ALN - Additional Learning Needs

What to do if you think your child may be having difficulties at school

Contact your class teacher. Make an appointment at the office, you do not have to wait until parents' evenings. If you have a concern, it is best to sort it out as soon as possible.
Speak to the Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinator. Mrs Phillips works on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and will be available if you would like an appointment.

Issues are best resolved by discussion with your class teacher, ALNCO and the Headteacher. The best results are seen when everyone works together with your child at the Centre of the process. We are trained in Person Centred Planning and our reviews are run in this format. (See Documents)

What will happen?

A concern plan (1) may be drawn up initially, with targets agreed by the class teacher, your child and shared with you.
It will be reviewed to see if the targets have been met.
If no progress is seen, after one term, a concern plan (2) will be drawn up, again with the ALNCO, class teacher, your child and shared with yourself.
Again, if no progress is made after a second term, the your child's name will be placed on the Additional Needs Register at School Action. At this point, more targeted intervention will take place. (See our School Interventions)
At this point referrals may be made to outside agencies such as Speech Therapist, the Sensory Service, School Nurse, the LIST team (The Local Authority Specialist Teachers), Educational Psychologist, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Play Therapy, TAF (Team Around the Family), Social Services.
If any outside agencies become involved, then your child will then move to School Action Plus on the ALN register.
If you or the school are worried that your child may have a developmental disorder, such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder, (ASD) and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), then we will follow the Neurodevelopmental Pathway.
If your child does not respond to interventions, or it seems likely that they will require a place at a Specialist School, you (or the school) can request a Statutory Assessment, (Statement).

We are required to follow the Graduated Response from Powys (see documents) These steps have to be followed in the majority of cases. Profound and complex needs will need to be assessed before they enter school to ensure that we can meet their needs.

Interventions:

We are fortunate to have a wide variety of interventions at Cefnllys School.

Time to Talk

This is our intervention for children in Reception and Year 1 to develop oral and social communication skills.

Lexonik Leap

This is our intervention for children with limited English to quickly acquire literacy skills to enable them to succeed in a mainstream class.

Nessy

This is our main intervention for any children who are finding reading, spelling and writing tricky. Once they have completed the assessment online, new reading and spelling targets are created. The concepts are taught through games, videos and worksheets.

Alpha to Omega

This is an intervention we run in small groups individually or in a small group for children who have dyslexic type difficulties.

Dynamo Maths

This is an intervention for children who do not enjoy maths and are finding it difficult to learn mathematical concepts.

One Page Profiles

As part of our person centred planning approach we use one page profiles throughout the school for children with additional learning needs. We are hoping to roll these out for all Junior pupils.

This enables any person who is working with the child to quickly understand how best to support them and to avoid any triggers that may upset them.