High-Quality Teaching

Teachers are trained to support young people with special educational needs, and some specialise in particular areas of support, like a focus on dyslexia. 

Your child's teacher will work to include different SEND support strategies in their lessons, which could look like:

• Pre-teaching  - Supporting young people with upcoming subjects by teaching them specific vocabulary, or context that will help them to understand their new topic. 
• Differentiation - Involves adapting worksheets, powerpoints or resources for different ability levels to support learners with varying needs across a whole class. 
• Scaffolding - Involves breaking down tasks into smaller achievable chunks, delivering less support as young people master new ideas or skills.   
• Classroom routines - For children with behavioural or sensory needs, planning the day to include extra drink and food breaks, sensory circuits etc. can help children focus on tasks.  
• Reasonable Adjustments - Teachers can change seating arrangements to support children, for example sitting children next to each other who may have a similar sensory profile, or giving children responsibilities if they need regular movement breaks. 
• Recognition of learning styles - Teachers can deliver instructions in different formats to support children who need extra support processing information, such as written tasks and verbal instruction.
• Understanding needs and triggers - By getting to know your child, teachers can understand how the school environment and other behaviours can trigger reactions and implement strategies to mitigate them. 
• Backward chaining - Where behaviours are learnt in reverse order from how the chain is performed and built up. For example, a child comes in to sit in the last part of an assembly, building up until they can enter and sit for the entire duration.

Supportive Resources

Teachers build banks of resources which can be used to support children with special educational needs. Examples of supportive resources used in the classroom could include:

One-Page Profiles 

A one-page profile is a simple summary of what is important to a child or young person and how they want to be supported. These profiles can be useful for school staff to gain insight into how your child prefers to be communicated with and how they learn best. They can also be helpful for young people to communicate important information about themselves to new people.

Using Visual Summaries

For young people who find writing difficult, a visual summary is a way of recording information and understanding through drawings. 

Reasonable Adjustments

The use of fidget spinners for hand movements and wobble cushions for sensory stimulation, or pencil and pen grips for writing support, can help young people regulate and focus.

Technology

The use of laptops, PCs or tablets in class to support children who may have difficulties with writing or reading can help them convey their understanding of a subject while making communication easier. 

Visual Communication Techniques

For learners who need visual prompts, resources such as visual timetables which use pictures in a timetable form can help children who need predictability and structure. Now and next cards with images of the immediate task, and the task coming up next can be used for young people to calm worries. Also, timers and clocks can be used so children can understand when they need to move on from a task and aid transition between sessions. 

Emotional Support

Teaching and support staff are trained with an awareness of early signs of mental health problems. Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) is one of four broad areas outlined in the SEND code of practice. SEMH is important and supports building confidence, independence and resilience for later life. It could look like:

• Emotion Coaching - Supporting children to identify and name their feelings to increase emotional literacy
• Relationships - Supporting social relationships with peers which could look like modelling behaviours, scripting conversations with peers, supporting repairing relationships or supporting children with communication difficulties
• Quiet Spaces - Providing calm zones for children to be able to calm down and regulate their emotions
• Mindfulness/grounding activities - Practicing activities like breathing exercises and mindfulness routines to support resilience and manage stress
• Sensory movement breaks - Incorporating breaks within a session for children to move around and burn off energy
• Traffic Light Cards - A set of green, yellow and red cards which children can put on their desk to signal concerns, or difficulties they may be having discreetly

Find out more about social, emotional and mental health support

SEND Register

Children who need longer-term SEND support will be placed on the school's Special Educational Needs Register. Every school has a budget allocated for SEND support, which can be used to pay for training for staff working with SEND children, or particular resources to help with identified needs. 

For each child placed on the SEND Register, an individual support plan must be created. These can sometimes be called Individual Education Plans (IEPs) or Learning Passports. Each plan is based on the graduated approach to SEND support which includes assessing, planning, implementing and reviewing support. 

Learning Passports

A learning passport, or pupil passport is a one-page profile of your child and allows your child's voice to be communicated. It can be used with children at the early years foundations stage (EYFS) through to their high school years and works well to communicate their needs to new staff. 

Pupil passports allow children to express:

• Individual preferences
• Learning Needs
• Challenges/Difficulties
• Strengths

Individual Education Plans (IEP)

An IEP is a document that helps teaching staff and support staff plan for your child. It can include strategies to help them learn and be used to review their progress. An IEP should be guided by your child's profile, records, assessment, strengths and EHCP if they have one. 

They should include 3 or 4 short-term targets which should be SMART:

• Specific, so it is clear what your child should be working towards
• Measurable so it's clear when the target has been achieved
• Achievable
• Realistic and relevant to your child's needs
• Time-bound to be achieved by a set time

Find out more about individual education plans (IEP)

Examples Of Reasonable Adjustments

Schools have a legal obligation to support students with special educational needs that put them at a disadvantage among their peers. Reasonable adjustments are changes that schools and teachers can provide to help pupils fulfil their potential. 

Examples of reasonable adjustments in schools include:

• A visually impaired pupil seated to accommodate their field of vision
• Adjusting a school snack policy to let a pupil with diabetes have a high-calorie snack
• Adapting the school uniform policy for a pupil with sensory needs
• Letting a pupil go into the dinner hall before others to help their sensory processing
• Traffic light cards for pupils to communicate they need extra time or support
• Coloured papers are used to reduce visual stress for dyslexic students
• Laptops are being provided for pupils with dyspraxia, and/or dyslexia to write
• Providing ear defenders to a pupil with sensitivity to noise to wear as appropriate