Additional Learning Needs
Hello, my name is Mrs Baldridge, and I am the Additional Learning Needs coordinator at Brackla Primary. My role is to ensure that any child with Additional Learning Needs (ALN) has their educational needs met. If you have any concerns about your child's progress, speak with your child's teacher in the first instance. I am also available if I can help at all.
Please have a look at how we approach ALN at Brackla Primary School and all the Universal Provision on offer to support our children.
The presentation below was shared with families.
Additional Learning Needs - An animation explaining the new system for parents/carers and young people
This video is aimed at children and young people. It explains the new ALN system, how it works and how it will support learners with additional learning needs.
Additional Learning Needs in Wales - what's happening?
Additional Learning Needs in Brackla Primary
As a school, we ensure the needs of all children are met through high quality teaching and learning provision. Our Universal Provision includes:
- Whole class teaching
- Effective differentiation
- Collaborative group work
- Individual and small group interventions
- Appropriate and reasonable adjustments to enable access to the school environment, curriculum and facilities.
During their time at Brackla Primary, most children will make expected progress in their learning from their starting baseline. If a child is not progressing, we will gather observations, use assessment data and seek to work in collaboration with outside agencies / professionals to identify any additional learning needs. A wide range of evidence will be gathered over time, including:
- Assessment tools, frameworks and questionnaires
- Standardised assessments
- Observational data
- Formative assessments of day to day learning
- Monitoring progress over time
- Assessments from other agencies, e.g; Paediatrician, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapist
Identification of Additional Learning Needs (ALN)
When pupils do not make the expected progress with Universal Provision and following thorough investigation and evidence gathering, a child may be identified as having ALN.
What are Additional Learning Needs (ALN)?
- A child has additional learning needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or otherwise), which calls for additional learning provision, beyond the Universal Provision provided for all learners.
- A child of compulsory school age that has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she;
(a) has a significantly greater difficulty with learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
(b) has a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities for education or training of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream-maintained schools
- A person does not have a learning difficulty or disability solely because the language in which he or she is or will be taught is different from a language which is or has been used at home.
The same considerations apply with regard to children with healthcare needs. It will be necessary to establish whether a child has a learning difficulty or disability, which calls for Additional Learning Needs Provision (ALP). There will be many circumstances where an individual with healthcare needs does not have a learning difficulty or learning disability or where this is the case, the learning difficulty or disability does not require ALP.
The Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a document that contains a description of the ALN that acts as a barrier to the learner in achieving their educational potential and the ALP that is necessary to overcome this barrier. An IDP (this replaces the current IAP/ IPD documents your child may currently have) will be created through collaboration with the learner and you as parents/carers in conjunction with any other professionals that might be involved. The IDP will detail the strategies and interventions that are additional to or different from what is normally provided for others of the same age.