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The Graduated Response

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What is the Graduated Response?

The graduated response, (sometimes called the graduated approach) is a framework used in education settings to identify and support the learning needs of children and young people, especially those with special educational needs (SEN).

The main goal of the graduated response is to provide a step-by-step and flexible way of identifying, assessing, and meeting the needs of pupils at all different levels. 

In Barnsley, we call it 'Assess, Plan, Do Review' read on to find out more. 

Assess, Plan, Do, Review

Step 1: Assess
Check-In 🔄
Teachers regularly check on your child’s progress to understand what they need help with. They’ll talk to you about any concerns they might have. Conversations like this may happen at parents' evening – or informally at the classroom door.


Step 2: Plan:
Making a Plan 📝
Once they know exactly what your child need support with, teachers come up with strategies to help your child learn. You’ll be part of the process, and you might have some suggestions of your own.


Step 3: Do
Let's Do This! 🚀
Teachers put those plans into action—making learning fun and effective, they’ll do the plan for an agreed amount of time to give the strategies time to work, usually over a term or half term.


Step 4: Review
Finding what’s worked 🔎
After a while, they check to see if it's working. If not, it's ok. They'll meet with you and tweak things to make it better. Support is flexible so it can meet the changing needs of your child.
Your child may need more, or less support next term depending on how well the plan has been working. 

Do you have questions about the graduated response?
Remember school is there to help make sure your child gets a good standard of education. If you feel like things aren’t going well or you don't understand how the graduated response is helping, you should speak to the school in the first instance and arrange a meeting with the class teacher, support staff or SENCO to talk through your concerns.

SENDIASS (SEND Information Advice & Support Service)

If talking to the school is difficult, you can talk to SENDIASS about your concerns and they will guide you. They can also support you to put your thoughts, wishes, and feelings forward. You can email them at sendiass@barnsley.gov.uk, or ring 01226 787234 Monday - Friday 



Quality First Teaching (QFT)

What is Quality First Teaching (QFT)

You may hear professionals talking about Quality First Teaching, which is the first step when it comes to getting extra support in place for your child.
Quality First Teaching (QFT) is about creating a really good learning environment for everyone in the classroom. Here are some simple ideas about it:


  • 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Everyone Included: Teachers make sure that every child, no matter their abilities or background, can join in and do well in class.
  • 👧 Learning Tailored for Each Child: Teachers change how they teach to match how each child learns best. So, even if your child learns differently, they be able to get what they need from their lesson
  • ✅ Checking How Children are Doing: Teachers get to know each child, and always check to see how well they are doing in their learning. This helps them understand what each child needs help with and how they can get better.
  • 🏆 Clear Goals: Teachers always tell children what they are going to learn, so everyone knows what to expect and what they need to do to succeed. It’s often written on the board, as a KO or Knowledge Objective.
  • 💹 Helping Children Improve: Teachers give children lots of feedback to help them do even better. They tell them what they are doing well and where they can get better.
  • 👩‍🏫 Fun and Interesting Lessons: Teachers use lots of different and fun ways to teach, so kids are interested and excited about learning.
  • 🤝 Working Together: Children get lots of chances to work together in groups. This helps them learn how to work with others and make friends.
  • 🎓 Teachers Keep Learning Too: Teachers are always thinking about how they are teaching and try to get better. They learn new things to help the children in their classroom and get lots of opportunities to continue their professional development
Quality First Teaching is all about making sure that every child gets the best chance to learn, have fun, and do well in school.

You can read more detailed information about Quality First Teaching in the SEN Support Inclusion Framework Document (Pages 28 - 29) 




What if Quality First Teaching on its own isn’t working for my child?

If your child needs extra help with their learning, the teacher will do a needs analysis.
It's about checking what they're good at and where they need help. This helps the school plan how to support them better.
You’ll be included in this needs analysis; and be invited to a meeting at school. The school will want to know your opinions and wishes right from the start and through the journey towards extra support.


🌷 Getting Started with SEN Support.
Once the needs analysis is done, everyone will have a good idea of what support is needed. This is the assess stage done for now.

