What is a BERA?
Most children and young people’s needs can be met by making small changes to the environment or the learning tasks. This is sometimes called differentiated learning or adaptive teaching and is always on offer whether or not a child or young person has SEND.
Leicester City have provided schools with a toolkit to help them think about what changes they can make to support children and young people. These are called BERA audits.
BERA stands for best endeavours and reasonable adjustments as these are all things that schools can and should be doing to help any children and young people who need extra help.
What do schools do?
- They work closely with the child, their family, and other professionals (like SENDCOs) to find out what support is needed
- They may provide extra support in the classroom or give the child a different way to learn
- They try to remove barriers to learning so every child can enjoy school
- Schools will regularly review the support they put in place to check that it is helping and set targets for next steps and share these with you.
Why do we make adjustments?
Reasonable adjustments are changes that schools or other places may need to make so that children and young people with SEND can be fully included. This could include:
- Changing the way lessons are taught
- Providing extra help or support
- Giving extra time for schoolwork or exams
- Allowing breaks when needed
Adjustments are made to:
- Help children and young people learn and achieve their best
- Make sure all children have the same opportunities to take part in school life, no matter what support they need
- Make sure children feel included and valued
What happens if adjustments are needed?
Schools should make sure adjustments are made quickly and effectively. They should check regularly to see if the support is helping.
If the adjustments are not working, the school will think about other ways to help and follow they will follow the graduated approach.
What if more help is needed?
Sometimes, more support is needed than what can be offered by the school. In this case, the school may ask for help from the local authority or other services.