Special Educational Needs

“We begin with the obvious fact that the children we work with are perfectly capable of learning anything that we have to teach. We know that the intellectual crippling of children is caused overwhelmingly by faulty instruction – not by faulty children”

Engelmann, 1991

At Advantage Schools, we believe all schools should welcome and teach pupils with a wide range of needs. Education should be inclusive by design, ensuring that all children, including those who find learning difficult, receive the high-quality input they need — whether or not they have a formal diagnosis.

Our curriculum and teaching are designed with these learners in mind. Since everyone struggles with learning at times, this approach benefits all pupils and harms none. By embedding quality provision into everyday teaching, we aim to reduce the need for separate systems and segregation for pupils with SEND.

Learning difficulties and Special Educational Needs (SEN)

A learning difficulty means a child has:

• Significantly greater difficulty in learning than most children of the same age, or
• A disability that prevents them from accessing the usual school facilities.

A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

Even when a pupil has a learning difficulty, if their needs can be met through a school’s standard teaching approach (known as universal provision), they may not require formal SEN identification. Because the Advantage Schools education offer is designed to support vulnerable learners from the start, fewer pupils may need significant adaptations or placement on the SEN register. Our goal is not to reduce numbers on the SEN register, but to create a truly inclusive learning environment in which a diverse range of pupils can thrive.