What Help Is Reasonable to Expect in School?
When parents notice that their children are struggling, they’re suddenly thrust into a sea of terminology and jargon. It can be difficult to know what the best course of action is and what counts as a reasonable request or expectation.
In this article, I hope to offer some insight into the language used around support for struggling learners and what kind of help you can ask for.
Understanding the Terminology
First, let’s tackle some of the definitions we often hear bandied about; reasonable adjustments, accommodations and modifications. What do they mean and when are they used?
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015) gives statutory guidance from the Government to organisations such as schools, stating that they must make reasonable adjustments for pupils with SEND. This ensures that these learners are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to their peers.
In practice, that means schools and colleges must adapt their methods, where possible, to help young people with neurodiversities or disabilities access and participate in education on an equal footing with their non-SEND peers.
What Is Considered a Reasonable Adjustment?
A reasonable adjustment can take many forms. In essence, it’s any change made by an organisation to prevent a person from being disadvantaged compared with others. These adjustments can include:
● Broadening the ways information is accessed or recorded. For example, using large fonts, audio texts, speech-to-text software, visual timetables, timers, mind maps or signing.
● Providing additional equipment and resources such as reading pens, adapted keyboards, coloured backgrounds or overlays, pencil grips, or extra support such as readers or scribes.
● Making changes to the environment, such as installing ramps, using audio/visual alarms, creating quiet spaces or adjusting seating plans.
● Building flexibility into school policies. For example, uniform policies, start and finish times or behaviour management approaches.
Schools are expected to plan for anticipatory adjustments. In other words, to think ahead about the needs of SEND pupils rather than waiting until difficulties arise. A child does not need to have a formal diagnosis before adjustments can be put in place; if they are showing signs of struggle, support should be provided proactively.
Reasonable adjustments are simply actions that remove barriers to learning and participation.
What Constitutes a Reasonable Adjustment?
Many parents will know the familiar refrain: “We don’t have the resources for that.” However, schools do have a duty to make reasonable adjustments.
When considering whether an adjustment is reasonable, schools must take into account:
● How effective the change will be in removing the barrier to learning
● Any impact it might have on other pupils
● Health and safety implications for everyone involved
● The practicality and cost of implementation
The school’s size and resources are also considered when judging what is reasonable. A high-cost adjustment may be deemed disproportionate for a very small setting, but that doesn’t excuse inaction. No student should ever be asked to pay for a reasonable adjustment.
Many adjustments are free or low-cost, and often benefit not only the individual pupil but others too — present and future. These wider benefits should always be part of deciding whether a proposed change is “reasonable.”
Accommodations — What Are They?
Accommodation is essentially another term for reasonable adjustment and the two are often used interchangeably.
Accommodations are changes to the way materials or information are presented, accessed or recorded. Examples include screen readers, access to suitable toilets or allowing a pupil a short movement break.
In short, accommodations are changes to how a student learns, not what they learn. They allow a pupil to access the same curriculum content as their peers, but through a method that suits their individual needs.
Modifications and Differentiation
The term modification is less commonly used in the UK, but it refers to situations where a pupil’s learning goals are altered. In other words, modifications change what the student learns, rather than how they learn it.
A modified approach might mean a pupil is not expected to complete the same volume or complexity of work as their peers. For example:
● Completing fewer homework tasks
● Dropping a subject such as an additional language
● Following an alternative scheme of work that better supports their learning
● Working on a different or reduced task within a topic, such as a personalised spelling list
By contrast, in the UK you’ll often hear about “quality-first teaching”, sometimes presented as the magic solution to every problem. In theory, its purpose is to ensure differentiation within the classroom so all pupils can work at a suitable level. Through differentiation, students can access the same curriculum, but with appropriate levels of challenge and support.
For example, in a differentiated classroom studying words with the IGH spelling pattern:
● Some pupils might be given extra, more complex challenge words or asked to use them in sentences.
