Mr. Paul Byrne:

On the transition from primary to post-primary, we recognise that this is a huge jump for all students, not just students with special educational needs. One thing I have found is that students with special educational needs probably are making the transition better than some students without those needs. I am speaking from the perspective of a practitioner who still is in school working at the job. When a student with special needs comes in, I see where the communication between the primary and secondary schools is at a much higher level to prepare for that student's arrival. We also consider it to be very important that such students, the special needs assistants who are with the students and any other people who are supporting them at primary school come to make their first visit as such students approach the end of their primary school career. We make a couple of visits during the summer in order that the student can become familiar with the school.

As for general transition from primary to secondary school, every secondary school must have a good transition programme. I was involved, in my school, with the National Behaviour Support Service, NBSS, approximately five years ago and we developed a transition programme. We also have employed an educational psychologist who works with us in making sure that programme is correct. However, it is not just about the initial transition. When the students have been in the school for a couple of weeks, we must undertake what we call a settling-in programme. We use a system of mentoring in which we use fifth-year students who are associated with a certain group of first years. We then follow that on with a big brother/big sister programme. That happens in the school in which I work, and such good practice must be spread to each school in the country. I am not really sure how to do that, but our organisation is very interested in spreading best practice like that and will do so through the conferences and seminars that we hold throughout the year.

To address the second part of the Deputy's question - that is, what are the problems we are experiencing - I could go on at length on that. However, the main thing is that for a successful special educational needs, SEN, system in the school, one must have a person who is suitably qualified in SEN to co-ordinate the work being done in the school. Without that, it will be piecemeal. Areas with which we have difficulty include students coming from primary school with unidentified mild learning disabilities. Sometimes one may find they are not identified until, quite possibly, late into second year. We carry out testing when the pupils enter school, and I note that we ceased using one test because it was not giving us the results we were expecting. It was still missing out in respect of some students. We find the best method of identification is when the teachers are teaching the students. If the teachers are aware of indicators of different special educational needs and they bring them to the SEN co-ordinator, then we can work out how best to deal with or help the students.

Another point is that sometimes for students who are identified with special educational needs the school puts in place something that will operate on a continuous basis. If matters were left at that, without assessing how effective the system is for these students, one would be doing the students a disservice. One system we use is the performance of a six-week review, whereby the allocation of resources is maintained for a six-week period before assessing whether it has worked. Sometimes, in certain subject areas - because we aim for as full integration as possible - we realise that after six weeks some students have benefited hugely in certain subject areas but may need more work in other subject areas, and we adjust the programme thereafter. Again, this is an example of good practice and it must be spread, but the key to that is that we have reduced a teacher's timetable load sufficiently to enable that teacher to co-ordinate this approach. It is a fluid approach that is extremely labour-intensive. In addition, I believe every teacher in the school should be trained in SEN. They must be able to identify and to put in place strategies to help get the best outcomes for the students concerned. Hopefully, this goes some way towards informing the joint committee on the information it seeks.