Special educational needs identifiable

The second contradiction which exercised the Committee concerned the standards agenda and special educational needs and it cited a number of witnesses commentaries on how children with special educational needs were disadvantaged by an emphasis on the narrow outcome of academic attainment. Here, the Committee identified another source of slippage from the Government in relation to personalisation ... 

Inclusion has historically focused on the issue of special educational needs (SEN) within schools and local authorities (LAs). Services and support have been provided via a special needs co-ordinator (SENCO) within schools for pupils with a range of specific, identifiable needs... 

It is often difficult to measure your progress in moving to an inclusive school. An OFSTED survey of provision for different types of SEN identified the following key characteristics of effective, inclusive schools Special educational needs in the mainstream - OFSTED, 2003) ... 

Thus, for many, inclusion has been concerned with the placement in mainstream schools of students who have been identified as having special educational needs, and who might, in the past, have attended a special school or other provision separate or different from the majority of students. As this view has gained currency in policy, the term inclusion or inclusive education has begun to be used as a replacement for special needs education . This is particularly important because, as Tomlinson (1982) convincingly showed, special needs are artefacts of mainstream education. 

Because schools with large numbers of children described as having special educational needs are not necessarily inclusive schools, it is important to supplement any quantitative analysis with qualitative measines in order to explore the stories behind the numbers, as we do in the next section of this book. This is also necessary because the designation of special educational need in England is based in part on the organisational response put in place to meet students identified needs and thus can confound any quantification of special educational needs that is used in the national database. 

Each class is allocated a designated TA to work alongside the teacher to support the learning of children identified as having special educational needs. 

Staff at Amadeus work with a variety of colleagues outside the school. They make some use of the LA s specialist teachers who are able to offer teachers and TAs professional support for children identified as having special educational needs. They also draw on the LA for advice on particular curriculum areas, such as literacy. The headteacher also draws on other organisations if she considers them able to provide more effective services, in terms of both quality and cost. For example, the school has hired its own speech and language therapists and physiotherapists to work with staff and children. The headteacher has also paid for business management consultants from the private sector to help her produce a school management/business plan. 

The headteacher says that the variable quality of the information about individual students arriving from feeder primary schools means that the school is often ill prepared for meeting the needs of some students. Although students with statements of special educational needs and those who are recipients of the resourced provision have clearly identified needs, some parents are recommended... 

The school is working towards taking a curriculum-based approach to meeting the learning needs of aU students and the vast majority of students identified as having special educational needs are in mainstream classes full-time. However, it... 

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