1. SEN Support and the Graduated Approach Developed by Kate Browning – nasen presented by Pat Bullen- nasen

2. What will I get from this workshop?
Step by step guide to the Graduated Approach
Key questions for reflection on your practice
Focus on the shift in the SENCO role within the Graduated Approach
Suggested tools to support implementation of the Graduated Approach.
A lot to pack in an hour
Code catching up with where best practice has been developing over a number of years in schools

3. The Zone of Influence and Accountability
Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the pupils in their class, even where pupils access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff (SEND Code of Practice 2014)
External support e.g:
Local Authority
Nasen - Gateway
Academy trust
Teaching Schools
Local SENCo networks
Voluntary organisations
Early Years
The child’s key person, remains responsible for working with the child on a daily basis
CoP p. 76
Child
Child
Family
Tools and CPD
SENCo
Teacher
Success of GA – predicated on a clear understanding of teacher’s role.
This is likely to be shift / recalibration of roles and responsibilities in many schools but is echoed in Ofsted framework and Teachers Standards.
How GA ‘works’ will vary from school to school, depending on size and structure but key principles are the same.
The Zone of Influence and Accountability

4. The Graduated Approach
Where a pupil is identified as having SEN, schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place.
This SEN support should take the form of a four-part cycle through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refined and revised with a growing understanding of the pupil’s needs and of what supports the pupil in making good progress and securing good outcomes.
This is known as the graduated approach Pg 89
Quote from the Code – as SENCos may not have read the latest draft of the CoP (think we may assume that most wont have at this stage)

5. REVISIT REVISE REFRESH REFINE
Growing
Understanding of what approaches secure better outcomes
Growing
Understanding of
Pupil’s Needs
REVISE
Assess
Plan Do
Review
More frequent reviews
More detailed & specialist
approaches
The GA expanded – taking its key components projected it visually here.
All the elements are what we do for all children and young people – lead into next slide
Growing
Understanding of what teaching approaches work
REFRESH
Growing
Understanding of
effective support
REFINE

6. Identifying needs – the trigger
SEND Code of Practice
Class teachers, supported by the senior leadership team, should make regular assessments of progress for all pupils. These should seek to identify pupils making less than expected progress given their age and individual circumstances. This can be characterised by progress which: • is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline • fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress • fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers • widens the attainment gap It can include progress in areas other than attainment – for instance where a pupil needs to make additional progress with wider development or social needs in order to make a successful transition to adult life

7. Profile of Needs
SEND Code of Practice
In deciding whether to make special educational provision, the teacher and SENCO should consider all of the information gathered from within the school about the pupil’s progress, alongside national data and expectations of progress.
This should include
high quality and accurate formative assessment,
using effective tools and
early assessment materials.
For higher levels of need, schools should have arrangements in place to draw on more specialised assessments from external agencies and professionals

8. Whole School Approach to Assessing and Identifying Need
FOR ALL
FOR SOME
FOR A FEW
standardised tests
criterion referenced assessments checklists
profiling tools e.g. for behaviour, SLCN
observation schedules and prompt sheets
questionnaires for parents
questionnaires for pupils
screening assessments
What assessments do we use to identify a child’s gaps in and barriers to learning?
Consider the ‘spiral’ at the widest point and then drill down – consider your practice in this area in terms of a continuum of assessment.

9. Legal definition of SEN
Assess
SEND Code of Practice
Legal definition of SEN
A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning
difficulty or disability if he or she:
• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of
others of the same age, or
• has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making
use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of
the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16
institutions
For children aged two or more, SEN provision is educational or
training provision that is additional to or different from that made
generally for other children or young people of the same age by
mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools..

10. Four Broad Areas of Need
1. Communication and interaction
2. Cognition and learning
3. Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
4. Sensory and/or physical needs
Warning over labels / pupils needs often falling across these areas – some aspects emerging over time / fluctuating over time – be open to areas of need emerging.
3. However consistent disruptive or withdrawn behaviours can be an indication of unmet SEN, and where there are concerns about behaviour, there should be an assessment to determine whether there are any causal factors such as undiagnosed learning difficulties, difficulties with communication or mental health issues.
Draft
SEN Code of Practice

11. Reflection and Readiness
How are we ensuring we are identifying pupils’ needs as early as possible?
Can we improve our liaison with pre-school / feeder schools to prepare for pupils with additional needs as soon as they arrive?
Do we have systems, tools and expertise to support identification and assessment?
Do class / subject teachers make effective use of these tools to identify pupils’ gaps and barriers to learning, adapting their core teaching in the light of these findings?
Do we call on the support of a range of external specialists as and when we need?
Are there any areas that our staff need training on, to support identification?
Time for delegates to reflect on one or two of these questions – the rest they could take back and discuss with SLT / departments etc.

12. Review your SEN Register
1. Agree whole school identification of SEN
2. With teachers, review pupils currently on register
Do they need SEN Support?
Do you have a clear analysis of a pupil’s needs?
Does the plan for a pupil’s SEN Support need to be refined?
3. Remove SA and SA+ categories and change to SEN Support
4. Note where external agencies have been involved with a child
5. Identify pupils with EHC plan and those continuing on statement
(this could go elsewhere on in the presentation…)
A note on the SEN Record / Register

13. Planning Provision
1. High Quality Teaching
High quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils,
is the first step in responding to pupils who have SEN.
Teacher and SENCO should agree in consultation with the parent and the pupil the adjustments, interventions and support to be put in place, as well as the expected impact on progress, development or behaviour, along with a clear date for review
2. Targeted Provision
Focus of planning – 2 areas: QFT and Targeted Provision
Traditionally, more focus on TP than on QFT.
Need at least equal focus on both.
Implications for the focus of SENCo’s conversations with teachers and departments and also the increased expectation on teachers? – next slide

