Additional Learning Needs ALN

Here at Newton Primary School, we work to support the creation of a fully inclusive education system where all learners are given the opportunity to succeed and have access to an education that meets their needs and enables them to participate in, benefit from, and enjoy their learning.

Our Universal School Provision meets the needs of most of our learners. All our children can access the following interventions as part of our universal provision which is designed to support our learners when they need some extra help, catch up or maintain the progress they have been making with their learning.

The universal provision includes:

• whole class teaching
• effective differentiation
• collaborative group work
• individual and small group intervention
• appropriate and reasonable adjustments to enable access to the school environment, curriculum and facilities

Some of the specific small group interventions for catch up include:

• Intervention

• Supporting:

• PERMA, THRIVE

• & Early Help

• Wellbeing, relationships, emotional & behavioural   development – delivered through JIGSAW

• Speech Links

• Language Links

• Language Support

• Reading, writing, spelling and structuring language

• Numeracy Support – Big Maths

• Gross Motor skills programme

• WELLCOM

Most children at Newton Primary School will make expected progress with their learning from their starting points. To identify if a learner has additional learning needs we will gather evidence over time as a graduated response -

• standardised screening and assessments
• observational data
• formative assessments of day to day learning
• monitoring progress over time
• assessments and observations taken from other agencies

Based on evidence gathered over time, it will be possible to identify learners who are making less than expected progress. In the ALN Code this is characterised as progress which:

• is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
• fail to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress
• fails to close, or widens the attainment gap between the child and their peers despite the provision of support aimed at closing that gap
• When children do not make the expected progress with Universal Provision and following thorough investigation and evidence gathering a child may be identified as having ALN.

How are additional learning needs defined in Wales?

1. A child has ALN 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.

1. A child of compulsory school age that has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
• 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

1. A child under compulsory school age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she is, or would be if no additional learning provision were made, likely to be within sub section (2) when of compulsory school age.

1. A person does not have a learning difficulty or disability solely because of the language (or form of language) in which he or she is or will be taught is different from a language (or form of language) which is or has been used at home.

The same considerations apply to children with healthcare needs. It will be necessary to establish whether a child has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for ALN provision. 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 additional learning provision.