How do the school assess and review my child’s progress?
Your child’s progress will be reviewed regularly and you will be invited into school to discuss the outcomes and share your views. Your child’s views will also be listened to and used to inform future targets and areas of support.
We use a set of criteria to assess some of the children who are working below or significantly below the same level as national benchmarks. All the teachers and teaching assistants do this together so that they can talk to each other and gather evidence.
All children’s progress, including those children or young people with special educational needs, is tracked using the school’s assessment tracking system. Pupils are assessed regularly using teacher marking, observations and questioning, as well as more formal assessments such as curriculum tests and standardised tests. In Birmingham, we also have access to the Birmingham Language and Literacy and Maths toolkits which support assessment when a child or young person is making small steps of progress. The progress each child is making is discussed at pupil progress meetings with the class teacher, Head teacher, Deputy head teacher, and Inclusion Lead/ Assistant head teacher.
This helps us identify any targets your child may need to make faster progress in all areas of their learning. We use the criteria to make an IIP or ITP profile. This plan is shared with you and your child and sets out what needs to be in place for your child to make as much progress as possible. We then review it each term and talk about what has gone well and what might still need to be worked on.
Sometimes we involve outside agencies, such as Pupil and Support Service, Communication Autism Team, Education Psychology Service, City of Birmingham Schools and others to support us in making our assessments and these agencies offer advice. For areas of need that are considered to have the possibility of being health related, Community Health Referrals may also be made to the Community Pediatrician Team.
Consent will be sought for all referrals made or requests for support for outside agencies.
There will also be times when the Graduated Response Model of support identifies that a pupil requires further support in order for them to have a better chance of achieving their education successes. At this time, school and/ or professionals may identify that a pupil may require/ meet the criteria for an Education, Health, Care Plan (EHCP).
School will then coordinate a meeting with professionals and parents/ carers, called a Team Around the Child (TAC) meeting. The needs of the pupil will be considered and an EHCP request sent to SENAR.