Autism (EASA)
- Supporting Wellbeing, Emotional Resilience and Readiness for Learning (SWERRL) – Primary Behaviour Support Service
- Secondary Behaviour Support Service (NEXUS)
An Educational Psychologist (EP) may 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.
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.
If after 2 termly reviews your child is still not making progress, the SENCo will discuss further options with you to support your child. This may include a request for further input from external agencies or an application to the local authority for a needs assessment. A parent can also request a needs assessment from the local authority at any time.
For more information, see our Education, health and care plan page.
Education, health and care plans
After the statutory needs assessment is carried out, 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's needs, and support that can be put in place.
For more information, see our Education, health and care plan 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 and young people
- organising staff training
- liaising with outside agencies
School responsibilities
Schools and educational settings should try to remove or reduce barriers against disabled pupils and those with SEN. 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. For example an inclusion handbook which gives information and support to settings and Guidance for schools and parents for specific learning difficulties (PDF, 687.46 KB).
Funding for children and young people with 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.
If a child or young person has significant needs which require an EHCP, then funding for additional provision will be outlined on the EHCP.
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).