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🚩 Teacher observes signs that student is struggling (behavioural, social, or academic).

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✅ Teacher should gather classwork, assessment results, observation notes, and compare with peers, check attendance, and any other possible wellbeing factors.

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Ask: is English an Additional Language (EAL)?
⬇️ Use language screening, consult EAL/ESL specialist.
➡️ If yes: provide targeted English support, monitor progress.
➡️ If no improvement after support: continue down SEND route.

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⒋ Implement QFT (Quality First Teaching)

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⒋ Implement QFT (Quality First Teaching)

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✅ Create and deliver inclusive lessons with built-in differentiation options e.g. scaffolding tasks, providing visuals, using sentence starters, modelling, and flexible grouping.

✅ Record strategies and outcomes.

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✅ Meet with parents/carers to share concerns.
✅ Provide home strategies and request background info (development, medical history, languages spoken at home).

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⒍ Monitor & Review (Wave 1 → Wave 2 support)

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⒍ Monitor & Review (Wave 1 → Wave 2 support)

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⬇️ Monitor and review progress as part of the Assess–Plan–Do–Review (APDR) cycle - track the impact of Wave 1 over 6–8 weeks.

➡️ If progress is limited, introduce Wave 2 targeted small-group interventions (e.g. phonics boosters, guided reading, maths catch-up) and record outcomes.

⬇️ Prepare to escalate to Wave 3 with SENCO input.

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⬇️ If progress remains limited after Wave 2 interventions, consult the SENCO.
➡️ SENCO coordinates personalised support (Wave 3), which may include one-to-one interventions, specialist assessments, or referrals to external professionals (e.g. educational psychologist, speech and language therapist).
➡️ Continue to involve parents/carers at every stage.

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⬇️ If persistent difficulties despite interventions, SENCO/teacher + parents agree referral.
⬇️ School begins Special Educational Needs (SEN) support plan or applies for EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) assessment.

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An education, health and care ( EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support.

EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

Requesting an EHC assessment

You can ask your local authority to carry out an assessment if you think your child needs an EHC plan.

A young person can request an assessment themselves if they're aged 16 to 25.

A request can also be made by anyone else who thinks an assessment may be necessary, including doctors, health visitors, teachers, parents and family friends.

If they decide to carry out an assessment you may be asked for:

any reports from your child's school, nursery or childminder

doctors' assessments of your child

a letter from you about your child's needs

The local authority will tell you within 16 weeks whether an EHC plan is going to be made for your child.

Creating an EHC plan

1. Your local authority will create a draft EHC plan and send you a copy.

2. You have at least 15 days to comment, including if you want to ask that your child goes to a specialist needs school or specialist college.

3. Your local authority has 20 weeks from the date they receive the request for the assessment to give you the final EHC plan.

Disagreeing with a decision

You can challenge your local authority about:

their decision to not carry out an assessment

their decision to not create an EHC plan

the special educational support in the EHC plan

the school named in the EHC plan

If you cannot resolve the problem with your local authority, you can appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal.

Personal budgets

You may be able to get a personal budget for your child if they have an EHC plan or have been told that they need one.

It allows you to have a say in how to spend the money on support for your child.

There are 3 ways you can use your personal budget. You can have:

direct payments made into your account - you buy and manage services yourself

an arrangement with your local authority or school where they hold the money for you but you still decide how to spend it (sometimes called 'notional arrangements')

third-party arrangements - you choose someone else to manage the money for you

You can have a combination of all 3 options.

Independent support for children of all ages

Independent supporters can help you and your child through the new SEN assessment process, including:

replacing a statement of special educational needs with a new EHC plan

moving a child from a learning difficulty assessment (LDA) to an EHC plan

You can find out how to get local support through:

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Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

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Children with special educational needs (SEN) can get the help they need to get an education - SEN support, education, health and care plans, SEN before September 2014

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✅ If needs met in class ➡ continue differentiated strategies & monitoring.
✅ If identified SEND ➡ implement SEN Support or EHCP with tailored provision.

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Department for Education, & Department of Health. (2015). Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years. Department for Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

Department for Education. (2020). Guidance on teaching pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Department for Education. (This is linked in Step 8.)

National Association for Special Educational Needs. (2023). Teacher resources and guidance. NASEN. https://nasen.org.uk

The Bell Foundation. (2021). EAL assessment framework for schools. The Bell Educational Trust Limited. https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk

SEND Gateway. (2016). The graduated approach: SEND support and the assess, plan, do, review cycle. Whole School SEND. https://www.wholeschoolsend.org.uk/

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Get the highest quality CPD from experts at your convenience, with nasen's SEND CPD on Demand - The ultimate flexible training resource.

With individual and school subscriptions starting at just £199, boost your learning with convenient access to over 70 pre-recorded SEND CPD sessions tailored to meet the needs of the entire education workforce.

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Get the highest quality CPD from experts at your convenience, with nasen's SEND CPD on Demand - The ultimate flexible training resource. With individual and school subscriptions starting at just £199, boost your learning with convenient access to over 70 pre-recorded SEND CPD sessions tailored to meet the needs of the entire education workforce.