Care and support

Individual Education Plan (IEP)

Individual Education Plan (IEP)
All schools have differentiated curriculum plans. This means that the work children do in class is structured according to ability. This could mean allowing children to work at a slightly slower pace to ensure that they fully understand something before moving onto something new. Or it could mean allowing some children to work at a slightly quicker pace, once a new idea has been fully understood.

Your child’s class teacher will be able to explain the level of work your child is doing at school and how you can help at home.

Sometimes children do not progress at the rate teachers expect
and then an Individual Education Plan (IEP) is drawn up. The IEP
records short term targets which are additional to or different
from the general curriculum.

Who is involved with drawing up an IEP?

Your child

You

Your child’s teacher

Your school’s Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)

What information is in an IEP?

The short term targets for your child

How these targets are to be achieved

The support the school is giving through their own resources
– this could be additional learning support time

Possibly how you will be helping your child at home achieve
their targets – this could be reading with your child every day

The date the plan will be reviewed – all plans should be
reviewed at least twice a year. Ideally they should be
reviewed termly, possibly more frequently for some children.

What happens at an IEP review?
Sometimes children will attend for part of the review meeting to say how they feel things have gone. Sometimes the class teacher will speak to a child before the meeting to find out his or her views.

You should also talk to your child before a review meeting and
encourage the teacher to include your child’s views in at least part of the meeting. Children should also be encouraged to take part in target setting. To enable them to do this you and your child should have a copy of the IEP, together with any new ones produced following the meeting.

You will be involved in reviewing your child’s IEP. Most schools will hold a meeting to do this.

At the meeting your child’s progress will be discussed. If the targets have not been met over a period of time, it may be decided that the school will call in external support. The Code of Practice 2001 describes this as School Action Plus. This could be an Educational Psychologist or another specialist teacher.

This would provide a specialist assessment, advice on a new IEP and targets to be set. There may also be advice on the use of new or specialist strategies or materials.

If you have any concerns about your child’s progress or any of the information written in this booklet the best person to speak to is your child’s teacher. Please don’t worry about your child without sharing your worries with a friend, by contacting a voluntary organisation or getting in touch with your local Parent Partnership Supporter.

This information is available on request in large print, Braille computer disc, audio tape and other languages, by contacting the Customer Service Centre on 01438 737500.
If calling from area codes 01923 and 0208 you should ring
01923 471500 so that your telephone call is charged at local rates.

This booklet has been produced in co-operation with the
Hertfordshire Parent Advisory Group and the Eastern Region Parent Partnership Group. This booklet can also be viewed or printed from the pdf document on this page.