Are you concerned about your child’s progress at school?

If you are concerned that your child is not making progress in school, you should speak to your child’s teacher and/or the school’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator (SENDCo).

They will talk to you about how your child is doing in school and the support they have put in place to meet your child’s learning and development needs.

Support for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in school

Teachers monitor the progress of all the pupils in their class through regular assessments. Where a pupil is not making the level of progress expected for their age, the teacher will put in place additional help and support to help them to help them to catch-up. They should discuss this with you at parents evening.

Some pupils in school may be identified as having a special educational need (SEN) and will require additional support to remove any barriers to learning. Schools must keep a record of all pupils with SEN in their school – this is sometimes called the SEN Register.

If you child has SEN, the first step should be to put in place an SEN Support Plan (sometimes called an Individual Education Plan). If your child has an SEN Support Plan, schools should share this with you and keep you informed of the progress made by your child on at least a termly basis.

The SEND Code of Practice 2015 stresses the need for schools to take a graduated approach when supporting pupils with SEN. This means looking at the impact of the support they have put in place on a regular basis and revising the plan so they build a growing understanding of your child’s needs and the impact of the additional support given.

What might be right for one child may not always be right for another, even if they have the same medical diagnosis or primary area of need. This is why it is important for a school to look at the impact of teaching on your child’s learning and development.

If your child continues to not make any progress, then a request for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment can be submitted to us, either by:

• The child's parent or carer
• A young person over the age of 16 but under 25
• A professional acting on behalf of an education setting, such as an early years provider, a school, or post-16 setting*
• Other people who know the child/young person well, such as a health or social care professional*

*This should be done with agreement of the parents or young person, where possible.

If you are not happy about the support your child receives in school

If you are unhappy about the support that your child receives in school for their special educational needs (SEN), you should speak to your child’s teacher and/or the school’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator (SENDCo).

If you are still not happy, you can make a formal complaint to the school.

If you have not been able to resolve the issue using all stages of the school’s complaint procedure, you can raise a complaint with us.

If the school or we cannot solve the problem, you can complain to the Department for Education (DfE). They can ask the school to take action if they find your complaint was not handled correctly. The DfE cannot normally change the decision, but they can look into how it was made and ask the school to take action where appropriate.

The GOV.UK website has further information on SEN complaints and school.