Marsh Hill, Erdington, Birmingham B23 7HY | Telephone: 0121 464 2920

Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

At different times in their school life, a child or young person may have a special educational need. The Code of Practice 2014 defines SEN as follows:

“A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or a disability which calls for special education provision to be made for him or her. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty if he or she:

  • has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others the same age, or
  • has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16s institutions.”
  • Where pupils’ progress is significantly below age related expectations, despite high quality teaching targeted at specific areas of difficulty, provision of SEN Support may need to be made.

There are a range of strategies used to identify special educational needs which may include the following:

  • Parental concern
  • Pupil concern
  • Staff concern
  • Internal assessment data
  • External agency advice

Our method of assessment will be dependent upon the needs of the child. Some children may need an Education, Health Care Plan (EHCP). This may be issued by the Local Authority following a detailed assessment.