School Action / School Action Plus
School and early education settings place great importance on identifying Special Educational Needs (SEN) so they can help the child as early as possible. Children learn in different ways and can have different levels or kinds of SEN. So if the child has SEN, the school will increasingly, step by step, bring in specialist expertise to help with the difficulties they may have.
The school must inform parents /carers if they start giving extra or different help to the child because of their SEN. The basic level of extra help is known as School Action and could be -:
- A different way of teaching things
- Some extra help from an adult
- Using particular equipment like a computer or specialist desk.
The equivalent in Scotland is called Additional Support Needs (ASN). The principle difference being not confined to children whose need for special attention arises from disability or learning difficulties but from a range of factors e.g. being in hospital, death of a close family member.
The child’s teacher is responsible for working with the child on a day to day basis, but may decide to write down the actions of help in an Individual Education Plan. The IEP could include:
- what special or additional help is being given
- who will provide the help and how often
- what help the child could be given at home
- the child’s targets
- how and when progress will be checked
Sometimes the school will not write an IEP but will record how they are meeting the child’s needs in a different way, perhaps as part of the lesson plans.
If the child does not make enough progress under School Action, the teacher or SEN coordinator (SENCO) will ask for advice from other people outside the school. This could include a specialist teacher or a speech and language therapist. This kind of extra help is called School Action Plus.
The key test for taking School Action, moving to School Action Plus, or considering whether a statutory assessment is necessary is whether the child is making adequate progress. Essentially, what is considered to be adequate progress for a particular child is a matter for the teacher’s professional judgement.
