What do we mean by SEND?
Special educational needs often referred to as ‘SEN’ or ‘SEND’ (Special educational needs and disabilities), is a term used to describe learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for a child to learn compared to children of the same age.
All children may experience challenges with their learning at some point and for most children, these difficulties are overcome with support from teachers and at home. However, children with SEND are likely to need extra or different help to be able to learn.
Some children may have SEND because of a medical condition or disability, other children may have SEND without a diagnosis or disability.
Children are not considered to have SEND just because their first language is not English. Although some children for whom English is a second language may also have SEND.
A child or young person has SEND if :
- they have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of other children and young people the same age
- they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 provisions
A child or young person has a disability if:
- they have a physical and mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
You can read and listen to a wide range of children and young people talking about their special educational needs and disability on our case studies page.
In 2014 the government published the SEND Code of Practice.