| Education: organisations and legal terminology |
| DfE |
Department for Education |
| Ofsted |
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. They inspect and regulate services that care for children and young adults, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. |
| LA |
Local Authority – an administrative body in government responsible for all the public services and facilities within an area. |
| LEA |
Local Education Authority – this term is no longer used. It has been replaced by single term Local Authority. |
| Child |
A child is anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. They have an entitlement to services and protection under the Children Act 1989. A child with SEN is a child until they reach their 19th birthday. |
| Adult |
An adult is anyone who has reached their 18th birthday, or if they have SEN, anyone who has reached their 19th birthday. |
| Young person |
This term is no longer legally recognised or accepted as an appropriate term as it doesn’t carry the necessary information around vulnerability i.e. it implies they have no protection under the Children Act 1989. As such, the terms child or adult should always be used, based on the criteria explained in the definitions above. |
| Education: types of school / academic institutions |
| Maintained school |
A school funded by a Local Authority |
| Free school |
A school set up by a group of individuals or an organisation, funded by the government, but not controlled by the Local Authority. |
| Academy |
A state-funded school in England, directly funded by the Department for Education, independent of Local Authority control. |
| Independent School |
School independent from the authorities in its finances and governance. It may have a board of governors or trustees or be controlled by a board
of directors or even one individual. It will have a system of governance to ensure it operates independently. |
| Independent Special School |
As above, but specifically designed to make provision for those children with special education needs. |
| Section 41 School |
A school published by the Secretary of State as an approved independent education institution or independent special school. Any Section 41 school listed in an EHCP has a legal requirement to offer that child a place, regardless of existing pupil numbers. |
| Prep School |
A preparatory school is a private primary school for children, getting them ready for a place at a private secondary school. |
| Public School |
A private, fee-paying secondary school. |
| PRU |
Pupil Referral Unit or Pupil Re-Integration Unit – an establishment maintained by a Local Authority specifically organised to provide education for children who are excluded, sick or otherwise unable to attend a mainstream or special maintained school. |
| Alternative Provision (AP) |
Education outside school, arranged by local authorities or schools themselves. |
| Education: curriculum & learning levels |
| NC Levels |
National Curriculum Levels – a set of 8 bands used to measure a child’s progress against other pupils of the same age across the UK. The levels apply to children in KS1, 2 and 3. NC Levels are being phased out; schools are being given the responsibility of setting their own measures of progress. |
| EYFS |
Early Years Foundation Stage – a set of standards in England for the learning, development and care of a child from birth up to 5 years. |
| KS |
Key Stages – the stages of the state education system. The National Curriculum then sets out the expected targets to be achieved in different subject areas within these key stages. |
| KS0 |
Key Stage 0, known as Early Years – covers nursery / reception, age 3–5. |
| KS1 |
Key Stage 1 – equivalent to school years 1 and 2, age 5–7. |
| KS2 |
Key Stage 2 – equivalent to school years 3 to 6, age 7–11. |
| KS3 |
Key Stage 3 – equivalent to school years 7 to 9, age 11–14. |
| KS4 |
Key Stage 4 – equivalent to school years 10 and 11, age 14–16. |
| KS5 |
Key Stage 5 – equivalent to 6th Form, school years 12 and 13, age 16–18. |
| Education: Special needs |
| SEN |
Special Education Needs – a legal term describing the needs of a child who has a difficulty or disability which makes it harder for them to learn than their peers. |
| SEND |
Special Education Needs and Disabilities – when someone has a learning difficulty and a disability that means they need special health and education support. |
| SEMH |
Social Emotional and Mental Health – a certain type of special education needs where a child/young person has severe difficulties in managing their emotions and behaviour. |
| SENCO / SENDCo |
Special Education Needs Co-ordinator. |
| TAC |
Team Around the Child is a model of multi-agency service provision. The TAC brings together a range of different practitioners from across the children and young people's workforce to support an individual child or young person and their family. |
| EHCP |
Previously called the statement, the Education Health Care Plan sets out the education, health and social needs of a child, and the support needed to be able to deliver it. Notably, the education aspects included within are legally binding – the local authority has a duty to provide support to meet them, whereas the health and social aspects are recommendations. It covers up to 25 years. |
| Ed Psych |
Educational Psychologist. They work within local authorities, in partnership with families and other professionals to help children and young people achieve their full potential by using their training to assess difficulties a child may have in accessing learning. |
| PCP |
Personal Curriculum Plan – a document, created by our schools, that provides an overview of the targets being worked on each year, mapping out key development areas and ensuring that progress keeps momentum throughout the year. |
| IEP |
Individual Education Plan – this is a document developed for each child with an EHCP to outline the targets that will be worked towards each term, to ensure the EHCP is being delivered. |
