School Action / IEP's

[LIZS]

Discovered that ds(9) is now on this and we have an opportunity to review it in January. Can anyone give me some background on this and specifically how it might work at an independent school where we are charged for one-to-one tuition.

All I know is that School Action or Action plus is where they believe the child needs extra help, for instance with occupational or speech therapy, or maybe with a dyslexia related issue. But I don't know how it works in private schools. It could be something very minor though. I know that in my step-daughter's case, the LEA will pay for nothing at all now she's in private school and my husband has to fund any extra help recommended. I'm sorry I can't be more help -I wonder if there are any teachers or TAs on MN to help? Good luck with the review.

There are 3 levels of intervention. School action (school only), school action plus (school plus ouside agency like occupational therapist or speach therapy), and a full blown statement.

all three will have IEPs. You should have an agreed set of targets, they should be short term, measurable, achievable and reviewed in a set time, and should be for a set period of time.

So an example, X will liten for the first 3 minutes of the lesson without shouting out.

Or, X will read 3 books by half term.

It has to be something that will help your child make progress and has to be something measurable,,,,so you don't want 'Behave better'.

These should be agreed between you, your child and the SENCO.

You should have a review data where you can see if the targets have been met, and them you can move on.

The IEP should also list ways in which the teachers will hel, and stratagies that they should use. In the review this should also be looked at, and good stratgies re-inforced

That's helpful, thank you. Would you expect an IEP be generally applicable to the school day or could it just be for particular situations. ds' is specific to his one to one sessions, which we requested and he has been doing for a couple of terms now, without, it seems, other teachers being specifically involved on a day to day basis.

I would recommend that you read the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice too. (Ring the Edu. Dept. and ask for a copy-it's prety easy to read.)

Then you will learn wehat they should be doing and probably aren't.

We have one IEP per child, so they would cover the whole school day. Now I can imagine that there could be circumstances where one area is concentrated upon.....one MNetter has a child who was about to start swimming lessons, the school thought this could be an issue, so that IEP was slanted towards the swimming lessons.

My son has 10 hours 1 to 1, and is an a private school. His IEP is gemeral, but lists the supprt that he has, with the lessons he is supported highlighted

Thanks , it sounds as if we should raise it at the meeting then . One of the targets is to foster confidence and self esteem. At the recent parent's evening we got observations about ds being quiet in class but, with one or two exceptions, few teacher initiatives to encourage him to speak up or participate more. Maybe we should request that other staff look more proactively for such opportunities.

That target is waaay too vague.

agreed. It should be more measurable. eg X should be given the oppertunity to enjoy success Y times a week.

and that would be a minimum number of times.

and best way to imporve particpation in class...for your ds and the whole class is 'no hands up'. I have lollypop sticks, with the classes names on them, andpick a child to answer at random. Sometimes I 'fudge it' to make sure that underconfident kids get things right.

the kids like it once they get used to it, and see it as 'fair'

Yes indeedy

Nice system MB Does the SMART principle apply to targets ?

Yes it should do.

I love the lolly sticks. It stops the kids 'drifting' while a few kids answer all the questions. and they all listen to the question becuse I say

'Why does.......'

and then read out the name!