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Ordinarily available provision

Expectations of all schools in York

All schools must apply the principles underpinning the SEND Code of Practice (2014) and have regard to the Equality Act (2010).

The principles outlined in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy, 2021 to 2025, York SEND Outcomes Framework and the SEND Code of Practice should be applied in all settings in York throughout the different ages and stages of a child and young person’s learning journey.

Key principles

The key principles which must be followed by all Settings in York:

  • the voice of children and young people is central in decision-making
  • effective partnership with parents and carers is built-in in all settings to inform decision-making and support for children and young people
  • regular cycles of assess, plan, do and review are used to ensure that all children and young people with SEND are making progress towards agreed outcomes
  • transitions are carefully planned at all ages and stages so there are no surprises for children and young people, parents and carers and professionals
  • all interventions should help the child or young person to develop as much independence as possible
  • education is close to home, wherever possible
  • a commitment to early intervention and prevention to tackle any potential barriers to achieving good outcomes
  • a commitment to work together so that children and young people with SEND feel safe and valued

York SEND Outcomes Framework

The York SEND Outcomes Framework was co-produced with children, young people and parent carers and describes the broader outcomes that allow children and young people with SEND to live their best lives. The 7 outcomes are:

  1. I am healthy
  2. I have choice and am heard
  3. I am safe
  4. I achieve my goals
  5. I am included
  6. I can overcome challenges or difficulties on my own or with support
  7. I am becoming independent

 

Meeting needs through Quality First Teaching

The Code of Practice and teacher standards says that every teacher is a teacher of Special Educational Needs (SEN). High quality teaching is effective for all children and young people. Through delivering quality first teaching settings are implementing the graduated response.

Although not exhaustive, the following are key features of high-quality, inclusive teaching and provision.

Teachers know their pupils and will notice when a pupil isn’t flourishing. The Ordinarily Available Provision is about simple additions, adjustments or changes that a teacher can put into place to adapt their teaching and remove any potential barriers to learning for the pupils in their care. For example, a simple adaptation may offer more structure, or more reassurance, or ensure information is presented in a way that avoids common confusion.

These strategies will enable teachers to (Teacher Standard 5):

adapt their teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils

For the majority of pupils with SEND, diagnosis is less helpful for teaching and learning than determining the pupils’ educational needs.

Dame Rachel de Souza, Beyond the labels: A SEND system which works for every child, every time, 2022:

Pupils want support to help them do well, but they often experience a system which is more interested in asking “what is wrong with you?” than “how can we help?” Children told me that they find labels marginalising; they are often accompanied by a sense that each label leads to a drop in ambition. We need to move away from diagnostics, labels, and processes and towards a system of practical help focused on achieving outcomes.

The Ordinarily Available is a framework that will help all pupils to flourish and learn. It's grounded in the teaching standards, which provide the minimum expectations of high-quality teaching across all schools. This framework for inclusive teaching is underpinned by adaptive teaching and the work of SEND champions in York’s schools.

The expectations of any teacher are that:

  • they have high expectations for all children and young people
  • they create and maintain effective relationships and create safe learning environments for all children and young people
  • they manage the learning environment so that it is inclusive and meets the needs of all pupils

All teachers will:

  • match pedagogy to the needs of the pupils
  • implement adaptations, supports and scaffolds
  • model new learning and consistent expectations
  • focus on helping pupils to understand how they learn best (metacognition)
  • focus on developing speech, language and communication
  • use information from assessment to inform their planning
  • create and maintain a calm and collaborative climate for learning
  • implement reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of children with identified SEND

Use of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) ‘5-a-day’ principle supports teachers to develop quality first teaching which improves provision and outcomes for pupils with SEND.

The Education, Endowment Foundation (EEF) five-a-day principle is a useful way for all teachers to consider how to support children in day-to-day classroom practice but is used best when approaches have been selected to meet individual needs. The principles include, explicit instruction, cognitive and metacognitive strategies (teaching specific strategies to help children understand how they learn), scaffolding and modelling (breaking the learning in to manageable parts), flexible grouping (appropriate grouping for different learning activities) and using appropriate technology within teaching. For more information on the five-a-day principle, watch the introduction video to the five-a-day principle on the Education Endowment Foundation YouTube channel.

The research done by the EEF stresses the importance of moving beyond a narrow focus on the four broad areas of need described in the SEND Code of Practice. The 4 broad areas of need are as follows:

  1. communication and interaction
  2. cognition and learning
  3. social, emotional and mental health needs
  4. sensory or physical

These needs are often inter-related for individual children and young people and it is important to consider the impact of the interplay between them when planning provision to meet an individual pupil’s needs.

Teachers need to understand the individual characteristics of pupil’s needs and how these relate to the classroom environment and the content of what they are teaching. This is an important principle in delivery of ordinarily available as it means understanding the specific barriers to learning that an individual child faces and identifying what adaptations can be made to allow them to thrive.

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