If it’s agreed that your child does have an identified SEN (special educational need) next comes the planning stage.
Depending on the age of your child, early years setting, or school will record the plan in different ways. 

🌼 SEN support in the Early Years
Barnsley Early Years Settings will use The Early Years SEN Inclusion Toolkit to help them identify needs and work out what help can be put in place for your child. They’ll use the Graduated Response Document to record what’s in place, what might be needed as extra support and what progress is being made towards the goals you have agreed together for your child.

You’ll be involved in the plan, and you can look at the document at any time – you just need to ask the SENCO for a copy. The setting will meet with you regularly to let you know how things are going.


🌻 SEN Support in Schools
School-age children in mainstream schools, or young people in post-16 settings are seen as having SEN if they;


  • Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than most others of the same age, or
  • Have a disability which stops them from using facilities generally provided for others of the same age.

If your child has SEN the setting will add them to their SEN register, it’s a good way to keep track of the number of children with SEN in Barnsley and makes sure that the school can access any additional funding from the council that it needs, to provide extra help for your child.



What might the help be?

Every child is different, and teachers want to make sure each child gets the right support. They’ll keep talking to you and working together to help your child do their best in class.

Here are some examples of what the help might look like in school.


  •  💻 Creating a School-Focused Plan or SEN plan Teachers can work with you to create a plan just for your child, listing what they're working on and how everyone can help them succeed. This plan is regularly checked and updated. The plan is part of the graduated approach and should be used for any child or young person found to need SEN Support it might look a bit different in different settings, but format, process and order will be the same .
  • 🔠 Adjustments for your Child: Learning materials could be adjusted to match your child's unique way of learning. This might include using bigger letters, or different coloured paper which can be helpful for children who have dyslexia.
  • 👨‍🏫 Teaching Tweaks Teachers can change their teaching to match how your child learns. They might give more examples or use different approaches. It could be more time for tasks or having someone to explain things again.
  • 👩‍👧 Extra Help in the Classroom: Some children will get extra help in the classroom, from a teaching assistant – it may be in small groups or side by side for short periods during the day.
  • 📱 Using Digital Tools for Learning: If needed, teachers might use devices to help your child with reading, writing, or communication, schools have ipads, and laptops that can be used by children with SEN
  • 🎪 Providing a quiet spot, fidgets or sensory breaks: There may be a quiet place in the school or classroom where your child can go if things get overwhelming. They may be able to use fidget toys, or sensory items, or be allowed regular movement breaks
  • 👧 Friends Helping Friends: Your child might have a buddy to work with or engage in activities that promote cooperation, many children have a talking partner at regular intervals during the day, which could be a staff member or another child to check in with.
  • 💬 Speech or Language Support: If needed, your child might have sessions with someone who helps with talking or language. These exercises might also be part of their daily routine.


Getting Other Professionals Involved:

Sometimes, specialists like educational psychologists or occupational therapists, might join in to provide more help. Teachers often work with other professionals to ensure your child gets the support they need.


The below services regularly support children with the graduated response here in Barnsley:

Clicking the service names will take you to their service record, where you can read more about what they offer, how to access the service and contact details where these are available, use the back button on your device or browser to get back to this page 

Looking for another service?

🔎 To find more Barnsley SEND services, use our Local Offer ‘who can help tool’ here



Who is responsible for making sure all this happens?

The SEND Code of Practice says that teachers or practitioners are accountable for all the children and young people that they teach.

If your child is getting some extra help from a teaching assistant or another specialist at school, the teacher is still in charge of making sure your child is doing well.


Making sure each child gets the right kind of teaching is the first step in helping those who might need extra support. If you ever have any worries or questions, talk to your child's teacher, childminder, key person, or the person in charge of the early years setting.


All teachers and early years staff keep an eye on how well children are doing. If they ever feel something isn't quite right, they'll work with the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) to figure out the best plan. Childminders and Day Nurseries may also work with BMBC Quality Improvement Team and Early Years Consultants, to get advice. 
Teachers and early years staff should have regular chats with parents to talk about how their child is doing and plan together for their learning. The SENCO can help with this too.








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0800 0345 340 

infofis@barnsley.gov.uk

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