Team Blaengwawr

Recently we have shared information with you about how things are changing with Additional Learning Needs. This change began across the whole of Wales, in September 2021. Nationally, it will take up to three years to implement all of the changes in our schools.

As you can probably imagine, it is very difficult to sum up all in the changes in one letter to you, so we are developing this section of the website to keep you posted with everything we are working towards, as well as information from the Local Authority and other organisations we closely work with. If there is something you would like to see up here, please do let us know... we want it to be the best possible resource bank for you.

Whilst these changes will impact our families in different ways, we want to reassure you that:

• All children will have access to the same support and interventions that are working for them as individuals.
• We will continue to develop the website to keep you informed of national changes, and also share resources to help at home

Remember you can get in contact with either myself or Mrs Poole our headteacher, if you have any questions or worries.

Thank you,

Mrs Lee - ALNCo

ALN at Blaengwawr Primary

At Blaengwawr Primary School all staff strive to provide a broad and balance curriculum for all pupils. The new Curriculum for Wales is our starting point for planning that meets the needs of individuals and groups of pupils. When planning, teachers set suitable learning challenges and respond to pupil's diverse learning needs. Some pupils have barriers to learning that mean they have special needs that are additional to and different from their peers and require particular action by the school. 

How do we define ALN?

1. A person has additional learning needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or otherwise) which calls for additional learning provision. 

2. A child of compulsory school age or person over that age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she: 

(a) has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or 

(b) has a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 (c.15) which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities for education or training of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream maintained schools or mainstream institutions in the further education sector. 

3. A child under compulsory school age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she is, or would be if no additional learning provision were made, likely to be within subsection (2) when of compulsory school age. 

4. A person does not have a learning difficulty or disability solely because the language (or form of language) in which he or she is or will be taught is different from a language (or form of language) which is or has been used at home. 

Please find below a link to the RCT Access and Inclusion website that will explain further the changes that are happening in Wales with the implementation of the new Additional Learning Needs Reform Bill.

Mrs Lee as our school ALNCO will be happy to answer any queries you may have in relation to these changes and what they may mean for your child.