At Mapledene, all staff are involved in assessing children in order to identify whether a child has additional educational needs. We do this by:

• Talking with parents/carers who may have a concern.
• Observing children in class, looking at their books and speaking to their teachers about what the child can and can’t yet do.
• Using school test results such as the Year 1 Phonics Check, End of Key Stage 1 Assessments (SATs) and other published resources to find out exactly what a child can do.
• Through discussions with the child.
• Working with specialist teachers and outside agencies who can advise us and assess children
• Using information from previous schools or settings.

If we think that a child has additional needs, we use a graduated approach to finding out what level of support they might need.

We will assess the child in more detail, plan how to support them, carry out the support for a period of time and then review how well it has worked. 

Many children may have additional needs during their time at Mapledene for a variety of reasons. This doesn’t mean they will always have SEN. Some children will be identified as needing some extra help but this may only be for a short time.