Defining ALN at St Bernadette’s RC Primary School – March 2021

St Bernadette’s RC Primary School is compliant with all aspects of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act.

Definition of additional learning needs

(1)  A person has additional learning needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or otherwise) which calls for additional learning provision.

(2)  A child of compulsory school age or person over that age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she—

(a)  has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or

(b)  has a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 (c. 15) which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities for education or training of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream maintained schools or mainstream institutions in the further education sector.

According to the ALN Code…

Concerns may arise for a learner where, despite receiving appropriate educational experiences:

•  Makes little or no progress towards meeting their potential, even when teaching approaches are particularly targeted to improve the learner’s identified area of difficulty;
• Continues working at levels significantly below those expected for learners of a similar age, or those expected of the individual themselves, which result in poor attainment;
• Presents persistent emotional or behavioural difficulties, which are not improved by behaviour management techniques usually employed;
• Has delayed physical development for delayed creative development, which are not improved by strategies usually employed;
• Has sensory or physical problems  and continues to make little or no progress against that which is expected of the individual, despite the provision of specialist equipment;
• Has communication and/or interaction difficulties and continues to make little or no progress

The four areas of Additional Learning Need

As identified by ALNET Act, the above list of concerns fall broadly into four areas of need:

Cognition and learning

Learners would be achieving outcomes outside the range expected for most pupils.  Despite continuing school based universal provision and interventions, the school will need to create an IDP and secure a school based ALP.  This should be determined through a range of assessments over time by the class teacher, ALNCO and external professionals together with reviews of progress.  Evidence gathered is highlighted in the section ‘Information used to identify pupils with ALN.’

Emotional, behavioural and social development

There will be some learners who continue to experience a much higher level of difficulty than their peers in making progress in their education due to the extent and nature of their EBSD.  Where this is the case, despite continuing good quality universal provision, then the school will need to create an IDP and secure a school based ALP.  In these very few cases, the learner’s emotional, behavioural and/or social development difficulties continue to significantly impact their ability to learn or to access learning.  This may be evident by the learner demonstrating:

• Ongoing anxiety that is hindering access to education
• Difficulties in establishing and maintaining balanced relationships with fellow pupils or with adults
• Difficulties in engaging in play, social and group activities
• Difficulties in self-regulation and in managing strong feelings, including displays of challenging or aggressive behaviour
• Poor self-awareness, feelings of self-worth and difficulties in labelling or expressing their emotions
• Difficulty in focusing or maintaining attention, to listen to and comply with instructions
• Displays of destructive behaviour

Physical and Sensory Needs

Most learners with physical disabilities/sensory impairment will be enabled to access the learning environment, curriculum and facilities through the duties imposed on educational settings by the Equality Act 2010.  This requires all educational settings to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a physically disabled/sensory impaired learner is not hindered from accessing any opportunities offered to their peers within the setting.  This duty encompasses broader activities and facilities such as extra-curricular and leisure activities, after school activities and school opportunities in addition to the formal learning opportunities provided.

Not all learners who have a physical disability/sensory impairment will have ALN.  For most learners with a disability or impairment, it will be possible to meet their needs through effective collaboration of all key adults in securing the voice of the learner in question, to ascertain what is both important to and for them to progress in respect of their individual needs.  For some learners, difficulties may be age related and may fluctuate over time.  Some children with vision, hearing, multi-sensory or physical disability will require specialist support, learner specific adaptions or complex equipment to access their learning or opportunities generally made available to their peers.

Communication and interaction

A number of young learners will exhibit a range of difficulties with speech, language and communication, but in most cases these difficulties will resolve with age.  There will be a few learners who continue to experience a much higher level of difficulty than their peers in making progress in their education due to the extent and nature of their communication and interaction difficulties.  Where this is the case, despite continuing good quality universal provision, then the school will need to create an IDP and secure a school based ALP. This may be evident by the learner demonstrating:

• Ongoing communication and interaction difficulties that are hindering learning
• A profile of variable strengths and weaknesses
• Persistent difficulties with understanding language which are significantly impacting on curriculum access and participation
• Speech production and language development difficulties that severely limit participation and interaction in the classroom setting
• Extensive difficulties in meeting the language demands of ordinary learning activities
• Difficulties in communicating and interacting with peers, leading to social isolation and escalating social, emotional and/or behaviour difficulties
• Difficulties in establishing and maintaining balanced relationships with fellow pupils or with adults
• Poor self-awareness, feelings of self-worth and difficulties in expressing their emotions
• Difficulties in following day to day school routines, adapting to change and maintaining attention on tasks
• Displaying obsessive, challenging or withdrawn behaviours with inappropriate use of language
• Displays repetitive behaviours which disrupts learning and engagement

Information used to identify pupils with ALN

• Standardised assessment scores of 79 or below the 9^th centile on a range of measures of cognition, learning and daily functioning
• Termly scrutiny of attainment by class teachers and SLT
• Phonic scores updated each term in FP
• Termly PM Benchmarking
• Termly monitoring of pupil work
• Baseline and exit data for interventions
• Observational notes from class teachers showing a trend over time
• Parental concerns
• Involvement of LA specialist professionals who provide evidence of observations and assessment scores
• Involvement of medical specialists who provide evidence of observations, assessment data and report findings
• Involvement of Early Years Inclusion Team who provide evidence of developmental delay within the Early Years

Monitoring progress of learners over time

Based on evidence gathered over time, it should be possible to identify learners who are making less than expected progress.   Within the ALN Code, this is characterised as progress which:

·       Is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline,

·       Fails to match or better the child’s or young person’s previous rate of progress; or,

·       Fails to close, or widens, the attainment gap between the child or young person and their peers, despite the provision of support aimed at closing that gap