Here is our Glossary of common education and related terminology.
CPD: Continuing Professional Development – a balance of personal, professional development, attendance at nationally accredited courses and small-scale school-based activities for teaching and non-teaching staff.
DBS: Disclosure and Barring Service, all people who support children and young people need to have a current DBS check.
DfE: Department for Education
EBD: Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
EHC: Education, Health and Care needs assessment: A formal assessment carried out by a local authority to decide how much extra support a child or young person needs.
(EYFS) Early Years Foundation Stage: The foundation stage begins when children reach the age of three. Many children attend an early education setting soon after their third birthday. The foundation stage continues until the end of the reception year and is consistent with the National Curriculum. It prepares children for learning in Year 1, when programmes of study for Key Stage 1 are taught.
Early years provider: A provider of early education places for children under five years of age. This can include state-funded and private nurseries as well as child minders.
EAL English as an Additional Language Refers to children whose first language(s) is/are not English and who may not yet be speaking English fluently or even at all.
Foundation Stage: Covers Education provided from 3 years old, through to the end of Reception year.
IEP (Individual Education Plan): An IEP identifies the special educational needs of a child and outlines targets and strategies to support their learning. IEP’s are usually completed in consultation with SENCo.
Inclusion: Removing barriers in learning so that all pupils can participate at their own level.
ICT: Information and Communication Technology
INSET: In-Service Education and Training. Training for teachers which takes place during the school year.
KS1: Key Stage 1 covers Year 1 and Year 2: ie.5-7 years old
KS2: Key Stage 2 covers Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6: ie.7-11 years old
LA: Local Authority
Ofsted: Office for Standards in Education, a non-Ministerial government department established under the Education (Schools) Act 1992 to take responsibility for the inspection of all schools in England. Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) form its professional arm.
Phonics: Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write their language. It involves connecting the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters (e.g. that the sound ‘k’ can be represented by c, k, ck or ch spellings) and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of unknown words. In this way, phonics enables people to use individual sounds to construct words. For example, when taught the sounds for the letters t, p, a and s, one can build up the words “tap”, “pat”, “pats”, “taps” and “sat.”
SALT: Speech and language therapy
SLC: Speech, Language & Communication
(SEN) Special Educational Needs: A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age or has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.
(SENCO) Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator: A qualified teacher in a school or maintained nursery school who has responsibility for co-ordinating SEN provision. In a small school, the headteacher or deputy may take on this role. In larger schools there may be a team of SENCOs. Other early years 0settings in group provision arrangements are expected to identify an individual to perform the role of SENCO and childminders are encouraged to do so, possibly sharing the role between them where they are registered with an agency.
Setting: All pre-school education provision, such as nursery classes, day nurseries, childminders, Specialist Resource Centres including Pre-school Special Needs and Resource Team
Young Person: A child becomes a young person when they have reached the end of compulsory schooling. This is the end of the school year in which they turn 16 – year 11 for most pupils. A young person between 16 and 25 has the right to make their own decisions related to their EHC plan.