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Access to Education (A2E) are the Special Educational Support Services provided by Birmingham City Council and are made up of teams of specialists. Pupil and School Support (PSS) are a team of just under 40 teachers who work in all mainstream schools across Birmingham focussing on Cognition and Learning Difficulties, and supporting SENCo’s in their strategic role.

The SEN Toolkits are a big part of this and support assessment, provision and progress tracking for pupils with cognition and learning difficulties. The toolkits are focused on speaking and listening, reading, writing and maths. As a whole the toolkits consist of assessment frameworks, teaching and learning ideas and tools to support class teachers and SENCos in the correct identification of SEN rather than underachievement.

The combination of the assessment frameworks and the teaching and learning ideas, used in a structured way, enables schools to demonstrate their graduated approach at both the SEN Support level and where a pupil has needs requiring an Education, Health and Care Plan.

With the removal of levels for the curriculum the assessment frameworks enable the schools to demonstrate small step progress in specific areas for pupils who are working significantly below their peers.

All schools in Birmingham have access to the toolkits and more than half of the schools use the toolkits on a regular basis. Many schools outside the Birmingham Authority have bought into the approach and support services.

If you wish to include either the Literacy or Numeracy Frameworks within your Classroom Monitor account you will have access to all the
assessment criteria and the related scoring. Access to specific content and resources, and specialist training from A2E, is only available as part of a site licence purchased directly from them. Please visit our
A2E SEN Toolkits help page to find out how they are set up in Classroom Monitor.