| Supporting Registered Students
Documentation
Students on the special needs register have had their difficulties diagnosed; their problems and needs, along with programmes for their care, are documented. Pupils with ‘statements’ of special educational needs have the most detailed documents; their programmes are agreed with their local education authorities (by whom they will be partly funded). However, chiefly owing to the funding obligation, authorities’ statementing practices vary widely.
All such documents should be shared with the staff who teach SEN students (and be subject to regular, and formal review). They are vital to help with consistency and continuity of approach, especially for students with behaviour problems.
Statements, planning, and monitoring
For specific literacy difficulties (often a synonym for dyslexia), statements may derive from close analyses (particular phonic cueing strategies, specific spelling reversals, etc.), perhaps provided by a psychologist. Within an ordinary English lesson, the class teacher will seldom find it possible to give sufficient time to such tightly defined difficulties with individual students. Moreover, students’ interests may be better served by participation in broader language activities with other pupils. Nonetheless, detailed planning, both of the student’s classroom teaching, and of the help provided by SEN staff, needs to be shared, co-ordinated, and matched as a package, to what appears in the SEN documents.
With a SEN team member is present in class, it may be possible to focus both on these detailed requirements, and the class’s wider activities. However, sustained attention to the specific skills in a statement may be best achieved by short, frequent (twice or more per week), and intensive bouts of withdrawal teaching by a specialist. Some teachers argue against withdrawal on principle; they may prefer to achieve intensive tuition by other means, e.g. after hours. Such provision is best regarded as a joint planning responsibility by English and SEN staff. Progress in the statement’s listed skills should be monitored by both teams together. The English teacher is well placed to comment on improvements in the application of the skills - the point at which improvements may be said to be embedded.
When, during plenary teaching, trained SEN staff sit silent and inactive alongside their target pupil(s) - e.g. for 20% or more of a lesson - their costly time is commonly wasted. Together, the English and the SEN teacher, or assistant, need to agree the best use of the specialist time available. A hasty chat before the lesson will not suffice.
Joint teaching may be desirable too. For example, rather than isolating a target student with his or her helper, it may be more productive for the SEN team member to teach a small group in which the target student is included. Sharing the lesson’s plenary teaching may be helpful too: especially to share the SEN teacher’s specialist skills, and raise their credit with the class.
 
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