Progress Schools Tees Valley · Lundy Loop · SEND / SEMH
SEND Overlay
Three pages · triage before judgement · four areas of need · the Loop Passport · 2026/27
Scope (SEND Policy 5.1): this overlay applies to every pupil on the SEND register — including pupils without a formal diagnosis. Need, not paperwork, triggers the adjustments below.
Triage before judgement: can't-yet / won't-now / can't-this-way
When a pupil does not respond to feedback, the loop has not failed — it has produced information. Diagnose which of three things is true before deciding the next move:
| Read | What it actually is | Loop response |
|---|---|---|
| Can't yet | Cognition or skill gap — the next step assumed something not yet secure | Shrink the step. Re-teach the missing piece, then re-offer the same NS+ smaller. The gap was in the feedback, not the pupil. |
| Won't now | SEMH — regulation, trust or shame is blocking the response in this moment | Repair Space, not the work. Time, relationship, co-regulation; re-offer later or via a different adult. Never force Voice through dysregulation. |
| Can't this way | Access — the response modality doesn't fit the pupil's communication or physical profile | Change the modality, keep the entitlement: scribing, symbols, demonstration, voice recording, a re-attempt watched live. WS describes access, not low aspiration. |
The trap to avoid: reading "can't this way" as "won't now" punishes access needs as behaviour. If in doubt, assume access first — it is the cheapest hypothesis to test and the most expensive to get wrong.
The four areas of need, translated
| Code of Practice area | Space & Voice adjustments | Audience & Influence adjustments |
|---|---|---|
| Communication & Interaction | Feedback in the pupil's communication mode (symbols, visuals, reduced language); processing time before any response is expected | Audience may be watching or listening rather than reading; Influence includes updating communication supports themselves |
| Cognition & Learning | One step at a time; NS+ anchored to a concrete model or worked example; overlearning welcomed, not rushed past | Receive the response against the pupil's own baseline; Influence often means adjusting step size across the whole sequence |
| SEMH | Space is the work: predictability, relational safety, private (never public) correction; feedback timed away from crisis points | Genuine Audience is itself therapeutic — being truly heard builds the trust the next loop depends on; gentle failure states throughout |
| Sensory & Physical | Environmental audit of Space (noise, light, positioning); response modalities that fit motor and sensory profiles | Audience adapts to the modality (observe the demonstration, listen to the recording); Influence includes environmental change |
Independence, honestly coded: I is never achieved by removing a reasonable adjustment. A pupil who responds independently with their normal supports in place is independent. Staging unsupported work for evidence is the opposite of this policy.
The Loop Passport
One page per pupil (see Loop_Passports.html in this folder — pre-built for the current roster). It records, in language agreed with the pupil, what each stage looks like for them: what makes their Space workable, which Voice modalities are theirs, how they like their work received, and where Influence should show up (targets, seating, scaffolds).
For staff: the passport travels between subjects, so a supply teacher or new TA can run a fair loop on day one.
For reviews: passport entries feed IEDP and APDR cycles directly — pupil Voice arriving in provision planning by design, not exception.
JCQ link (SEND Policy 10.1): the passport's Voice box doubles as normal-way-of-working evidence. If a pupil routinely responds via a scribe, a reader or extra time, the passport dates and describes it — building the access-arrangements case in the background, for free.
QA question for any SEND loop: was the adjustment present, was the response genuinely the pupil's, and did what they did reach their plan? If all three: that is the loop, working exactly as designed.
Space → Voice → Audience → InfluenceDraft practice resource · Matt Roper