Covers definition of school action for a child with special educational needs, the triggers for school action, and educational services available.

School Action happens when the class teacher or Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) sees that a child has special educational needs and gives school work/time which is additional to or different from the school's differentiated curriculum.

The triggers for School Action are when a child:

• makes little or no progress even when different teaching approaches have been tried
• shows signs of difficulty with literacy or mathematics skills which produces poor results in some school subject areas
• has continuing emotional or behavioural difficulties which are not helped by the behaviour management methods usually used in school
• has sensory (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch) or physical problems which do not improve even with the help of specialist equipment.
• has difficulty communicating and/or socialising and continues to make little or no progress even with an adapted curriculum
• The class teacher should speak with the child's parents about this and inform the SENCO. The SENCO may then get advice from the Local Education Authority Support Services, Health and Social Services if needed and ask for any further information from the parents.

Nature of Support

This could be:

• individually or in a group of children
• extra adult time to plan and monitor the support
• different learning materials or special equipment
• occasional advice from the Local Education Authority (LEA) support services (4.26)
• training for staff in useful strategies

Parents should always be consulted and kept informed about the actions taken to help their child and the results of the actions. (4.16)

The numbers in brackets relate to the section and paragraph number of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice which can be obtained, free of charge from: DfES Publications, P O Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottinghamshire NG15 0DJ. Tel: 0845 60 222 60, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Primary Phase School Action Plus

School Action Plus happens when, after talking with parents at the meeting where the Individual Education Plan (IEP) is looked at again, a decision is made to ask for help from outside agencies. Schools should always ask the advice of specialists when School Action Plus is taken.

The triggers for School Action Plus are when a child despite receiving support under School Action:

• continues to make little or no progress in certain areas over a long period
• continues working at National Curriculum levels well below that expected of children of a similar age
• continues to have difficulty in developing literacy and mathematics skills
• has emotional or behavioural difficulties which regularly interfere with their own, or others,
• education even though they have an individual behaviour programme
• has sensory (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch) or physical needs and additional specialist equipment or regular advice/visits are needed by a specialist service
• has ongoing communication or social difficulties which stop the development of social relationships and makes learning very difficult.

Outside agencies (Local Education Authority and others) will usually see a child in school so that they can advise on new and correct goals for the child's IEP and on all plans which go with it.

Outside Specialists may:

• give advice on strategies
• provide additional specialist assessments
• teach the child directly

The plans in the IEP should be, as far as possible, carried out in the normal classroom.
The delivery of the IEP continues to be the responsibility of the class teacher.

If the SENCO and outside specialist want to seek further advice from other professionals they must ask for the parent's permission.

The SENCO should note in the child's records.

• what further advice is being asked for
• what support is to be provided for the child while awaiting this advice.

The numbers in brackets relate to the section and paragraph number of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice which can be obtained, free of charge from: DfES Publications, P O Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottinghamshire NG15 0DJ. Tel: 0845 60 222 60, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it