The council must check your child's progress and make sure that the statement continues to meet their special educational needs. They must review your child's statement at least once a year, but they can review it more often if they think it is necessary.
The annual review is in four parts:
- collecting information
- holding an annual review meting
- the head teacher's report of the annual review meeting to the council
- the council's review of the statement
Your child's school will write to you, telling you the date of the review meeting and inviting you to attend. Before the meeting, the school will ask you to send in your views on your child's progress over the past year. The school, the Parent Partnership Service, a voluntary organisation or a parents' group can help you give your views.
Remember - your views are very important.
The school may also ask for the written views of other professionals who know and work with your child. Before the review meeting, the school will send you copies of all the views they have received.
Your child's teachers will have set goals for your child soon after the statement was first made. These may be set out in an Individual Education Plan. At the annual review meeting you, your child and your child's teachers and sometimes other people who have been helping your child over the year, will look at your child's progress towards those goals and will agree new goals for the next year.
The meeting will also look at written reports that have been provided and at your child's statement and see if it needs changing in any way.
The review meeting will normally be held in your child's school. You can take a friend, an adviser or an independent parental supporter to the meeting. It is important that you go to the review meeting. Your child should be able to go along for at least part of the meeting. Their views on progress in the past year and hopes for the future, are important.
The document below contains further information about the annual review process.
Note: The above document is in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore requires a suitable reader to view it. A reader can be downloaded from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).
Transition planning
If your child has a Statement of Special Educational Needs, the annual review in year 9 is particularly important in preparing for their move to further education and adult life. This review can involve all those people and organisations who will play a major role when your child leaves school. This will include the Connexions Service and could also include Social Services.
This review will not only consider your child's targets and statement but also discuss a Transition Plan for your child's move to adult life. The School must make sure that the Transition Plan is completed after the meeting. The Transition Plan can be discussed and changed, if necessary, at later review meetings. You and your child will be asked to help with this plan.
The document below contains further information about theTransition Plan process.
Note: The above document is in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore requires a suitable reader to view it. A reader can be downloaded from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).