Special Education Needs

The school has a well-established Special Needs department, the Learning Centre, staffed by the Head of the Learning Centre and two part-time teachers, all of whom have specialist experience and qualifications.

Provision: Teaching

The Learning Centre, housed in a central location, supports boys arriving at Eton with specific learning difficulties, for example dyslexia and dyspraxia. At present about 4% of the boys in the school receive such assistance, which continues for as long as they need it. A high degree of success is achieved in ensuring that they can do full justice to their abilities.

At the Learning Centre boys are taught in small groups, in pairs or individually, according to their specific needs. Lessons are organised at the beginning of each term and they take place around the demands of a boy’s academic timetable and extra-curricular activities. Provision normally takes the form of one lesson per week.

Boys with specific learning difficulties are placed on the school’s SEN register, which is confidential other than on a "need-to-know" basis. Subject masters, for example, are kept up-to-date about boys on the register and their specific needs, and are given appropriate strategies to apply in the schoolroom. House masters and dames are also kept informed of progress and of any particular issues that arise.

Assistance covers areas such as: organisation; higher literacy skills; study skills. Provision usually takes the form of one forty minute lesson per week. Lessons are organised at the beginning of each term to take place around the demands of a boy’s academic timetable and his extra-curricular activities. End of term reports are written on all boys who receive tuition. There is a charge to ‘Extras’ (the school bill) for tuition and assessments. The learning centre also offers support to boys for whom English is an additional language.

At age 11 and at Common Entrance, account is taken of any assessment (done within two years of the examination series) by a qualified professional as an adjunct to a separate report by a school’s SEN department which provides further evidence, based on current need, for the requested examination concessions. The school’s accompanying report should contain up-to-date information about the candidate’s history of need, the provision he receives and his usual way of working. Furthermore, the report should contain scores (standardised, where possible) for reading accuracy, reading speed, reading comprehension, spelling and handwriting speed (which must also include reference to the legibility of handwriting, the quality of language and handwriting / typing speed with/without 10% and 25% extra time) and any other relevant information. Other relevant information, for example, may take the form of standardised scores for non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, phonological processing, and visual-motor processing speed. The concessions requested should reflect the degree of current need of the candidate.

In the first term all new boys undertake the ‘F Assessment’ (a literacy test). If a boy’s result is cause for concern, and he does not have a previous history of specific need, he is given appropriate support and he may, where appropriate, undergo an initial assessment (‘Preliminary Assessment’).

Those boys who come to the school with a history of special educational need will automatically undergo an individual ‘Preliminary Assessment’ at the Learning Centre. Appropriate support may well be recommended in the light of the assessment’s findings and a boy's history. If academic concerns emerge about a boy at any later stage of his Eton career, he may be referred to the Learning Centre for assessment.

Every boy who has a history of receiving concessions for internal and public examinations is individually reassessed at the start of their public examination courses for an up-to-date record of current need. The ‘Secondary Assessment’ assists in determining appropriate examination concessions for internal and public examinations. Decisions about examination concessions for public examinations are made by the school in accordance with the Joint Council for Qualifications’ (JCQ) guidelines.