Thematic report |
Evaluating outcomes for children and young people with additional learning needs - February 2007
There are no national benchmarks for measuring the attainment of pupils with special educational needs (SEN). This can make it difficult to track pupils’ progress.Schools often hold a lot of information about the achievement of individual pupils with SEN. However, this information is often not collated to evaluate the impact on learning outcomes for groups of pupils with SEN or across the whole school.
Recommendations
The Welsh Assembly Government should:
- develop a unified record of all learners with special educational needs (SEN) that includes details of their special needs and the type of provision made to meet those needs; and
- increase the scope of the pupil level annual school census (PLASC) so that it captures information about pupils in early years settings, those receiving education otherwise than at school (EOTAS) and those for whom authorities fund provision in the independent sector.
Local Education Authorities should:
- work closely with schools to improve the quality and consistency of information about individual pupils with SEN.
Schools should:
- improve the accuracy of information about pupils with SEN that is provided to local authorities and the Welsh Assembly Government; and
- take Estyn’s Common Inspection Framework and the information in this report as a starting point for analysing learning outcomes for pupils with SEN as part of self-evaluation.