Send

What are special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)?

School-aged children are defined as having special educational needs (SEN) if they have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of their age which calls for additional or different educational provision to be made for them.

There are currently three levels of intervention for pupils with SEN:

School Action - where the teacher or the school Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) decides to provide something for the child additional to or different from the school's usual differentiated approach to help children learn.

School Action Plus - where the school consults specialists and requests help from external services.

Statement - where the child requires support beyond that which the school can provide and the local authority arranges appropriate provision.

Types of need from SEN Code of Practice 2001

Cognition and learning needs include:

1. Specific learning difficulties (SpLD)

2. Moderate learning difficulties (MLD)

3. Severe learning difficulties (SLD), and

4. Profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).

Behavioural, emotional and soial needs include:

1. Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD).

Communication and interaction needs include:

1. Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and

2. Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). 

Sensory and/or physical needs include:

1. Visual impairment (VI)

2. Hearing impairment (HI)

3. Multi-sensory impairment (MSI), and physical disability (PD).

Pupils with medical needs are usually included in the sensory and physical needs section.