1. What are Special Educational Needs?
Many children will have Special Educational Needs (SEN) at some time during their education. A small number will need some extra help.
Children with SEN have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children their age.
As a general rule, the children who would be a cause of concern, are those whose development in the core areas of fine and gross motor control, perceptual skills, self-help, cognitive development, communication and language skills, falls significantly behind those of other children of their age.

2. Categories of Special Educational Needs
Once it has been decided that your child has a Special Educational Need, we will begin with a ‘low level approach’. This is a small amount of help different from the other children. This type of help is called Early Years Action (in the Early years) and School Action (year one upwards). They may be on this level for a short time or for many years.
If the interventions do not enable your child to make satisfactory progress then we might require specialist advice and support for external services. This is called Early Years Action (for the Early years) or School Action Plus (from year one upwards)
Information collected will produce an Play Plan (for the early years) or an Individual Education Plan (year one upwards). These will be reviewed regularly.

3. A very small number of children (about 2%) will not make progress with the help given at Early Years Action Plus or School Action Plus. The SENCo will then discuss if your child should be referred for statutory assessment. It must be noted that this is only necessary for a very small number of children. Also it is up to an external panel if your child is to be statemented.
Children in Saint Teresa’s RC School are supported in class and also are given 1:1 support. The work given is planned for and shared with parents with an IEP. These will be shared with the parents on a regular basis.

4. Glossary Of Terms Used
Dyscalculia:- Pupils with dyscalculia have difficulty in acquiring mathematical skills. Pupils may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers and have problems learning number facts and procedures.
Dyspraxia:- Pupils with dyspraxia are affected by an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement, often appearing clumsy. Gross and fine motor skills are hard to learn and difficult to retain and generalise. Pupils may have poor balance and coordination and may be hesitant in many actions (running, skipping, hopping, holding a pencil, doing jigsaws, etc). Their articulation may also be immature and their language late to develop. They may also have poor awareness of body position and poor social skills.

5. Dyslexia:- Pupils with dyslexia have a marked and persistent difficulty in learning to read, write and spell, despite progress in other areas. Pupils may have poor reading comprehension, handwriting and punctuation. They may also have difficulties in concentration and organisation, and in remembering sequences of words. They may mispronounce common words or reverse letters and sounds in words.
Educational Psychologist:- He or she will play an important role in assessing your child’s educational needs and given advice to schools.

6. Individual Education Plan (IEP):- This is a plan for a child, examining what they can do now, what they need to do next and how this is going to be achieved. In Saint Teresa’s we have one IEP that are long term targets (for an academic year). We than have Specific Teaching Targets (STP’s) which are IEP’s that are for short term targets (one term). These are shared with parents.
Parent Partnership Service (PPS) A service provided by the L.A, which encourages partnerships between parents, LEAs, school, voluntary organisations and other agencies. If you would like help from the Parent Partnership Service, please phone them on
SEN Coordinator (SENCo):- Every school has one of these. This is a member of the staff who is responsible for managing the Special Educational Needs of the School. At Saint Teresa’s RC school it is Miss Galea.