● Most pupils would learn the main list.
● A few might receive a reduced list with simpler words, allowing them to focus on the same pattern at a more accessible level.
A modified spelling list, however, would involve a different learning focus altogether. For instance, if the class were studying 20 IGH words but a few pupils were instead working on basic CVC (consonant–vowel–consonant) words such as cat or dog, or high-frequency words such as their. That change in the underlying learning target, not just the difficulty, is what defines a modification.
Intervention
Interventions are short, targeted programmes of support designed to address specific areas of difficulty. They are typically delivered over a set period, often six to twelve weeks, with a clear focus and measurable goals. Once completed, they should be evaluated to determine whether the issue has been resolved or whether longer-term support is needed.
Unfortunately, in many UK schools, pupils are offered a succession of interventions without a coherent long-term plan. This can result in children completing multiple short programmes without ever addressing the underlying difficulty.
When a learner has an ongoing need, e.g. dyslexia, the most effective approach is regular, structured sessions delivered by appropriately trained staff. This kind of consistent, cumulative teaching allows progress to be tracked over time and provides the stability that many neurodivergent learners need.
Interventions are valuable when they target a specific gap or skill, but long-term support should form part of a wider plan, not a cycle of disconnected “quick fixes”.
What Can Parents Request to Support Their Child?
Many effective methods of support are free or inexpensive. Simple, practical adjustments can make a significant difference, for example:
● Using a suitable, easy-to-read font
● Giving clear, step-by-step instructions
● Providing visual timetables and tick lists
● Displaying staff names and photographs clearly
● Offering quiet or low-sensory areas
● Allowing the use of fidget toys, wobble boards or cushions
● Providing alternative writing materials, pencil grips, or different types of lined paper
● Using writing slopes
● Building in “brain breaks” or movement breaks
● Allowing access to snacks and water
● Displaying key words and reference vocabulary
● Allowing toilet or movement break cards
● Flexible seating arrangements — some learners work best at the back, others at a side table
● Incorporating multisensory learning approaches
● Providing manipulatives for maths or science
● Offering different methods for recording work (mind maps, talking tins, speech-to-text tools, adult scribes or readers)
● Differentiated spelling lists
● Assessment or exam adjustments (such as a quiet room or extra time)
● Adjusting lesson start or finish times
● Providing alternative spaces during break or lunch
When Adjustments Involve Costs
Some reasonable adjustments may require spending or take longer to implement. Often, these are made with one specific child in mind but end up benefiting many others.
For example, staff training might be arranged in response to one pupil’s needs, such as CPD focused on dyscalculia or ADHD, but that same knowledge can then support other students across the school. A higher-cost adjustment may therefore offer greater value overall.
Certain adjustments, such as accessible buildings or facilities, are legal requirements under disability access regulations and must be provided once a need is identified.
Other supports such as specialist software, laptops, or specific teaching schemes may also count as reasonable adjustments if they significantly improve access to learning. Many schools are expected to fund these from their delegated SEN budgets (usually up to £6,000 per pupil per year).
When a child’s needs exceed what can reasonably be funded by the school, families or settings can apply for Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) funding. Unfortunately, this process can be complex and difficult to navigate.
Access to specialist tuition is often beyond a school’s usual funding limits. However, some forward-thinking schools recognise that commissioning specialist support can accelerate progress while also building staff expertise in effective strategies for neurodivergent learners. (For more details on specialist support in schools and training for teachers, contact Toucan Education here).
In this way, a single targeted adjustment can ripple outward to benefit the wider school community.
Next Steps
Understanding the difference between adjustments, modifications and interventions is a great starting point when supporting your child in school. In future blog posts, I’ll explore more of the terminology you might hear in SEND meetings such as IEPs, pupil passports and EHCPs.
If you require more information on specialist support for neurodivergent learners, you can contact us at Toucan here. Alternatively for info, advice and support you can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube.