Access Section - Section within Children, Young People and Families directorate which includes the following Services: Access Service, Education Welfare Service, Pupil Service and Student Service.
Admissions & Withdrawals - Returns submitted by schools on a weekly basis advising the LEA which pupils have joined and left the school other than at the annual intake or usual leaving dates.
Advisory Teacher – a teacher with an additional qualification and experience in special educational needs.
Age Weighted Pupil Unit - AWPU is a sum of money allocated to schools for each pupil, weighted proportionately to age to enable schools to deliver suitable education. The AWPU includes a proportion to address special educational needs.
Allocation - The annual process of administering the allocation of school places to pupils entering Reception classes for the first time or transferring from primary to secondary education.
Appeal - Process where by parents/carers can apply to have their case put before an independent panel regarding a refusal of a school place or a permanent exclusion from school.
Band 1 – A formula funded sum of money delegated to schools for SEN provision.
Band 2 - A set sum of money for individual pupils who attend mainstream schools. Allocations are made following an authority wide audit and moderation process that identifies those pupils who are the most needy.
Child in Public Care (CiPC) – Child in the care of the local authority. Also known as Looked after Child (LAC).
Code of Practice - SEN - Provides practical advice and guidance relating to statutory duties to identify, assess and make provision for pupils with SEN.
Connexions Service - The service provides a single point of access for all 13-19 year olds to help them prepare for the transition to work and adult life. Connexions Personal Advisers (PAs): provide a universal information, advice and guidance service for all young people 13-19 years when and where they need it - whether they are at school, in further education, in or out of work.
Co-ordinated Admissions - National strategy ensuring that all parents make a single application for all school places and ultimately only receive a single offer of one school place.
Disagreement Resolution Arrangements - All LEAs must provide arrangements to help prevent or resolve disagreements between parents, whose children have special educational needs, and the LEA or a school. They must include an independent element. They are designed to bring together the different parties in an informal way to seek to resolve the disagreement through discussion. Using these arrangements is voluntary and does not in any way affect a parents right to appeal to the SEN Tribunal.
Education Act – Description of the National Statutory Duties for Education.
Education at home - Parents/carers take responsibility for a pupil’s education and no longer wish to access a place for that child in a maintained school. There is a strict protocol in place of home visits and monitoring to ensure the pupil is in a safe environment which meets their educational needs.
Education Out of School (EOOS) Service - Section within Education & Cultural Services which supports children who are accessing education away from a school setting. This includes: Excluded pupils, pupils at risk of exclusion, pupils educated at home, sick children, pregnant girls and young mothers of school age Notschool.com (e-learning project)
Educational Psychologist – a person who promotes child development and learning through the application of psychology – the scientific study of the mind, human behaviour and relationships.
Education Welfare Officer - person employed by an LEA to help parents and LEAs meet their respective statutory obligations in relation to school attendance. In some LEAs Education Welfare Officers are known as Education Social Workers.
Exclusion - Formal process governed by statutory procedures by which pupils are asked not to return to their school as a result of a disciplinary incident. This can be for a fixed term or permanently. The process is administered by the Education Out of School Service. Parents/carers have a right to appeal against the exclusion. Once a pupil has been permanently excluded from school they are educated by the Pupil Support Centre who also plan their return to school. This is known as Re-integration.
Graduated Response - A model of action and intervention in schools and early education settings to help children who have special educational needs. The approach recognises that there is a continuum of special educational needs and that, where necessary, increasing specialist expertise should be brought to bear on the difficulties that a child may be experiencing.
Home to School/College Transport – Provision of support to parents/carers for support with transport to and from school/college for pupils who are eligible in accordance with the LEA policy. This includes: free travel passes for pupils attending mainstream schools; travel expenses for students in post 16 education; contracted transport for pupils with SEN; refunding parental expenses; provision of Pupil Escorts to accompany pupils with SEN
Inclusion – Within the SEN framework, this refers to the LEA’s aim to, wherever possible, offer education in a mainstream setting to all children whose parents wish this.
The wider definition means extending educational opportunities for and encouraging wider participation from all young people.
Individual Education Plan - The IEP is a planning, teaching and reviewing tool. It is a working document for all teaching staff recording key short-term targets and strategies for an individual pupil that are different from or additional to those in place for the rest of the group or class. The interventions will be provided Early Years Action, Early Years Action Plus, School Action, School Action Plus and statements of SEN.
