Assessing children for special needs

Does anyone have any points of view on the topic of how to assess students for special educational needs? I am taking my PGCE at the moment and after interviewing the SEN co-ordinator in my school, I am curious how other schools assess students and come to the conclusion that they are special needs and how other students who also potentially could be are ignored? Any thoughts?

 

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how to approach safeguarding children in my school. I feel that at times I am very focused on all the demands that I currently have (lesson planning, marking, conducting lessons, behavior management, organizing extracurricular activities and concerts) that I am not necessarily giving the appropriate attention that is needed to pick up on students who might need my help? Any advice would be much appreciated thank you.

 

most schools appear to have their own systems. Sometimes a child in one school on the sen register would not be in another. Read the COP, the phrase used is "additional to and different from" what the other children are receiving. It should be up to the class teacher to identify the children who are struggling, not always sen, address the needs through interventions following the assess, plan, do review cycle.

 

Thank you very much for your reply and viewpoint. Sorry to be dumb but can you please tell me what COP in this instance represents, so that I know what to read? Thank you!

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

Also look at Local authorities Local Offers and schools contribution to this. Check school's web site for their sen policy and sen information report which may give you some more insight.

 

HI Tamazin! After speaking to our SEN officer, I was lead to believe that should we pick up on regular occurrences of things that 'concern us', then the process of 'flagging it up' as such, would begin. Like you, I am a complete beginner in the position, and perhaps experienced teachers forget how overwhelming everything is, and we 'don't know' what we 'don't know'- if that makes sense! Everything is a learning curve, and automatically, being the specialist in this particular field, as you- the first person I would question is the SEN teacher, rather than know what codes of practice and existing policies are- you tend to seek them out as these things arise. For me, the three issues that I struggle with the most are as follows: I am not sure what concerning behavior I am looking out for as so much of the behavior our SEN officer described daily- I would have benefited from some workshops possibly in relation to this, and this is not available to us); you begin as the new teacher, and in your bid to 'fit in' and chat, teachers are often highlighting students who have behavioral issues- this could be planting seeds in relation to your expectations of students behavior- which is obviously detrimental. It would be far better to form your own opinions. And thirdly, it would obviously be ideal to be given lots and lots of reading on policies, guidelines, common practice, etc, etc, when you start the job, otherwise you are just tripping along figuring these things out. If you have never work in this profession, these are just not the things you immediately think of.
Furthermore, our school often talk about SEN students during meetings, to raise awareness among teachers, which is good, however, I find that from there, there is no further guidance. We are not given much help in the lines of how we can make class time more productive for children with needs. Also, we have a whole class of children that are together as they are SEN (variety of issues and needs, with some children that are ESL), and I feel like I am completely failing them in lessons as they would all benefit from much more one on one focus, which I am not able to offer ( we have no TA's).
Anyone is reading and can offer any suggestions as to how to make the lessons more productive for students who are really struggling in these classes or find themselves not engaged for whatever reason (struggles, low concentration, material too complex, too much reading, etc, etc) - please post!! ( bearing in mind that other students need to be stimulated, and finding the correct pace is therefore challenging.

 

Quick response.
COP deliberately vague and open to interpretation.
All settings should have a QFT model and then ratchet up support mechanisms. I have an example I can send.
Also former ITT / SEND presenter so can provide PPTs
PM me if you think I can help with e mail add. Cheers

 

Also each setting should have its own robust ARR schedule and on entry use a whole battery of tests plus parent/ former teacher ‘ knowledge ‘ and observations upon which to base a ( holistic ) judgment.
I wrote an AN Handbook to empower staff and make them proactive re SEND - so what it is how to distinguish and strategies to accommodate. Your school ( SEND lead ) should be able to tell you the priority learning need of the school and your curriculum model / delivery should be skewed to address. Your SENCO should be able to tell you what he/ she expects to see as a result of this and so success criteria must be in situ too....

 

Thank you so much! Very helpful and going to check out now.

 

Thank you so much for your reply. Yes not easy without TA's or proper training. I agree that we need formal training in my school to be more aware of what to look out for if we are to recognize any signs of students who could benefit from one on one time with the SENCO officer. It is something that I am going to bring up at the next meeting we have and students are discussed.