We pride ourselves at Alaw on providing the best and most fulfilling education for all children at our school. This includes doing all we can to support children with Additional Learning Needs (ALN). All staff at the school work hard every day to achieve this!
The ALNCo (Addtional Learning Needs Coordinator) is Miss Pritchard, who you can contact via email here, or if you would prefer you can give the school a ring and she will return your call as soon as possible.
Please find information below on how children with ALN are supported, and get in touch if you have any questions!
The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018
The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill was passed by the National Assembly for Wales on 12 December 2017 and became an Act on 24 January 2018 after receiving Royal Assent.
This will create the legislative framework to improve the planning and delivery of additional learning provision, through a person-centred approach to identifying needs early, putting in place effective support and monitoring, and adapting interventions to ensure they deliver desired outcomes.
The Act will be supported by:
In 2018, the ALN Code and regulations which support the Act will be revised, consulted on, laid before the National Assembly for Wales and published.
For the time being, local authorities and all those who work with children and young people with SEN, must ensure that they continue to comply with the duties placed upon them by the Education Act 1996. They must also continue to have regard to the SEN Code of Practice for Wales (2004).
The Act replaces the terms ‘special educational needs’ (SEN) and ‘learning difficulties and/or disabilities’ (LDD) with the new term ALN.
There will be a single legislative system relating to the support given to children and young people aged between 0-25 years who have ALN. This is instead of the two separate systems currently operating to support children and young people of compulsory school age who have SEN; and young people in further education who have LDD. As a result, transition of learners between school and post-16 education will be improved to allow greater support and rights for this group of learners.
The Act will create a single statutory plan (the individual development plan (IDP)) to replace the existing variety of statutory and non-statutory SEN or LDD plans for learners in schools and further education. This will ensure greater consistency and continuity and, unlike the current system, ensure that provision and rights are protected regardless of the severity or complexity of needs.
The Act requires that learners’ views should always be considered as part of the planning process, along with those of their parents. It is imperative that children and young people see the planning process as something which is done with them rather than to them.
The emphasis of IDPs will be on making provision that delivers tangible outcomes that contribute in a meaningful way to the child or young person’s achievement of their full potential.
The process of producing and revising an IDP should be much simpler than is currently the case with statements of SEN and should avoid the adversarial nature of the existing approach.
The new system will support a strong focus on collaboration. Encouraging improved collaboration and information sharing between agencies, which are essential to ensuring that needs are identified early and the right support is put in place to enable children and young people to achieve positive outcomes. Three fundamental new roles are created by the Bill to facilitate increased collaboration – Additional Learning Needs Coordinators in education settings; Designated Educational Clinical Lead Officers in health board; and Early Years ALN Lead Officers in local authorities.
Where disagreements about the contents of an IDP cannot be resolved at the local level, the ActBill will ensure that children and young people entitled to an IDP (and their parents in the case of those that are under 16 years) will have a right of appeal to a tribunal.
The provisions included in the Bill will be supported by a new statutory ALN Code. The Code will ensure that the new ALN system has a set of clear, legally enforceable parameters within which local authorities and those other organisations responsible for the delivery of services for children and young people with ALN, must act.
It will, therefore, be a type of subordinate legislation, and confer duties and rights on those subject to it. The Code will also set out practical guidance on how the statutory duties will be carried out, which will be supported by best practice illustrations.
Services will be required to consider whether the child or young person needs ALP in Welsh. If they do, this must be documented in the IDP and ‘all reasonable steps’ must be taken to secure the provision in Welsh. A series of strategic duties are also aimed at driving progress towards a truly bilingual ALN system and the Bill includes a mechanism so that the duties to provide ALP through the medium of Welsh become absolute over time.
The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (external link)
Building Resilience
The link below is for information on how to build resilience in children, in your home and for schools. There’s some great activities!
Information on Autism
Autism is much more common than most people think. There are around 700,000 autistic people in the UK - that's more than 1 in 100.
ASDinfoWales, is a national site for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). On the website you will find lots of information about Autistic Spectrum Disorders (including Autism and Asperger Syndrome), service details, training opportunities and updates on the implementation of the ASD Strategic Action Plan for Wales.
www.ASDinfoWales.co.uk/primary-school
Learning with Autism is a programme that has been developed by the Welsh Local Government Association to raise awareness of ASD in schools, and is open to head teachers, teachers, learning support staff, governors and other school staff, and all Key Stage 2 pupils. There are many benefits of making adjustments for pupils with ASD, including decreasing challenging behaviours and increasing attainment. All of resources are free of charge.
The programme enables schools to achieve the Learning with Autism Primary School Award. Schools who achieve the required standards are entered on to the database on the ASDinfoWales website.
A new film is being launched today by the National Autism Team which aims to support parents and carers of newly-diagnosed autistic children.
Feedback from autistic people and other stakeholders has indicated that there is a gap in support and guidance in the period immediately after diagnosis. Clinicians and professionals will be able to signpost parents and carers to the film upon their diagnosis, and it is also easily accessible as a reference point online.
The film was commissioned by the National Autism Team – formerly National ASD Development Team – which is funded by Welsh Government and hosted by WLGA, in close partnership with Public Health Wales.
Councillor Huw David (Bridgend), WLGA Spokesperson for Health and Social Care said:
“For parents and carers, their child being diagnosed with autism can often be a bewildering experience due to a general lack of understanding of autism as a condition.
“The film was commissioned by the National Autism Team in direct response from autistic people that there isn’t enough support and guidance immediately after receiving a diagnosis. I hope this film will help to offer reassurance to parents and carers, and to show that there is information available that can really help them understand what the diagnosis means and practical advice about day to day living.”
“In addition to the film, the National Autism Team have an array of useful materials available on www.asdinfowales.co.uk to support autistic individuals and those around them.”
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Notes to Editors
The film can be seen online on: https://www.asdinfowales.co.uk/tv
This week marks World Autism Awareness Week, running from 1-7 April It aims to raise awareness and improve understanding of the condition.
If you have any queries, please contact:
• Sara Harvey
National Strategic Lead for Autism
• Wendy Thomas
National Professional Lead Autism
We strive to support, nurture and develop all our more able and talented learners here at Alaw. To help us achieve this we work closely with the NACE charity. NACE (National Association for Able Children in Education) They (as we) believe 'That through a focus on meeting the needs of more able learners, and embedding an ethos and culture of high expectations for all, schools can ensure all young people have opportunities to flourish.' Rob Lightfoot CEO Nace.
As a school we have successfully completed the 'Challenge schools framework' and more importantly we have be awarded a second Challenge School certificate.
Catering for our MAT learners is integral to our pedagogy and has become embedded within the approach of each teacher in each class.