SEND Pupils and Quality First Teaching

Standard

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.