School and individual education plans

ICT development plan

All schools should have School Development Plans, which should be annually reviewed. Schools that serve pupils with severe and complex needs should include a convincing and credible ICT Development Plan, based on ‘good practice’ models. This should describe the purpose and function of ICT within the school’s overall educational framework. The ICT Development Plan should include:

• a current position statement on the use of ICT within the school
• the changes and improvements envisaged for the forthcoming year
• a realistic allocation of resources (staffing, time and money) to deliver these intentions
• a commitment to ICT from the head teacher and senior staff
• a shared understanding of aims
• an acceptance that staff development is a priority

Creating this ‘culture for success’ underpins the whole fabric of ICT service delivery to individuals with severe and complex needs.

An example of an AAC policy statement, embedded within a special school’s ICT Development Plan

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) refers to methods of communication such as signing, symbols, pictures, communication aids and computers. This school recognizes that the ability to communicate, interact and learn within his / her environment is fundamental to the development of the whole child. Much of the child’s development – educational, social, emotional, and cultural – takes place through communication.

We, therefore, acknowledge within this policy statement that some of our students will require the use of augmentative or alternative mode of communication. These modes will be specific to the individual. To meet each pupil’s needs, full use will be made of a combination of technological equipment (voice output communication aids and computers) and ‘low’ or ‘light’ technology systems (symbols, signing, communication books and charts, objects, and pictures).

Principles to follow:

• AAC is the responsibility of the whole school.
• AAC, where appropriate, is integrated throughout the curriculum.
• AAC will be used to acquire the essential life skills of language, literacy and numeracy.
• Staff will themselves use AAC systems (symbols and signing) where appropriate in their interaction with pupils. This will promote the validity of using AAC systems and also establish a ‘community of users’.
• Staff will receive initial and on-going training in the use of AAC within their areas of responsibility.

Statement or Record of Need

We have already said that all pupils with severe and complex needs will have a Statement or Record of Needs. If, following a statutory assessment, the school or local authority concludes that a special needs pupil requires a significant piece of equipment (for example, a communication aid, a computer, specialist software or even more ancillary support), then this should be formally identified in the pupil’s Statement or Record of Need. Furthermore, if a pupil with severe and complex difficulties needs ‘the regular involvement of non-educational agencies’ (for example, the Visual Impairment, Hearing or Speech and Language Therapy services), this too should be formally identified.

The pupil’s Statement or Record of Need should be a living, ‘organic’ record, evaluated and, if necessary, emended at each review. It should be a powerful framework for ensuring that a pupil’s use of ICT is well defined, implemented and evaluated in terms of learning objectives and outcomes.

Individual Education Plans

The purpose and function of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or individual curriculum is to inform the teacher, and others working with a pupil, of specific objectives and targets, and how these will be achieved. In the case of pupils with severe and complex difficulties this will usually involve the use of ICT.

ICT within the IEP or individual curriculum

What are the essential characteristics of a good IEP or individual curriculum in which ICT needs are well integrated?

Here are some suggestions:

• Focus on the specific learning and communication difficulties of a pupil with severe and complex needs will reveal to what extent ICT is in place already and, more crucially, for what purpose it is being used.
• There should be an account of what the pupil has already achieved within their learning objectives and what part, if any, ICT has already played in this process. Do not forget that, for pupils with severe and complex difficulties, initial ICT intervention (this might be in the form of a communication aid or a home computer) should often occur pre-school. This would often be the case where language and communication are receptively or expressively delayed.
• A set of clear targets should be achieved over an agreed period of time and within which ICT is integrally placed. An acceptable time period for reviewing IEPs or individual curriculum is termly or half yearly, with the Annual Review determining more long term provision. It is within the target setting of an IEP or individual curriculum that the choice and presentation of software (for example, specific file templates, formats or personalized access settings) can be referred to in considerable detail.
• Pupils, parents and key, non-teaching personnel (for example, LSAs, therapists and educational psychologists) should be actively included in identifying how ICT can be integrated into the delivery of learning and communication objectives.
• There should be identification of local and regional expertise whence advice can be sought relating to how ICT can enhance the delivery of the learning and communication targets specified within the IEP or individual curriculum.

Finally, here are a few ICT related questions to ask within the context of an IEP or individual curriculum:

• Does the ICT fundamentally address the pupil’s priority needs?
• Is the ICT offered really worth the effort of the pupil and their support team?
• Are the targeted learning objectives appropriate to the medium of ICT?
• What outcomes have been achieved with ICT that could not have been achieved just as easily or more easily without it?
• Does the IEP or individual curriculum assist staff to plan and prepare targets of achievement in advance of ICT delivery?
• Has sufficient ICT time (both contact and non-contact) been allocated to staff by the school management?
• Is this ICT time well managed?
• Is the ICT time being used for the benefit of the pupil with severe and complex needs or for the benefit of others?

IEPs or individual curricula that are written with ‘purpose and function’ will soon reveal where there is a place for ICT. They should contain a summary of a few short-term targets focused on the provision and use of additional resources allocated to pupils with special educational needs. The pupil portraits outlined below may help this process of defining a meaningful role for ICT within an IEP’s or individual curriculum’s set of learning objectives and targets.

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