The graduated levels of support are explained in ‘waves’.

Wave 1

This includes the support for all children in the class. The type of support your child receives includes the following:

  • Good quality first teaching.
  • Work adapted to recognise that children learn in different ways .
  • Different levels for the same activity.
  • Different approaches (individual, paired and group work).
  • Different expectations of groups.
  • Different learning outcomes for groups.
  • Recording in different ways.
  • Implementing the dyslexia friendly classroom initiative.
  • Repeating instructions for certain groups/individuals.
  • Breaking information down into smaller more manageable ‘chunks’.
  • Providing visual or auditory reinforcement.
  • Providing different resources to support the work.
  • Suggesting different ways into a task (aural, visual, practical).
  • Providing a reader or a scribe.
  • Planning yes/no answer sheets or tick boxes.
  • Pupils working in different ability groups for certain tasks.

Wave 2

This involves small group support work which may be delivered by the class teacher, teaching assistant, learning support assistant or support teacher. The interventions are planned termly and a provision map is used to record the programme as well as the children involved. It includes:

  • Completing tasks with extra support.
  • Literacy support groups.
  • Numeracy support groups.
  • Base reading resource material.
  • Lego club to encourage turn taking and communication skills in a structured format.
  • Write words and excel for spellings.
  • Literacy intervention support groups (including High Five).
  • Self esteem groups.
  • Social skills groups including the Talkabout programme.
  • Fine motor skills groups (including extra handwriting).
  • Gross motor skills (including Puppy club).
  • Speech and language therapy groups.
  • Support for children who have English as an Additional language (EAL).

Wave 3

This involves support planned on an individual basis with the specific needs of the pupil concerned. The children are on our SEN register and a twice yearly Individual Educational Plan (IEP) is written and reviewed. Where appropriate, outside agencies are consulted and their advice is incorporated into the IEP. Examples of outside agencies include Speech and Language Therapists, Advisory Teachers for Autism, Communication, Hearing and Visual Impairment, Behaviour Support Team, Occupational Therapist, Thorley Hill Specific Learning Difficulties Base and the Educational Psychologist. Some children who meet the criteria will have a Statement of Educational Needs which is reviewed annually by all professionals involved with the child. A statement does not now automatically have money awarded and the child’s needs are met from the schools SEN predicted needs budget. A child with exceptional needs may have extra funding awarded by County if they meet the criteria.

Thank you for taking the time to read this leaflet. We hope that the information has helped to explain our graduated response to learning support.

At Summercroft Primary School we value the contribution that parents make to their child’s learning and the support that they give to the school.

If you have any queries about the support that your child receives at school then please speak to your child’s classteacher.

Mrs Helen Smith, SENCo is available at Parent Consultations as well as termly drop in sessions and is happy to discuss any queries or concerns. She can be contacted via the school office or by email on

County offers support to parents via The Parent Partnership whose contact details are available via

Summercroft Primary School

An Academy School

A Guide to

Learning Support

At Summercroft we believe that all children have individual needs and some children have special educational needs. We aim to provide an inclusive education, whereby all pupils’ needs are identified and appropriate action is taken to enable pupils to achieve. We endeavour to identify individual learning needs as early as possible and plan appropriate support and intervention programmes accordingly.

This leaflet is intended to explain the learning support that we offer to pupils at Summercroft.

Our pupils are supported in groups or individually by Teaching Assistants or Learning Support Assistants who are funded from the school’s budget. In exceptional circumstances children have extra funding allocated from County which has to be applied for separately.

We work closely with outside agencies to ensure that our pupils have access to appropriate support and advice.