The SEN Code of Practice and
the Primary National Strategy: ‘Waves of intervention’
To meet the needs of the new SEN Code of Practice (2001), the NLS initiated three ‘waves’ of provision which offer a continuum of provision for children with literacy difficulties ranging from ‘good quality teaching and differentiated curriculum’ to provision under the headings of ‘School Action’ and ‘School Action Plus’.
A review of these initiatives and programmes lies beyond the scope of these pages but the table below briefly outlines the relationship between the three ‘Waves’ and the Code of Practice.
Wave 1
The effective inclusion of all children in a daily and high quality literacy hour.
Wave 2
Additional small-group interventions for children who can be expected to catch up with their peers as a result of the intervention ie children who do not have special educational needs related specifically to learning difficulties in literacy or mathematics.
Wave Two interventions are not primarily intended to be SEN interventions and include NLS Early Literacy Support, Additional Literacy Support and Further Literacy Support programmes, Booster classes, equivalent LEA or school-based programmes for children who can be expected to 'catch up' with their peers as a result of the intervention.
Early Literacy Support is designed for TAs/LSAs to use with children identified as needing
additional support at the end of the first term in Year 1. It attempts to provide a systematic and rounded programme of support, and has been favourably reviewed by many schools.
Additional Literacy Support, the counterpart for older children is targeted at children in Year 3 and also Year 4 who achieved at Level 1 or 2c at the end of Key Stage1.
Further Literacy Support is targeted at children in Year 5 who are working at Level 3.
Booster units are mainly directed to improving achievement in Key Stage 2 tests.
The materials can be viewed or downloaded from:
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63469/nls_els065001intro.pdf
Wave 3
Specific targeted approaches for children identified as requiring SEN support (on School Action, School Action Plus or with a Statement of special educational needs)
- Children in Wave Three may have particular needs related specifically to mathematics or literacy, or needs associated with other barriers to their learning.
- Provision is likely to draw on specialist advice.
- Provision may involve the adjustment of learning objectives and teaching styles, and/or individual support.
- Children receiving Wave Three support will always be placed on School Action, and on School Action Plus if an external agency is involved in assessment, planning and review
- Children in these categories need systematic support if their literacy learning needs are to be met.
Advice on programmes for Wave 3
There is a confusing array of intervention schemes for supporting children in this category. A DfES-commissioned study (Brooks et al, 2002)reviewed 20 studies available from British research on 30 intervention schemes designed to raise the attainment of lower-achieving but non-dyslexic children in Years 1-4. The review was not restricted to commercial schemes but also looked at paired reading and family literacy. The study concluded that:
- normal schooling (‘no treatment’) does not enable slow readers to catch up
- work on phonological skills should be embedded within a broad approach
- children’s comprehension skills can be improved if directly targeted
- working on children’s self-esteem and reading in parallel has definite potential
- IT approaches work only if they are precisely targeted
- large-scale schemes, like the Basic Skills Agency’s Family Literacy programmes and Reading Recovery, though expensive, can give good value for money
- where reading partners are available and can be given appropriate training, partnership approaches such as Paired Reading can be very effective
- most of the schemes which incorporated follow-up studies continued to show gains.
An NLS publication Targeting support: choosing and implementing interventions for children with significant literacy difficulties reviews in an accessible way the issues involved in supporting children and 30 commonly used programmes or approaches.
References
 
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