Intake - Annual admissions of new pupils to a school into Reception (primary) or Year 7 (Secondary).
Key Stages –
Foundation stage = Pre school up to age 4
KS1 = Ages 5-7 doing KS1 SAT
KS2 = Ages 7-11 doing KS2
SAT
KS3 = Ages 11-14 doing KS3 SAT
KS4 = Ages 14-16 doing GCSE
Looked after child (LAC) - Child in the care of the local authority. Also known as Child in Public Care (CiPC).
Moderation Process - The way in which pupil need is compared across the borough to ensure resources are allocated to pupils who are most in need.
National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies - the literacy and numeracy strategies were introduced in September 1998 and 1999 respectively to raise standards of literacy and mathematics. Primary schools are now teaching a dedicated daily Literacy Hour and daily mathematics lesson.
The KS3 Strategy is being introduced to raise standards in all schools with KS3 pupils through new teaching and learning programmes for English, mathematics, ICT, science and in the Foundation subjects.
Not attending - Pupil who is on the roll of a school but not physically in school for whatever reason.
Off roll - Taking a pupils name off a school register to indicate that the pupil no longer attends that school.
Occupational therapy - Occupational therapy is the use of purposeful activity and play to help a child attain maximum levels of functional performance, thus gaining self-esteem and independence. Motor, sensory, perceptual, social, emotional and self-care skills are assessed. Working with the child, parents and teachers, occupational therapists use therapeutic techniques (advising on equipment and environment adaptations where appropriate) to improve a child's ability to access the physical and learning curriculum.
Parent Partnership Services - provide advice and information to parents whose children have special educational needs. They provide neutral and factual support on all aspects of the SEN framework to help parents play an active and informed role in their child's education. Although funded by the local education authority they provide a service to parents and are often either run at arms length from the authority or by a voluntary organisation to ensure parents have confidence in them.
Physiotherapy - physiotherapy is a health care profession that emphasises the use of physical approaches in the promotion, maintenance and restoration of an individual's physical, psychological and social well-being. Following assessment, a treatment plan is developed in partnership with the client/carers; this plan is constantly evaluated to ensure that it is effective and relevant to the individual's changing circumstances and health status.
Pupil Mobility - Movement of children on and off the register of a school.
Reintegration - Process by which a previously permanently excluded pupil is supported in their re-admission to a new school.
School Action - When a class or subject teacher identify that a pupil has SEN they provide interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of the schools usual differentiated curriculum and strategies.
School Action Plus - When the class or subject teacher and the SENCO are provided with advice or support from outside specialists so that alternative interventions, additional to and different from, those made at School Action can be put in place.
SEN coordinator (SENCO) - member of staff of a school or early education setting who has responsibility for coordinating SEN provision within that school. In a small school the head teacher or deputy may take on this role. In larger schools there may be an SEN coordinating team.
SEN & Disability Act 2001 - Amended Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 by introducing new duties on local education authorities and schools in relation to pupils and prospective pupils with disabilities.
SEN Tribunal - an independent body which has jurisdiction under section 333 of the Education Act 1996 for determining appeals by parents against LEA decisions on assessments and statements. The Tribunal's decision will be binding on both parties to the appeal.
Speech and language therapy - Speech and language therapy is a health care profession, the role and aim of which is to enable adults and children with speech, language and communication difficulties (and associated difficulties with eating and swallowing) to reach their maximum communication potential and achieve independence in all aspects of life.
Social Inclusion - In education involves the processes of increasing the participation of students in and reducing their exclusion form the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools.
Statement of SEN - When a child’s special educational needs are assessed as significant and requiring more educational resources than are generally available to mainstream schools, the LEA must intervene by writing a Statement, which is a legally binding document. This clearly sets out, after a formal assessment process, what the child’s specific needs are, how they should be met, and by whom.
Statutory Assessment - The process by which a child’s Special Educational Needs are investigated and arrangements made to meet such needs within educational settings, often resulting in the issuing of a Statement.
Transition - Movement between educational phases e.g. infant to junior (KS1-2), primary to secondary (KS3-4) etc.
Tribunal – SEN appeals process which allows an independent body to consider an appeal against decisions on statutory assessment.