The Graduated Response
Week 1 – Understanding the Graduated Approach
The Graduated Approach provides a structured way for schools to identify needs, put appropriate support in place and continually evaluate its impact. Through the cycle of Assess, Plan, Do and Review, staff can respond to pupils’ needs in a purposeful and evolving way. In this session, we’ll explore what the Graduated Approach looks like in practice and how teachers, TAs and SENDCos can work together to ensure support is responsive, meaningful and focused on improving outcomes.
Week 2 – Assessing Barriers Rather than Labels
Effective SEND support begins with understanding the individual pupil, not simply their diagnosis or label. Pupils with the same identified need can experience very different barriers to learning and participation. In this session, we’ll explore how teachers and TAs can look beyond labels, identify the specific barriers a pupil is experiencing and use this understanding to plan more purposeful, personalised support.
Week 3 – Planning Purposeful Support
Effective SEND support should be carefully planned around the specific barriers a pupil is experiencing, with clear outcomes in mind. Rather than simply providing ‘more help’, purposeful support identifies what needs to change and how adults, adaptations or interventions will help achieve it. In this session, we’ll explore how teachers, TAs and SENDCos can plan focused, achievable support that maintains high expectations and promotes progress and independence.
Week 4 – Delivering interventions effectively
EInterventions can make a meaningful difference when they are carefully chosen, delivered consistently and closely connected to pupils’ classroom learning. Effective intervention is about more than completing a programme—it requires clear outcomes, skilled delivery and opportunities for pupils to apply their learning beyond the intervention itself. In this session, we’ll explore how staff can maximise the impact of interventions while ensuring pupils continue to access high-quality teaching alongside their peers.
Week 5 – Reviewing impact—not activity
Effective review is not about asking whether support happened—it is about understanding whether it made a meaningful difference. Within the Graduated Approach, staff need to look beyond completed interventions, sessions and provision to consider changes in pupils’ learning, participation and independence. In this session, we’ll explore how teachers, TAs and SENDCos can use evidence to evaluate impact, identify what is working and make informed decisions about what should happen next.
Week 6 – Writing meaningful APDR cycles
Effective Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycles should be purposeful working documents that improve provision for pupils—not simply paperwork to complete. Meaningful APDR cycles clearly identify barriers, set specific outcomes, record purposeful support and evaluate the difference it has made. In this final session, we’ll explore how teachers, TAs and SENDCos can create concise, useful APDR cycles that inform practice, demonstrate progress and ensure the right next steps are taken.