Special Educational Needs

Each child is unique and has individual needs.  They learn at different rates and reach milestones at different times and this process continues throughout lifelong learning.

Your child may need extra or different kinds of support from the other pupils at school.  It may be that he/she has a problem with you already know about, for instance, some difficulties with eyesight or hearing, or with getting around.  For some children, being at school gives them challenges to do with getting on well with others, taking turns, playing outside, coping with the noise and activity they suddenly find all around them.  For others, learning to read, to write and spell, or to do maths, as well as all the other subjects in the curriculum, may present difficulties at some time during their years at school.

The term 'special educational needs' has a legal definition.  Children with special educational needs all have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age.  These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age.

The law says that children do not have learning difficulties just because their first language is not English.  Of course some of these children may have learning difficulties as well. 

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) states that the term 'special educational needs' (SEN) has a legal definition. The 1996 Education Act and the SEN Code of Practice (2001) set out in legal and practical terms how children's needs should be identified and met. All early education settings, state schools and Local Authorities must take account of this code when they are dealing with children who have special educational needs. The Health Authority (Primary Care Trust) and Social Care must also take account of the Code when working with the Local Authority to consider children's needs and how best they may be met. You can get a free copy of the Code from the Department for Children, Schools and Families website or from the publications centre on telephone: 0845 602 2260.