Complete a clear analysis of the child or young person’s strengths and needs. Learning gaps may not always be an indication of a special educational need but identifying and addressing them is still important.
Include progress and attainment over time and other information from the school/setting’s core systems such as information on attitudes and behaviours.
Observations and assessments need to monitor the impact of any previous interventions or actions, using comparisons to age-related expectations and other relevant data sets.
Assessments will often need to go beyond academic or age-related reviews. The early help strengths and needs form can be used to identify if there are other factors impacting on the child or young person’s development.
Schools should take seriously any concerns raised by a parent. These should be recorded and compared to the setting’s own assessment and information on how the pupil is developing.
Identify progress
Use the SEND indicators tool (xlsx format, 366KB) to help you identify detailed information about a child's progress and needs. This stage should be completed first and continuously reviewed. The tool is in a strength-based format, meaning that you select what the child or young person can already do, and the unchecked boxes become areas for development. As with the previous descriptors, please assess all relevant areas of need.
Careful observation and targeted diagnostic one-to-one work with the pupil is the best way to unpick difficulties.
- Use curriculum-based assessment and careful tracking of progress to measure the child/young person’s rate of progress.
- Use progress against small, targeted learning goals to evaluate progress.
- Use formative as well as summative assessment to unpick difficulties in detail.