Information about early identification, assessment and intervention

What happens if I am worried about my child?

If you are worried about your child’s progress, please speak to the class teacher. We can then work together to identify what specific concerns you have, what we have observed in school and what we can do next.

How do you identify children who may have special needs?

We use a range of strategies to identify children who have SEND:

• Some children come to school with their needs already identified by their previous setting/school or specialists working with them (e.g. community paediatrics, Speech and Language Therapy and so on)
• We always contact these practitioners to find out what goals they have been working towards, how your child has responded and what needs to happen next
• For other children, we first provide high quality teaching and observe their response to this
• It is only when your child doesn’t make the expected progress after having had good quality teaching that we start to further assess whether your child has SEND
• For example, we may analyse their work for errors they’ve made – e.g. their spelling mistakes – and work out what might be holding them back
• We also use specialist assessments to help us pinpoint specific needs (e.g. we use a test called the Sandwell when we are identifying further difficulties with numeracy)
• Most importantly, we talk with your child and with you about their learning, what is working/where the gaps are and work together on setting targets 

How will my child manage tests and exams?

In England, schools are responsible for checking whether a child is working at the level of a test (e.g. Key Stage 2 SATS) but is unable to access them. The Headteacher makes the final decision about this, for example if your child has:

• A physical or sensory disability (e.g. a visual impairment)
• Spent lots of time in hospital towards the end of the Key Stage.

Specific arrangements can be put in place to enable children to access the tests. These are based primarily on typical classroom practice for children with particular needs (e.g. if our child uses Enlarged Print every day in class, this should be available for the exam). Detailed information about each access arrangement and how it can be used is available on the DfE’s website at www.education.gov.uk/ks2.