Our initial client group are children and young people in the age range 14-25 who have additional needs resulting from learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

We have received enquiries from:

CO11/IP2/IP4/IP6/IP10/!P11/IP12/IP13/IP14/IP15/IP16/IP17/IP19/IP21/IP22/IP23/NR32 & NR33.

Our clients attend and/or have attended a range of schools and colleges in East Suffolk, incliuding Ipswich and Lowestoft:

• Ashley School (Lowestoft)
• Beacon Hill School (Ipswich)
• Belstead School (Ipswich)
• Claydon High School (Ipswich)
• Farlingaye High School (Ipswich)
• Leiston High School
• Lowestoft College
• Northgate High School (Ipswich)
• Otley College
• Parkside PRU
• Saxmundham Middle School
• Stradbroke Business & Enterprise College
• Suffolk New College (Ipswich)
• Thomas Mills High School(Framlingham)
• Warren School (Lowestoft)

What is a learning disability?

People with learning disabilities are often disabled more by the attitude and behaviour of others...

The Mencap definition...

A learning disability is caused by the way the brain develops. There are many different types, and most develop before a baby is born, during birth or because of a serious illness in early childhood. A learning disability is lifelong and usually has a significant impact on a person's life.

Learning disability is not mental illness or dyslexia.

People with a learning disability find it harder than others to learn, understand and communicate.                                                                 

There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK.

Like all of us, they are individuals who want different things in life and need different levels of support in diffent circumstances and different times of life...

The Government definition...

• have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age; or
• have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority
• are under compulsory school age and fall within the definition at (a) or (b) above or would so do if special educational provision was not made for them.

Children must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because the language or form of language of their home is different from the language in which they will be taught.

Special educational provision means:

• for children of two or over, educational provision which is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children of their age in schools maintained by the LEA, other than special schools, in the area
• for children under two, educational provision of any kind.”

Disability is defined in the Children Act 1989 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 as:

• “A child is disabled if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from a mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other disability.”
• “A person has a disability if he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to day activities.”

The SEN Code of Practice which offers practical advice to schools LAs and others does not does not assume that there are hard and fast categories of special educational need. It recognises, as LAs will recognise, that each child is unique and that the questions asked by LAs should reflect the particular circumstances of that child. LAs should recognise that there is a wide spectrum of special educational needs that are frequently inter-related, although there are also specific needs that usually relate directly to particular types of impairment. Children will have needs and requirements which may fall into at least one of four areas, many children will have inter-related needs. The impact of these combinations on the child's ability to function, learn and succeed should be taken into account. The areas of need are:

• communication and interaction
• cognition and learning
• behaviour, emotional and social development
• sensory and/or physical.

More details on these 4 areas can be found in the Code at www.teachernet.gov.uk/sen .

Statistics on Pupils with Special Educational Needs are published as Pupils with Special Educational Needs in England, January 2008 and include data from England for January 2008. These figures update and supplement provisional information published on 29 April in SFR09/2008.

Information is mainly drawn from two sources: the School Census and the SEN2 survey. The SFR provides information on the incidence and placement of pupils with SEN together with analyses on the characteristics of pupils by their stage of SEN.

The key points from the latest release are:

• In January 2008 some 223,600 (or 2.8 per cent of) pupils across all schools in England had statements of SEN, a slight fall when compared to last year.

• The percentage of pupils with statements of SEN placed in mainstream schools (nursery, primary, secondary) was 56.6 per cent. The corresponding figures for the proportion of pupils with statements of SEN placed in maintained special schools was 36.9 per cent, with 3.6 per cent in independent schools.

• In 2008 there were some 1,390,700 pupils with SEN without statements representing 17.2 per cent of pupils across all schools. This is an increase from 16.4 per cent a year earlier. Contrary to the pattern for pupils with statements of SEN, the incidence of pupils with SEN without statements is greater in primary schools (18.1 per cent) than in secondary schools (17.8 per cent).