Assessment Tracking for Pupils with SEND

This is the second of a series of pieces about tracking pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), looking at the information we might want to keep track of for those students with SEND. In the first post, we looked at Stepped and Point in Time Assessment. In this post, we consider the wider range of assessment tools that schools might use to track their SEND students.

Picking the Right Tool for the Job

Student assessment is the same – schools have a range of tools and measures that can be used. And whilst assessing pupil knowledge, skills and understanding is a much more complex task compared to measuring a physical property such as length, teachers need to select the assessment tools and scales which will be the most appropriate and effective for the specific SEND students that they are educating. The legal framework and advice to schools allows for this.

The Rochford Review into SEND assessment noted: “It is () important that we are able to measure the progress (of pupils with SEND) make in a way which takes into account the nature of progress for these pupils. Those with SEND can often make progress in different ways to the majority of pupils.”

The review continued, saying “Approaches which recognise lateral progress () would be particularly beneficial for pupils with more severe or profound special needs.”

The assessment tools that schools might use to track their SEND students could include:

• EHCPs and Annual Reviews:
  • Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) are created following an EHCP needs assessment that will include reports from all relevant professionals. They set objectives for students and the provision they must have to meet them. EHCPs are reviewed annually, and include a report of progress towards these objectives.
  • Any appropriate adjustments to the needs, objectives and provision will be made following an annual review.
• Learning Plans or IEPs:
  • Students typically have three personalised targets. These are often set over a shorter period such as a term – plans can be co-produced with parents and shared with students through Learning Passports. Plans can include strategies, support, and interventions as well as set success criteria to support assessment and evaluation.
  • At the end of term, each target is assessed against the success criteria as having been Achieved, Partly Achieved or Not Achieved to show progress.
• Interventions and Provision Maps:
  • School staff work together to decide which interventions to run and which students take part. These are generally put in place as a result of pupil progress reviews.Each intervention has a pre and post assessment which is matched to the objective of the intervention. This could be a reading age, accurate letter formation or rating on a social emotional scale. On the provision map these are tracked and then RAG (red, amber or green) rated for example as effective, partly effective or not effective.
  • This allows review of progress at the pupil, group and the intervention level.

• Objective tracking and KPIs:
  • Assessments can be made against the objectives of the programme of study students have been taught. This allows for a finer understanding of a student’s learning than assessment at the whole subject level.It can be helpful to identify a number of key objectives in, for example, reading, writing and maths – perhaps those most needed for curriculum access going forwards.Interventions and support can be focused on helping ensure students are able to make progress towards these.
  • These can then be tracked at the individual or group level.
• Standardised or specialist assessments/tests:
  • Some students will be able to access and be tracked using standardised tests alongside their peers. For others, analysing their outcomes on the test papers from earlier year groups can provide helpful diagnostic assessment. Schools may also use some specialist or diagnostic assessments for students with a particular profile, e.g. PhAB for phonological processing.
  • When exploring a student with a complex learning profile, specialist professionals may make targeted assessments e.g. Educational Psychologist (EP), Speech therapist etc.
• Observations for example using the Engagement Profile:
  • For students not accessing subject specific study, observations made and recorded against the five areas of engagement.Using the assess>plan>do>review process, progress can be noted and recorded as changes in the observed behaviours.
  • This can then inform target setting for these students.
• Self-assessments or Learning Journals:
  • These can be useful to capture assessments about approaches to learning, emotional and mental health as well as some specific content.
  • Changes to a student profile over time can be tracked.
  • It allows tracking of lateral progress especially of learning techniques and engagement as well as curriculum content.
  • It gives pupil voice recognition.
  • Students do need to be taught how to use them effectively and not just try to give the ‘right’ answer.
• Case Studies:
  • These can be used to capture a range of information including from some of the assessment types already explored. 
  • They can also track what support and intervention has been put in place and how effective it has been, often giving a more rounded picture of the student’s learning and educational experience.

The key is to use the right tool for the task and with consideration given to the range of audiences that the information needs to be shared with. The Ofsted toolkits currently in consultation are in line with this approach as they note that one of the criteria for secure achievement across the curriculum is: “Pupils with SEND achieve well from their starting points and, where relevant, against their individual targets.”

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