All teachers need to be aware of the following from the SEND Code of Practice (2014), the Equality Act (2010) and the Mental Capacity Act (2005):
• Does the child have a learning difficulty, that causes a significantly greater difficulty when learning than their peers? A key consideration, but not the sole consideration in this is whether the child is making expected progress; or
• Does the child have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of the facilities in the setting and reduces inclusion into all activities provided by the setting?
• Does the learning difficulty or disability call for special educational provision, that is provision that is additional to or different from the provision normally made available?
Where a setting identifies a child as having SEN, they must work in partnership with parents to establish the support the child needs. Where a setting makes special educational provision for a child with SEN they should inform the parents and a maintained nursery school must inform the parents. All settings should adopt a graduated approach with four stages of action: assess, plan, do and review.
The first stage is for the class teacher to adapt teaching/ resources, planning to ensure that the child can make progress. This should then be reviewed to check that a pupil is making progress. If the child is not then it may be necessary to put the child on the SEN register and put a support plan in place which will include interventions above and beyond what the child will be getting in class.
‘Quality First’ adaptations in the classroom could include the following:
· Delegation of time from an extra adult to reinforce learning
· Resources such as I pad, lap top, writing frames, pencil grips(depending on the need of the child)
· Multi- sensory approaches used as much as possible to reinforce learning
· Instructions to be explicit and short
· Directed questioning
· Simple criteria to follow to achieve learning focus
· Peer/ group work where appropriate
· Extended time for tasks or reduction of the same task
If you would like any further information please contact National Dyslexia Network for free advice.