Provide a critical analysis of Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in your educational setting

Essay: Provide a critical analysis of Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in your educational setting (3000 words) .

You are required to write an academic essay which provides a critical analysis of SEND provision in your setting. Your audience is an anonymous reader. Ensure you explain all specialised terms and acronyms the first time you use them.

The format and audience for this part of your assignment allows you to critically evaluate your setting’s provision, commenting on selected aspects of school, local or national policy and practice which enhance or undermine your attempts to provide effective SEN provision and adhere to the SEN Code of Practice (Department for Education, 2015).

It is better to consider 3 or 4 issues worthy of in-depth critical discussion rather than mentioning lots of issues which you don’t analyse in depth. Your critical analysis must be supported by reference to appropriate academic literature and referenced using Harvard referencing. Provide a critical analysis of Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in your educational setting

The main issues identified in the setting were/are…

Issue 1: The SEN register in the school is significantly less (5% SEN) than compared to National statistics (15% SEN).

Possible in-depth critical discussion around:

- Identification of pupils with SEN.

- Screening pupils for possible indications of SEN.

- Staff training and continuous professional development on spotting signs of SEN.

- The importance for a SEN graduated approach to be embedded across the school.

- The impact of unidentified SEN children moving through school and their academic career. What is the impact on academic performance and later life?

- If SEN children have gone unidentified and ‘unlabelled’ then does this mean school data should actually be higher as teachers have high expectations? Provide a critical analysis of Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in your educational setting

Issue 2: For the 5% of SEN children that are identified as having Special Needs, at present, there are no SEN Pupil Support Plans in place.

Possible in-depth critical discussion around:

-  What are the pros and cons of having SEN Pupil Support Plans in place?

- The importance of formalising SEN adaptive strategies and adaptive teaching techniques to support pupils with SEND. What are the implications of this? Budget? Training?...etc.

- The importance of termly reviews of Pupil Support Plans (in accordance with the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle outlined in the SEN Code of Practice, 2015).

Issue 3: Lack of SEN CPD, training, support and leadership.

-  The school has historically not had a strong, consistent SENDCO to advocate for SEND pupils and ensure the SEND Code of Practice is implemented to a high standard. Although a new SENDCO has been recently appointed who is a long serving teacher at the school and so knows the children well, this still raises issues around the previous, historic lack of CPD and training for staff and the impact of this on SEN provision within the setting (this also feeds into issue number 1). Provide a critical analysis of Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in your educational setting

Issue 4: Lack of SEND resources and supportive materials (i.e. books, toys, games, interventions, handbooks, screening tools) available in the school. This also links back to issue 3 about lack of training and support on how to use these resources.