[senco-forum] Role of IEPs and Provision mapping -

I agree with everything you say Kate -- very important and useful 
advice for all working with SEN children.

Your parents will have confidence in you -- as you are keeping them 
informed and showing your own self confidence in putting the facts 
about their children down on paper -- good stuff indeed.

And you never need fear a parental appeal to the SENDIST for assessment 
and statementing procedures -- as your paperwork, used professionally 
as a working document, is in order and up-to-date.

Not to mention of course its value as a measure of progress and an 
acccount of what has worked /hasn't worked with available identified 
resources (including additional staffing).

How on earth the management and additional support for an SEN child (as 
  an individual) can be maintained with keeping a simple working 
document planning and review record I can't imagine. Brendan King

-----Original Message-----
From: Kate Barnes <kate.senrab at btinternet.com>
To: lucy.jeffreys2 at ntlworld.com
CC: 'senco forum' <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 18:04
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Role of IEPs and Provision mapping -

I feel we need provision maps AND IEPs.in primary. I cannot see how 
Provision maps could replace IEPs. Provision maps are just that, a list 
of the provision a child is receiving. Very useful for whole school 
planning, but they say nothing about how effective this provision is 
and what it is aiming to do in detail. Nor is this an individual 
approach. It fits children into available provision rather than 
identifying needs and then looking for ways to meet those needs. At our 
school some years ago this led to a number of children doing ALS with 
no aim other than to complete the modules.
I'm not saying IEPS are ideal. I think the most valuable part is the 
review process itself. Sufficient time given to reviews with an 
experienced SENCo and parents present can gradually impact on the 
implementation of the IEP, if resources, times and places are pinned 
down. We struggle with IEPs in the context of whole school targets 
setting, and an overburdened curriculum.We have tried a variety of 
approaches, none of which really work. We find that whole school 
targets setting does not take sufficient account of the priorities for 
many of our SEN children. eg multiplication may be class target, can be 
differentiated down, but number bonds may be priority for Fred. In 
Literacy, if basic phonic skills are not in place when will these be 
covered if they are not on an IEP?
In our school the most effective IEPS are those which clearly identify 
who , how and when  work on target x will happen with Fred, this is 
often me withdrawing a group of children for a parallel (or lower set)  
Literacy hour. I constantly say to teachers "don't put a target on the 
IEP unless you can identify when you are going to work on it",as a 
result I have steadily reduced the number of targets on IEPs except for 
those with statements.
I'd be interested to hear other views on this,as I think all sencos are 
haunted by pristine IEPs which spend all their time in the teacher's 
SEN file!
Kate

----- Original Message ----
From: "lucy.jeffreys2 at ntlworld.com" <lucy.jeffreys2 at ntlworld.com>
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Sent: Monday, 7 January, 2008 12:30:32 PM
Subject: [senco-forum] Role of IEPs and Provision mapping -

I haven't been on the forum for some months, so apologies if I've 
missed a thread.

My primary school is adopting a 'provision mapping' model which is 
working well, but I'm still struggling to find a useful way of 
incorporating IEPs into this model.  I'm increasingly finding that IEP 
targets are not incorporated into class teacher's planning (formal or 
informal) and therefore become meaningless documents.  With whole class 
and group targets set in class, lesson objectives/success criteria, and 
targets that are integral or within  specific intervention programmes, 
I am coming to the conclusion that IEPs may only be necessary for those 
with Statements, or who's needs are complex and may well lead to a 
request for Statutory assessment.

WIthin our authority, SEN funding has been devolved to schools for all 
SEN needs except the most severe and complex.  The number of statements 
issued are less.

I've experimented with all kinds of approaches, IEPs for SA+ and 
Statements only, IEPs for all. I've tried class teacher's writing them 
themselves, me writing them all. etc etc.

None of it feels satisfactory.

I'd be really interested to here other people's experiences & practices.

Thanks

Lucy Jeffreys
Inclusion Coordinator

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