Every child achieving and thriving (easy read version)
Our plan to help every child do well at school
About this easy read
This is the easy read of a big plan for England by the UK Government called Every child achieving and thriving.
It is about making sure all children do well at school.
This easy read tells you about the main things in the bigger plan.
You do not have to read this easy read all at once if you don’t want to. You can stop if you need to or just read the bits you want to.
You could ask someone to help you read it if you need to.
What is in this booklet
Page 1 Children and schools
Page 3 About our plan
Page 5 Big thing 1: Services working together to support children and families
Page 7 Big thing 2: Better experiences at school
Page 10 Big thing 3: Including every child
Page 18 Big thing 4: Working together with
children and their families
Page 21 Big thing 5: Supporting teachers
Page 23 Big thing 6: Schools working
together
Page 24 Big thing 7: New and better ways
of working
Page 26 How we will make the changes
happen
Children and schools
The UK Government wants all children to do well as they grow up.
We want them to have what they need to be safe, happy and healthy.
Schools are a really big part of children’s lives.
School is where children learn things, make new friends and have new experiences.
An experience is something you do, see or feel. It helps you learn about the world.
There is good work happening in lots of schools.
But there are still lots of things that need to be better.
The way things are now in schools is not working for all children.
We need to do things in a new way.
About our plan
We have written a new plan about schools in England.
It says what we want to see happen in the next few years. And some things that will take longer.
We want: • More children to be ready to learn by age 5.
• More children to be able to read by age 7.
• More children to feel like they belong at school.
• More children to be ready to start secondary school.
Secondary school is for children aged 11 to 16. Some people call it high school.
• More children to pass and do well in their exams at age 16.
Exams are a test to see how much you know about something.
These exams can help children decide what they will do next in their lives.
This might be more learning, training or getting a job.
To make these things happen, there are 7 big things we want to work on.
Big thing 1: Services working together to support children and families
Services that support families and children are things like: • Education services. Things like schools and colleges.
• Health services. Things like local doctors, hospitals and dentists.
• Council services. Things like housing, libraries, parks and support for people who need it.
• Services that support families and children.
We are working on plans to make all our services better.
And then we want them all to work together in a better way.
This means children and families will get good support when they need it.
Big Changes
Big thing 2: Better experiences at school
We want children to learn lots at school. And to enjoy learning. This is right from when they start school to when they leave at age 16.
We want to make it easier for children at times when big changes happen.
Like moving from nursery to primary school.
Nursery is for children from birth until they start school.
Primary school is for children aged 5 to 11.
Another big time is moving from primary school to secondary school.
Secondary school is for children aged 11 to 16.
And moving from secondary school to college.
College is for young people aged 16 to 19. But some young people stay at college until they are aged 25.
1 2 3 4 5 6
We want schools to teach more children to read, write and add up numbers.
And help them learn things that will be useful when they grow up.
We want children to have the chance to do other things at school. Things like playing sports or going on a trip.
This will help them to try new things and meet new people. It can help them to enjoy school more and learn more.
Big thing 3: Including every child
Sometimes things happen out of school that make it harder for some children to do well in school.
Things like not having a warm home or enough food to eat.
We want to change that. We want to make sure all children are supported to learn and do well in school.
Some children need: • Support to learn.
• Support in school.
• Support to be able to come to school.
We will give schools money to help children who need support.
We will look at things that are happening in 2 different parts of the country. This will be where children need extra support.
In these parts schools and local leaders will work together.
They will look at what problems there are for children in their area.
And what the schools and leaders can do to help.
We will look at what they find out.
We will use it to make things better for children across the whole country.
SEND
Making SEND support better
Some children and young people may find it harder to learn than other children of the same age.
They may need extra support at nursery, school or college.
We say children who need extra support to learn have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
We call it SEND for short.
We will make sure all teachers get training about SEND.
We will make it clearer for families what support their child can get at school.