14. Plan
Reliable Evidence
Where SEN Support - make good use of the above (GATEWAY link too) 14

15. Planning for targeted provision:
Staff read and understand statement/EHC plan and any specialist reports
Range of strategies and approaches to support class differentiation agreed
Co-production of plan to address needs with agreed outcomes produced
Additional training for teaching and support staff arranged
Teacher monitors progress towards outcomes regularly, adjusting planning
SENCO monitors progress termly with all relevant staff, parents and pupil
High need pupils – key conisderations.
Rather than focusing on the ‘hours’ outlined on a statement/EHC plan, do schools focus first on the agreed outcomes it is aiming for. The plan of support for this pupil, co-produced with parents and child, should then focus on how the allocated ‘hours’ are being used to reach the agreed outcomes.

16. Reflection and Readiness
Do teachers plan effectively to meet the needs of the pupils with SEN in their class?
Do teachers understand what is written in specialist reports and what that means in terms of high quality teaching?
Are there professional development opportunities for teachers to have pedagogical discussions around high quality teaching and targeted provision?
Is our school utilising the most recent research around ‘What Works’ for pupils?
Have teachers planned in how they will regularly monitor the progress pupils are making within targeted provision for whom they are responsible and accountable?
Time for delegates to reflect on one or two of these questions – the rest they could take back and discuss with SLT / departments etc.

17. Roles and Responsibilities Class /Subject TeacherDo
Roles and Responsibilities
Class /Subject Teacher
SENCO
SENCO should support the class or subject teacher in the further assessment of the child’s particular strengths and weaknesses, in problem solving and advising on the effective implementation of the support.
The class or subject teacher should remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis.
Where the interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class or subject teacher, they should still retain responsibility for the pupil.
FE p. 105
Named person with oversight of SEN provision.
Contribute to Strategic / Operational management.
Who staff can go to when identifying SEN are concerned about progress or need further advice.
Responsibility and accountability on a day to day basis.
Is this practice that we recognise?

18. Reflection and Readiness
Is the SENCO supporting the development of staff skills, confidence and expertise in this area?
Do teachers monitor the progress of pupils, within targeted provision for whom they are accountable?
How can we ensure that the skills being taught and practised within targeted provision are improving the outcomes in class?
Are additional adults being used effectively?
Are pupils’ developing independence?

19. Reviewing progress towards outcomes
Usually led by the class / form teacher, supported by the SENCo
Views of the pupil should be included in discussions
Sufficient time to explore views and plan effectively
Where a pupil is receiving SEN support, schools should
talk to parents regularly
to set clear outcomes and review progress towards them,
discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them,
and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school.
Schools should meet parents at least three times each year.
Consider the Ladder of Participation – is our ‘consultation’ with parents and pupils as meaningful as it could be?
How do you as SENCo ‘work with’ teachers / departments?
Professional development to manage conversations
Record of discussion made and given to parents
Where possible aligned with normal cycle of discussions 19

20. Evidence for Review Achievement Assessment through use of: Observation
Work scrutiny
APP or similar
Tests, where appropriate
Predicted grades / NC / P level they can achieve independently and consistently
Pupils, parents, staff views
Targeted Provision
Have they achieved progress?
What is the evidence?
Has there been a generalisation of skills transferring back into class work?
What are the views of support staff, parents, child?
Is there now a renewed view of pupil’s needs?
Reviewing the progress of pupils on the SEN register will involve drawing on a range of quantitative and qualitative information.
The review is a crucial part of the process, providing an opportunity to formally evaluate the success of teaching and learning in class as well as the impact of targeted provision. Again, should be driven by the class teacher. Finding time to implement a comprehensive termly review will always pay dividends in enabling an ever sharpening focus on the nature of pupil’s needs, increasingly well targeted support leading to improved outcomes. 20

21. Reflection and Readiness
Are all key people meaningfully involved in the review process (parents, child / young person / support staff / specialists /peer advocates)?
Are teachers driving the process of reviewing the effectiveness of provision for pupils with SEN for whom they are responsible and accountable?
How can we provide opportunities for liaison with parents at least termly?
Are we supporting parents in understanding the difference they can make in supporting their child’s learning at home and in how they can confidently do this?
Opportunity to reflect on your school’s SEND review process – utilising the whole school systems wherever possible. 21

22. REVISIT REVISE REFRESH REFINE
Assess
Plan Do
Review
REVISE
More frequent reviews
More detailed & specialist
approaches
The GA expanded – taking its key components projected it visually here.
All the elements are what we do for all children and young people – lead into next slide
REFRESH
REFINE 22

23. Key features of an effective Graduated Approach to SEN Support
Rooted in a
Whole School Approach
SENCO role to support teachers
Emphasis on teacher’s role in driving the Graduated Approach
Meaningful participation with parents and pupils
Summary of key points to take away and consider…
Relentless drive to improve teachers’ abilities to adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils
Ethos and values that promote high expectations and drive for inclusivity driven by the leadership of the school

24. Further support and guidance
nasen SEND Gateway – now LIVE
nasen Everyone Included – more detailed guidance for SENCos
nasen - guidance on redrafting SEN Policy
SENCo Net termly meetings around the county –book via Forest Way TSA
Letter from Edward Timson for teachers and one for parents:
disabilities-send-reform-letters
New duties and guidance: Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions Feb 2014
New Guidance: Mental Health and Behaviour Departmental Advice June 2014