Academic attainment

3:50.   LEAs will always require evidence of the child's academic attainment.  Key indicators are provided by the results of assessments and tests in the core subjects of the National Curriculum.  But the bare facts of academic attainment will not be sufficient in themselves for LEAs to conclude that a statutory assessment is or is not necessary.  Those facts must always be understood in the context of the attainments of the child's peers, the child's progress over time and, where appropriate, expectations of the child's performance.  A child's apparently weak performance may, on examination of the evidence, be attributable to factors in the school's organisation.  Careful consideration of evidence of low attainment may reveal good progress from a low base.  On the other hand, apparently satisfactory attainment may be found to fall far short of the performance expected of the child as assessed by his or her teachers, parents and others, including educational psychologists, who have observed the child closely, and, where appropriate, by standardised tests.


3:51   Nonetheless, academic attainment is the essential evidential starting point.  LEAs should always be alert to evidence that a child's learning difficulties may be particularly complex or intractable.  They should be alert, therefore, to significant discrepancies between:

i.   a child's attainments in assessments and tests in core subjects of the National Curriculum and the attainment of the majority of children of his or her age

ii.   a child's attainments in assessments and tests in core subjects of the National Curriculum and the performance expected of the child as indicated by a consensus among those who have taught and observed the child, including his or her parents, and supported by such standardised tests as can reliably be administered

iii.   a child's attainment within one of the core subjects of the National Curriculum or between      one core subject and another.

While National Curriculum assessments will therefore supply important evidence, LEAs should not delay their consideration of a child until such up-to-date assessment results are available.  LEAs should also have regard to teachers' own recorded assessments of a child's classroom work, the outcome of individual education plans and any portfolio of the child's work compiled to illustrate his or her progress.

3:52.   At the same time, LEAs should always seek evidence of identifiable non-academic factors affecting attainment.  In all cases, LEAs should ask whether there is any evidence of:

i.   problems with the child's health which may have led to recurrent or significant absences from school, or difficulty in concentrating or participating in the full range of curriculum activity while at school

ii.   sensory impairment, for example hearing loss or visual problems

iii.   speech and language difficulties

iv.    poor school attendance

v.    problems in the child's home circumstances

vi.    any emotional and behavioural difficulties.