ASN at BHS
Processes
- Staged Intervention process
- What Support should a child with Additional Support Needs have in class?
- Additional Support Plan
- Co-ordinated Support Plan
- I think my child may have an Additional Support Need. How do I have this assessed?
- Homework/ Google Classrooms
- Special exam/ assessment arrangements
- Communication with parents/ carers
- Links to SLC/ SQA information
Staged intervention
What is the SLC position on this?
In January 2018, South Lanarkshire created a Staged Intervention process which identifies 4 stages of support for individual pupils where, after looking at the pupil’s work and consulting with educational professionals and parents :
STAGE1- pupil needs identified can be met within the classroom, primarily by the work of the classroom teacher
STAGE2- where a pupil requires an additional intervention from a specialist within the school
STAGE3- where a pupil requires planned support within the Education Resources system
STAGE4- where a pupil requires interventions from agencies out-with/ beyond Education Resources
What support should a child with Additional Support Needs have in class?
There should be a range of possible supports available to pupils with an additional support need diagnosis in classrooms- obviously this will depend upon the individual need, the nature and content of each subject curriculum and based on the difficult decisions and priorities we have to make based on need versus available resources. Supports should include:
- Each class teacher should be fully aware of any pupils they are teaching who are dyslexic and refer to the specific information recorded for each ASN pupils in the school’s resource file
- Not having to copy significant chunks of information- handouts should be provided written in an appropriate size and font and where relevant made available on pupils’ Google Classrooms for reference.
- Where possible, advance notice of any resource materials (preferably at least one week) should be provided
- Where possible a Chromebook could be issued to capture information
- Where relevant a classroom assistant will support individual learning
- Differentiated worksheets/ materials should be considered where appropriate and if supportive should be coloured appropriately
- Appropriate and supportive assessment arrangements put in place and recorded
Additional Support Plan
When is this created?
When a child is considered to have support needs beyond Stage 2 (in-school) intervention (usually at Stage 3).
At key transition times (e.g. P7 to S1 and at other key transition stages in a pupil’s school journey) support needs are reviewed through consultation with primary colleagues/ other external agencies involved and decisions made to reduce/ increase/ sustain existing support. Parents will be informed and consulted on these decisions.
The nature of an Additional Support Plan does change in the secondary setting. In the Primary setting- with a single teacher delivery- it is much easier to track targets than in a secondary setting with multiple teacher delivery and in some cases formal Additional Support Plans are not carried forward into the secondary school setting.
What needs does a child have to have to have an Additional Support Plan?
This is usually only created when there is more than one agency involved. (A model copy of how an ASP is dawn up is available on a tab in the ASN link on our website)
This could be for a variety of factors, e.g.
- severe literacy difficulties
- severe numeracy difficulties
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Behavioural/ Social and emotional needs
- English as an Additional Language (EAL)
- Care experienced
- Hearing/ Visual impairment
- Health issues
- Family issues
- Child protection issues
How/ when is this reviewed?
Consideration as to whether a pupil requires an Additional Support Plan will be made through fortnightly Pupil Support meetings (RAMs- Resource Allocation meetings) where individual cases will be discussed and actions decided.
Pupils who have Additional Support Plans will have their situation reviewed at least annually and this will involve consultation with the pupil, class teachers, Pupil Support teacher and parents/ carers where amendments to existing plans and processes will be considered, agreed and minuted where relevant.
Teachers will be asked via a pupil sweep to comment on pupil progress and on occasion case conferences can be called to discuss support issues or individual pupils.
Depending on circumstances, reviews could involve face to face meetings with all involved. The minimum consultation would be a phone conversation with the pupil’s parent/ carer to update progress and agree any additional actions.
Co-ordinated Support Plan
When is this created?
This is implemented where it is considered necessary at Stage 4 in the Staged Intervention process, when agencies outside of Education resources are involved to a ‘significant’ level.
What needs does a child have to have a CSP?
Before a CSP is drawn up pupils will most likely already have an ASP in place. In the majority of circumstances the agencies involved would be either health or social work and a CSP would be drawn up in these circumstances as a pathway to access external support and ensure that agreed support pathways support were formalised.
How/ when is this reviewed?
Depending on individual circumstances a pupil’s CSP could be reviewed monthly by school’s associated Senior Manager of Pupil Support (Clydesdale) and senior school staff. This review is then ratified by senior staff in Inclusion at local authority level who will have the final say in authorising, reviewing and resourcing required support and liaising with identified external agencies.
I think my child may have an Additional Support Need. How do I have this assessed?
Most pupils will transition up to us with a diagnosis/ identification depending on the need.
Both parents and teachers- if evidence exists that suggests a pupil may have dyslexia- can ask the Principal Teacher of Learning Support to undertake a dyslexia screening profile, which will identify whether and how serious the level of dyslexia actually is, following Dyslexia Scotland guidance/procedures.
Actions may or may not follow based on the outcome of such a screening procedure.
A procedural document for this process is in place and can be viewed on the school website through the ASN section.
Homework
Significant pieces of work should have at least one week’s notice (especially for any extended writing) before completion date. In some situations a class teacher may ask pupils to finish off classwork at home in readiness for the next lesson- this may require less notice depending on the length and nature of the task..
In class how will my child note their homework?
- Teacher will post work on Google Classroom as an Assignment- if pupils access their classrooms this information will be there for them as an alert and sit on their ‘to do’ list
- From the start of S1 can be noted in phone/ capture image if teacher has noted homework on board.
If my child is not sure what to do how do they ask for help from their teacher?
- Ask in class time at a time convenient to the teacher
- Pop down and see the class teacher first thing in the morning, at interval time or at lunchtime
- ‘Private Message’ the teacher via the Google Classroom
- Attend one of the lunchtime homework clubs (Monday to Thursday)
How do Google classrooms work?
Homework will be noted on your child’s classroom as an Assignment- this could be weekly/ fortnightly depending on the subject and the nature of the work being undertaken at any point in time. Senior pupils may have work to do on a more regular basis. The Guardian e-mail will pick up all homework in a weekly report to parents of homework issued, completed and outstanding.
Pupils will be instructed by class teachers how the work is to be submitted- this will vary from subject to subject and could be:
- returned online;
- completed in class jotters;
- a picture taken of work done in jotter and submitted
Any homework set via Google Classroom should be marked as completed/ submitted by the pupil.
Feedback on work submitted will be provided in a variety of ways depending on the nature of the homework set:
- Whole class feedback- oral/ written
- Individual feedback in class- oral/ written in jotter
- Individual feedback- via comment/ message on Google Classroom
- Self-marking against an agreed set of criteria/ marking scheme and checked
- Peer marking against an agreed set of criteria/ marking scheme and checked
- An instructional video on how the Google Classroom works is available on our website.
Special exam/ assessment arrangements
From S1 onwards, any pupils with an additional support need can be considered for special exam/ assessment arrangements.
It may well be in advance of this that some pupils any already have been given IT support/ extra time/ a quiet room to undertake assessment work.
In all cases, the class teacher must establish that there is a significant improvement in performance through a pupil undertaking assessments of a similar nature where additional arrangements have been put in place in line with expectations. The SQA have a very clear policy on this and the school must have an evidence trail that clearly justifies a pupil being granted additional exam arrangements (e.g. separate accommodation; access to IT; extra time; access to a reader . . .). Planning and co-ordination for this evidence gathering will be agreed between class teacher, faculty head and PT Learning Support and parents will usually be informed of decisions to provide additional support arrangements once evidence is available to justify this provision.
There is no automatic entitlement to special exam arrangements unless evidence of improved performance can be shown based on the mitigations put in place.
This process happens annually and automatically and is built into our school quality assurance calendar. Children do not need to have a diagnosis to be considered, but as noted, evidence must show significant impact on performance.
Communication with Parents / Carers
1) Sharing of Pupil Profile at construction of pupil profile with primary staff (usually at the start of S1 and then updates sent to parents if changes are required).
2) Sharing of ASP / CSP (as applicable) inclusive of accommodations.
3) Although in an ideal world we would endeavour to undertake an annual review for every pupil and take this opportunity to communicate and engage with parents, the reality is that we do not have the capacity to annually review every pupil in the BGE. If there are any required changes to be made to any support planning then parents will be informed/consulted at that time. We undertake future planning meetings for all S3 pupils who are classified as staged intervention 3 or above and any others where a full consultation is deemed necessary. As with all other aspects of school life we will respond to any parents’ enquiries in relation to information required about individual progress either as part of our reporting feedback process or simply on enquiry.
4) Any communications with regard to a pupil with an additional support need should be made via your child’s Pupil Support teacher or through our Learning Support Principal, Kate Retson (gw07retsonkathryn@glow.sch.uk)
LINKS TO SLC information:
http://intranet.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/downloads/file/7513/a28_additional_support_for_learning _jan_2021Links to SQA information re AAA:
https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/74922.html