We will use new plans called Individual Support Plans. These plans are for children in mainstream schools who need extra support.
A mainstream school is a school that most children can go to.
The plans say what support a child needs day to day in school. And what the school will do to help.
Individual Support Plans will help children to get the support they need quicker.
They will be written by people who know the child best. This will mean parents and teachers too.
Children with the most support needs will have something called a Specialist Provision Package.
This is a list of the kinds of help and support children with the most needs might get.
If a child needs some of the things on the list, they will get an EHCP.
An EHCP says what a child or young person’s learning, health and care needs are.
It helps nurseries, schools and colleges support people in the best way for them.
Mainstream schools and SEND
We will give more money to mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges.
The money will help to make them better. They can use it to give children extra support and make changes.
Things like speech and language therapy. This supports children with finding the best way to understand other people and say what they need.
And things like ramps, lifts or bigger toilets.
Or places where people can go if they need to be quiet and calm.
These changes will make it easier for all children to go to mainstream schools.
We are asking lots of people what they think about changes to SEND support.
We have written a survey. It tells you more information about the changes. And it asks you questions about them.
You can find the easy read survey on our website: SEND reform: putting children and young people first (Easy Read) - Department for Education - Citizen Space
Big thing 4: Working together with children and their families
We know children do best if they feel safe and happy at school.
And if they have good support at home from their families.
We will work together with children, families, schools and local councils.
We will find new ways of checking if children feel like they belong at school. And if they are doing well.
We will make it clear what families need to do to support their child with school.
Things like supporting them to do their homework.
We will make it easier for families to get better information.
Things like what their child is learning and how they are doing.
We will make it clear when and how families can complain about the support that their child gets.
Complain is when you are not happy about something and you tell someone about it.
We will make sure more children feel safe, happy and well enough to come to school.
We will help schools to make sure children behave well and safely.
Calm safe classrooms help children to learn better.
Big thing 5: Supporting teachers
We want to have 6 thousand 5 hundred more teachers in our schools and colleges.
We will make sure teachers get the training they need to do well in their jobs.
We will give more support to headteachers and people who run schools.
As well as teachers, there are lots of other important people who work in schools.
Teaching assistants work with the teachers. They help children to learn in the classroom.
Cleaners and office staff help schools to run well. This helps children learn.
We will make sure they are paid well for their work. And get chances to do training and learn new things.
Big thing 6: Schools working together
Schools do better if they work together.
We want groups of schools to work together. They will support each other to teach children in the best way. We call this group a trust.
We already check how well schools are doing.
But we will have a new check for trusts. We will make sure all trusts are doing well for all of their schools.
We will be clear about what different services should do to support children.
Big thing 7: New and better ways of working
We will support schools in different areas to do well.
Schools should share ideas about things that work well. They can learn from each other.
This will help schools to keep doing better. And give children the best chances to learn.
We will use technology in schools. Technology is things like computers, tablets and phones.
We will help children and teachers to use technology well. This will help children with their learning.
We will give parents more information about how schools are doing.
This will help families to choose schools that are right for their children.
How we will make the changes happen
These are big changes.
We will work closely together with schools to make the changes happen.
We will give schools and services money and support to do this.
We will not make all of the changes happen at once. They will happen over time.
By 2026 We will support schools to work in better ways.
By 2027
There will be more support for schools to make changes for children with SEND.
By 2030
The changes to EHCPs will start.
An EHCP is the plan that says what a child’s learning health and care needs are. And how to support someone best at school or college.
Thank you for reading our plan.
Why this page, not just a PDF? The original is a PDF - fine to read, but a poor fit for assistive technology: heading structure is often inconsistent or absent, text doesn't reflow for zoom or a narrow screen, and screen readers can struggle with multi-column layouts and scanned pages. This page is the same content rebuilt as plain, semantic HTML - real headings, text that reflows, nothing a screen reader or zoom tool trips over.
Republished from Department for Education under the Open Government Licence v3.0. View the original PDF.