| PAG |
Programme at a Glance – used at our schools, this is a weekly tracker that outlines in a visual way the progress each individual learner is making against their termly targets. |
| CAMHS |
Pronounced ‘CAMS’ this is the Child and Mental Health Services, a specialist NHS service who assess and treat young people with emotional, behavioural or mental health issues. |
| Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) |
A term used to describe children unable to go to school due to emotional/wellbeing factors such as low self-esteem or feeling stressed by the school environment. This may also be called school refusal or persistent absence. |
| Child in Need |
Defined under the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired, without the provision of services; or a child who is disabled. Every single one of our pupils is legally defined as a Child in Need. |
| Looked after child |
A child is looked after by a local authority if a court has granted a care order to place a child in care, or a council's children's services department has cared for the child for more than 24 hours. |
| Pupil premium |
Additional funding given to schools in England to help disadvantaged children perform better and close the gap between them and their peers. |
| Free School meals (FSM) |
Entitlement for families living in poverty to ensure their children receive a healthy nutritious meal in the middle of the day. This goes hand-in-hand with pupil premium. |
| Safeguarding organisations, individuals and terminology |
| DSL |
Designated Safeguarding Lead – take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection across the school/ each site of the organisation. They take part in strategy discussions and inter-agency meetings and contribute to the assessment of children. They advise and support other members of staff on child welfare and child protection matters and liaise with relevant agencies such as the local authority and police. |
| DSP |
Designated Safeguarding Person – supporting the Designated Safeguarding Lead at each site. Each class has a DSP responsible for following up on safeguarding concerns for their class/classes. |
| LADO |
Local Authority Designated Officer – they are a person within the local authority whose role is to provide support and guidance for employers around any safeguarding concerns involving children and young people. They can be a liaison between other organisations such as the police and Ofsted and assist where investigations are required. |
| MASH |
Multi Agency Safeguarding Hubs – set up by many areas in response to government review of procedures in place to identify children and vulnerable adults at risk of abuse. Specifically, these hubs aim to bring together professionals across different agencies to stop anyone at risk falling through the gaps and not getting the support they need. |
| Local Safeguarding Partnerships |
Local Safeguarding Partnerships are set to replace MASH and LADO teams within 2 years. |
| KCSIE |
Keeping Children Safe in Education – publication from government providing statutory guidance for proprietors, schools and colleges on safeguarding children and safer recruitment. |
| Working Together to Safeguard Children |
Statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, updated in July 2018. |
| About Autism |
| ASC |
Autism Spectrum Condition, alternative to ASD. |
| ASD |
Autism Spectrum Disorder, alternative to ASC. |
| Stims / Stimming |
Short for self-stimulatory behaviour, people do this to provide sensory input, usually of a pleasing nature. This can be a way of relaxing in stressful situations, so is a natural part of having autism. We all have self-stimulatory behaviour – twirling our hair, rocking on chairs, biting our nails, jiggling our knees are all examples of stims. However, if the stim is self-injurious in nature, we would teach replacement behaviours. |
| Relevant associations / organisations |
| NAS |
National Autistic Society – the largest autism charity in the UK, serving autistic people from early diagnosis right through adulthood. |
| NASS |
National Association of Special Schools – the voice of the nonmaintained school sector, a registered charity and company. BeyondAutism are members of this Association. |
| IPSEA |
Independent Parental Special Education Advice – non-profit organisation offering parents free and independent legal advice and support to get the right education for their child. |
| Scientific Methodology / Curriculum |
| Behaviour Analysis |
Practice guided by Behaviour Analysis is an approach that takes the scientific principles of learning and behaviour, and applies them in practice to teach important skills, personalised to an individual. It can also be used to help reduce behaviours that challenge or that limit opportunities by teaching functional alternatives. Behaviour Analysis helps us to understand how learning takes place, and how behaviour can be affected by the environment. At BeyondAutism, we use teaching strategies underpinned by Behaviour Analysis to teach our learners social, communication, academic and daily living skills, tailored according to their specific needs. |
| ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) |
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a set of evidence-based principles derived from applied research on the science of understanding learning and behaviour. These principles can help teach important skills when personalised to the individual using a behaviour analytical approach. |
| VB (Verbal Behaviour) |
Verbal Behaviour (VB) is a strand of research that analysed language as a behaviour which you learn and acquire in the same way as any other behaviour. There is a large body of research supporting this analysis of language and its application to teaching autistic children and young adults communication skills. |