The Graduated Approach - a guide for professionals (HTML) - Provision to support cognition and learning needs

Published: 11 February 2026

All: inclusive support

Under the Graduated Approach, all students receive inclusive support for their cognition and learning needs. This includes:

  • planning teaching and learning around regular assessment using the assess, plan, do, review model
  • adapting work to meet the needs of all students
  • giving regular formative feedback to students verbally and through marking
  • using a range of different teaching approaches to ensure students can access learning
  • using a range of concrete resources to support students’ learning (such as Numicon or magnetic letters)
  • making sure classroom grouping and seating arrangements are conducive to promoting learning and independence
  • supporting students to understand new learning and keep on task

Some: personalised support

Under the Graduated Approach, some students receive personalised support for their cognition and learning needs. This includes:

  • supporting students in small groups of 6 to 8 in lessons where they experience difficulties
  • allowing students to have access to key information in advance of whole-class lessons
  • making sure students can revisit and revise learning individually or as part of a small group
  • adapting the daily routine and environment to accommodate individual needs, for example by using:
    • movement breaks
    • visual timetables
    • prompts and instruction sheets
    • fidget toys
  • putting expertise in place to manage reasonable examination arrangements for assessments, national tests, and public examinations
  • allowing students to access additional study skills support through a learning support unit or equivalent
  • providing personalised learning within small groups in lessons where students experience specific difficulties, including:
    • neurodiversity approaches
    • metacognitive approaches
    • curriculum adaptations
    • multi-sensory approaches
    • evidence based interventions to develop phonics, spelling, reading, number and handwriting skills
    • alternative ways of recording information, such as a laptop, scribe, shared writing and speech-to-text software
    • support to become independent and resilient learners

Few: highly personalised support

Under the Graduated Approach, a few students receive highly personalised support for their cognition and learning needs. This includes:

  • adapting teaching and learning opportunities to incorporate highly bespoke work and, where appropriate, address targets agreed with an external professional
  • providing individual or small group support to help the student achieve targets agreed with an external professional
  • seeking appropriate advice from a:
    • specialist learning teacher (Support for Learning service)
    • educational psychologist
    • Child Development Centre
    • academy trust specialist
    • other SENCOs (peer-to-peer support)