We are proud to report that this is our twelfth year in providing subsidised assessments for families from disadvantaged groups.\u00a0 Families with high learning potential children on universal credit, sickness benefit or low income are faced with a stark choice when they are trying to advocate for the needs for their children in school.<\/p>\n
Whilst as parents they may have learned that high learning potential children need sufficient challenge in education to feel engaged and motivated to learn at school, it can be difficult to put this into practise at home or convey this to teachers who feel they have the professional expertise but who may never have been taught how to identify the unique strengths and needs of high learning potential children in their training.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, since the response children have to boredom and disengagement at school is often negative behaviour \u2013 being disruptive in class, school non-attendance or simply day dreaming and lack of attention \u2013 it is often these symptoms which the school focusses on rather than the underlying cause.\u00a0 In many instances teachers are not even aware that the causes of behavioural differences can be due to high learning potential coupled with inappropriate or insufficient levels of challenge.\u00a0 To parents trying to get the right recognition and provision for their children it can seem an impossible task.<\/p>\n
An assessment of the child can be the first time there is an objective, independent and qualified acknowledgement of the needs the child has.\u00a0 Particularly if there is a masked special educational need, which can happen all too frequently.<\/p>\n
However the cost of an assessment \u2013 whether that is a Potential Plus UK assessment or an assessment by an education psychologist can be an insurmountable barrier for a family in a poverty trap, and yet an assessment can be the trigger to change the negative cycles of behaviour and response, and can lead to a completely different trajectory for the child, and we have many instances over the last 55 years of our charity where this has enabled families and children to turn a corner to a brighter future.<\/p>\n