In the SEN code of practice, the term ‘intervention’ is used to describe a focused strategy, teaching approach, or program with desired outcomes, which are delivered to support children and young people with additional needs. It is well documented that students with additional needs can have gaps in their learning, sometimes referred to as a ‘spiky profile’. Intervention sessions are designed to address these gaps wherever possible.
For students with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), these interventions are written into Section F of their plans as provision required to support the child. At Abingdon House School’s Senior campus, we also use this term to refer to a daily session running for 30 minutes each morning where students work towards a specific skill or target.
How are different interventions decided?
The criteria we use for choosing which interventions to offer are:
- It must be an area of need for our students.
- The intervention activity must be evidence based to improve outcomes for students.
- There must be a way to measure student progress from the beginning to the end of each intervention time frame.
Exceptions to these criteria are activities that are designed to enrich, promote wellbeing, or extend students – for example, the ‘Let Grow’ intervention run by the wellbeing team focused on supporting students mental health and resilience; and the ‘Philosophy for Kids’ intervention which helps to develop problem solving and promotes empathy.
How are the intervention groups decided?
In collaboration with teachers and therapists, the SEND team identifies the main areas of need for each student, ensuring they are each allocated individually targeted interventions to support their learning.
The team uses teacher observations, assessment data, external reports, and student EHCPs to make these decisions.
What interventions do we offer at AHS?
Some of the intervention activities currently on offer include:
- Guided reading: these sessions, focused on developing comprehension skills, are run for small groups of 6-9 students. Students are baselined using the standardised assessment, Salfords, and are then grouped based on similar comprehension levels and needs. The groups then read short passages and answer questions about them, using the Bedrock program to build subject specific vocabulary.
- IDL literacy: These sessions are designed for students who face barriers to literacy, such as dyslexia. IDL is a dedicated multisensory speaking-computer based programme, which helps students improve reading and spelling skills. After a baseline assessment, regular recording helps to track student progress and improvement.
- Extension maths: This group supports and extends the skills of students on the GCSE pathway. Informed by a Maths-Mastery approach, students consolidate and deepen their mathematical knowledge and understanding. Activities are targeted towards the specific needs of the students, such as strengthening their understanding of algebraic concepts and notation. Students engage in problem solving activities: for example, through problems provided by the Further Maths Support Programme and lateral thinking challenges from the Maths Olympiad.
Based on research suggesting a link between working memory difficulties and numeracy and literacy difficulties, we are also trialling a small working memory specific group to see if students demonstrated an improvement in working memory.
Impact
We have seen some great results so far.
In one term, students in the typing club intervention increased their typing speed by five words per minute on average. This improved typing speed translates to better IT fluency, and can support applications for exam access arrangement in the future.
The group focused on reading sight words, using precision teaching strategies and multisensory teaching methods to recognise and read words from the Entry Level 1, 2 and 3 English words lists. One student learnt to read 32 new words – this has significantly improved their ability to access the Entry Level English qualification, and increases their chances of exam success.
Our maths intervention group had similar positive results. Students improved their standard score by an average of 4 points over the course of the intervention. They also improved their maths skills in specific areas – particularly mental strategies, time, and number bonds. This has a long lasting impact, as improved maths skills translate to better understanding and engagement in maths lessons, a reduction in maths anxiety, and an improvement in maths performance overall.
We are always looking to improve and expand our interventions offering. Overall, students are making impressive progress and developing a better understanding of their needs and the kinds of interventions that can benefit them.
