It must be the Summer term: it’s that time of year when a whole host of new government initiatives are hitting schools with the expectation that they will be in place in schools for September. Autumn 2014 heralds a surge of policy initiatives that will have a direct impact on the teaching, learning and management in schools, including SEND reform, changes to school funding, pay and conditions, implementing universal infant free school meals and changes to curriculum and assessment.
Whilst the draft Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice is a welcome drawing together of all the good practice that schools have been developing recently, there are major changes and expectations that will impact on every teacher in the classroom. The ‘graduated response’ model starts with the work of classroom, subject and pastoral teachers assessing and monitoring the progress of SEN pupils for whom they are responsible. So what is this going to entail for the busy professional in schools?
Phase 1 of the graduated response
Phase 1 of the graduated response starts with the expectation that every teacher is a well-skilled and informed teacher of pupils with SEN who delivers high quality teaching. The teacher, whether a class teacher in a primary school or subject teacher in a secondary school, uses high quality planning, including differentiation to meet the needs of individual pupils. This could also be the pastoral lead, for example a head of year, who is aware that the pupil may be experiencing social, emotional and mental health issues.
Through regular assessment and monitoring, the teacher tracks the progress of their SEN pupils, and those who they think might have SEN, from their starting points. The expectation is that because of high quality teaching (with the SENCo providing advice to the teachers), these pupils will make expected rates of progress from their starting points. If this does not happen, despite good teaching or pastoral support, the teacher is now required to put in place interventions and extra teaching, following a planning meeting with the parents, child and SENCo. The impact of this plan is monitored termly. If, despite a few terms of this planned response, the pupil is still not making expected progress, particularly in literacy and numeracy, then the decision is made to move the pupil onto the more formal graduated response model, with input and assessment from external professionals. This is the point at which the pupil is placed on the school’s SEN register.