How can I be supported at school or college?
Email this pageDo you sometimes:
- Find it a lot harder to learn than others in your class?
- Struggle to move around your school or college?
- Have difficulty talking about how are feeling and what you might need to help you?
- Is it sometimes tricky being around friends or groups of people and not knowing what to do?
If so, you might have Special Educational Needs (this is sometimes shortened to SEN).
What support could I get?
- A learning plan that will support you
- Extra help from a teacher or assistant
- A safe place to go to and knowing who you can talk to
- Support with things like getting around school safely
- Different equipment
- Working in a smaller group
- Advice from experts who will know how best to help you
- Help to take part in the class and outside activities
What can you do if you are finding it difficult at school or college?
- You can talk to your parents or carers
- You can ask your school about SEN support
- We can support you if you are finding it difficult at school or college
“A Graduated Approach”
This means the steps that school or college should take to help you.
Assess, plan, do, review
The law says that if you have SEN, school or college should take action to make sure that there is support in place for you and there is nothing stopping you from learning.
School will work with you to assess your needs, plan and provide your support, and review how you are getting on:
1. Assess
School will find out what your needs are. They will talk to you, your teachers, your parents or carers. They will look at your progress and any difficulties you have.
3. Do
Everybody that works with you will follow this plan.
2. Plan
If school decide you need extra support – they will write a plan. This is called an SEN Support Plan.
4. Review
School will check if your plan is working. This is called a review.
You can talk to school about your plan. If it is not working, you can talk about changing the plan. Perhaps you need more or different help. You should be included in the review and in planning what to do next.
What if you need more help?
If you have an SEN Support Plan, but you still need more help, there are other options: one of them could be to ask the Local Authority for an EHC needs assessment.
By gradually trying out different ways of being supported, you should find the level of help that suits you best.
More information:
Post-16 Special Educational Needs (SEN) support video
If you are 16 or over, you can watch this video about how you should be supported if you have Special Educational Needs (SEN).
Getting extra help with learning factsheet
This factsheet from IPSEA explains what to do if you need extra help with your learning.
Advice from disabled young people about stopping bullying
From the Anti-Bullying Alliance
Advice for young people about bullying
From Bullying UK (part of Family Lives)
Also in this section:
Sharing Your Views
The Most Important Person in this process is you!
The Mental Capacity Act Explained
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is a law that affects people age 16 or over, who are not able to make decisions for themselves.