Thanks to Alison Sauer for flagging up this item.

28 September 2009

Ed Balls today announced measures to provide better support for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabled children.
The proposals aim to make life easier for parents and help their children maximise their potential. The measures will:

• Test easier ways of assessing children with special educational needs

• Review current and future supply of teachers trained to meet the needs of pupils with severe learning difficulties

• New guidance for schools to tackle high exclusions of children with SEN

Writing in response to Brian Lamb’s letter which highlighted ways of improving parental confidence in the SEN system, Ed Balls announced trials to test different ways to assess children’s needs.

To ensure pupils had the highest quality teaching in special schools, Ed Balls announced he was commissioning Toby Salt to lead an independent review into the supply of teachers trained to meet the needs of children with Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). He also announced that the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) would be taking forward a £550,000 project to develop special schools as leaders in teaching and learning practice for children with the most complex learning difficulties, meeting a commitment in the 21st century schools system White Paper.

Finally, ahead of the new behaviour strategy he said that new statutory guidance on Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships will have a clear expectation that partnerships with high levels of exclusions of children with SEN should address this as a priority, especially as children with SEN are eight times as likely to be excluded from school.

read article: http://tiny.cc/kjjpY