The documents attached to this page comprise the Monitoring and Moderation Handbook.
These guidelines were drafted in the summer of 2000 and then trialled in twelve Wokingham schools during the autumn term of 2000 and the spring term of 2001. These twelve schools, together with support services in Education and colleagues in the Health Authority, have developed the drafts of the guidelines. In preparing these guidelines we began with the existing practice in Wokingham and then consulted documents from Birmingham, Bromley, East Sussex, Greenwich, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, and West Sussex.
We would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by those documents and the work that those Local Authorities did, as well as the support from the Wokingham trial schools. The development of the guidelines was prompted by the DfEE issuing a consultation document in July 2000 on the SEN Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Pupils with Special Educational Needs & SEN Thresholds: Good Practice Guidance on Identification and Provision for Pupils with Special Educational Needs.
These guidelines have been prepared based upon the draft Code of Practice (CoP), and will be amended as a result both of feedback from Wokingham schools in 2001-2002, as well as the changes made in the finalised CoP. It is therefore seen as a working document, which will evolve to meet forthcoming, legislative changes as well as practical feedback from schools.
We have prepared for 3 tasks in these guidelines:
- a SEN screening device that provides practical guidance for teachers and SENCOs with descriptions of pupils' skills
- a year by year guide for teachers and SENCOs of what is expected to be provided for pupils within the CoP
- a monitoring mechanism to assist in placing pupils in the CoP for use at school level by the SENCO
A fourth task is planned, that of moderating SEN practice between schools. This is to ensure consistency between schools across WDC, and will be undertaken when these monitoring guidelines have been used in Wokingham Schools.
In these guidelines, we have drafted descriptors about each SEN type, and we have done this across the school age range, by year group and key stage.
