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What is SEND?

Children and young people with SEND often find it harder to learn and make progress than their peers, or they face additional challenges that make school or college more difficult for them. This might be, for example, due to difficulties with learning or understanding, emotional needs, communication difficulties and/or physical and sensory needs.

A child/young person is described as having SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability and they need special educational provision to support them (this means support that is additional to, or different from, what is generally available for other children and young people of the same age). Overviews of different needs can be found here.

Further information regarding SEND and special educational provisions can be found on the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA) website.

Bury Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) website also has lots of information for parents/carers about SEND and SEND support. Bury SENDIASS has also created a shorted SEN Information for Parents/Carers resource.

You can watch a short video that explains the role of SENDIASS here:

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What support is available in schools and colleges?

The type and level of support children and young people need will be different.
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The Access-Plan-Do-Review Cycle

This works by developing, through ongoing cycles, our understanding of a child or young person’s needs and what works to support them over time.
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Who is who in schools and colleges?

There are lots of people who work in or with schools and colleges whose job it is to help children and young people.
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Information sharing

Having good home-school/college communication is key, especially as children and young people may present very differently at school or college to how they do at home.
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