National Literacy Strategy: Framework for Teaching

Planning for children with special needs




According to the Framework for teaching, children with special educational needs should, as far as possible, be taught alongside their peers during the literacy hour. However, it is acknowledged that some SEN pupils may be working at earlier levels than those specified for their year group. Section 4 of the document reads:


Teachers should plan literacy work for pupils with special educational needs using the word. sentence and text levels in the Framework for teaching. Some pupils with identified special educational needs will be working at earlier levels than those specified in the Framework for their year group. Others will need to work on one term's work for several terms. Some of these pupils will make progress through the different stages in the Framework and many will be able to work at the levels appropriate to their age after they have had structured. intensive teaching.

Teachers may need to use the Framework even more flexibly with some pupils. The aim, however, is to teach to the year and term for their age. Teachers should look through the objectives for the relevant term and identify carefully what children can do. They should then make the necessary adjustments to cover other work, using objectives from earlier terms where appropriate. In doing so. they should ensure that the materials they use and the way they present the work are appropriate to the ages and maturity of the pupils in question.


There does not seem to be any support in the document for how teachers are easily able to find relevant objectives from earlier terms!

The indexes available from this site, however, will provide some measure of support for teachers who do need to find work of a different level for their pupils who have special educational needs.


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