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Acronyms, abbreviations and definitions

This resource is aimed at supporting all our school community in clarifying a range of acronyms and abbreviations used in school.

AfL	Assessment for Learning	An approach to teaching and learning that creates feedback which is then used to improve pupils’ performance.
CAMHS	Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service	CAHMS provides children with specialist mental health support.
CP	Child Protection	Child protection is the protection of children from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect.
CPD	Continuing Professional Development	Training allocated to staff (inside or outside of school). Any activity that increases teachers’ knowledge or understanding, or effectiveness in schools.
DfE	The Department for Education	Responsible for education and children’s services in England.
DSL/DDSL	(Deputy) Designated Safeguarding Lead	The named person who takes the lead on child protection.
EAL	English as an Additional Language	EAL refers to children whose first language is not English, and may not speak English fluently or at all.
EBSA	Emotionally Based School Avoidance	Emotionally Based School Avoidance is a term used to describe children who experience challenges in attending school due to negative feelings such as anxiety.
ECT	Early Careers Teacher	An early career teacher is in their first 2 years in teaching.
EHCP	Education Health Care Plan	An EHCP sets out the education, healthcare and social care needs of a child for whom extra support is needed in school, beyond that which the school can provide.
ELG	Early Learning Goal	At the end of Reception, children are expected to be achieving the ELG across the key areas of learning.
EP	Educational Psychologist	Educational psychologists tackle challenges such as learning difficulties, social and emotional problems, issues around disability as well as more complex developmental disorders.
ESBAS	Education Support, Behaviour and Attendance Service	ESBAS provides specialist advice, guidance, and intervention to schools to support children with poor attendance and concerning behaviour.
EY or EYFS	Early Years Early Years Foundation Stage	The early years foundation stage sets standards for the learning, development and care of a child from birth to 5 years old. At PaWS, this is seen in our Pixies and Elves classes.
FSM	Free School Meals	Students on FSM will have access to extra funding to support their learning activities inside and outside of the classroom.
HLTA	Higher Level Teaching Assistant	HLTAs work with teachers to support teaching, learning and pupil achievement, with an element of whole school responsibility.
INSET	In Service Training day	In service training for the staff as a whole. There are usually 5 INSET days in a school year.
KS1	Key Stage 1	Years 1 and 2
KS2	Key Stage 2	Years 3 to 6
LA	Local Authority	East Sussex is our local authority responsible for education.
LAC	Looked after Children	LAC are children who are in care or looked after by foster parents.
MFL	Modern Foreign Language	At PaWS we have chosen to teach French.
Ofsted	Office for Standards in Education	They inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages.
PP	Pupil Premium	The pupil premium is additional funding to support the progress of children from low-income and other disadvantaged families.
PPA	Planning, Preparation and Assessment	Teachers are entitled to 10% of timetabled teaching time to be allocated for these tasks.
PSC	Phonics Screening Check	The PSC is taken individually by all children in Year 1. It is designed to give information on how children are progressing in phonics. Pupils who do not passed are rechecked at the end of Year 2.
MTC	Multiplication Tables Check	The MTC is statutory online check for all Year 4 children. The purpose is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics.
RSHE Life Skills	Relationships, Sex, Health and Economics Life Skills	This incorporates our role in following the statutory guidance relating to Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education.
SATs	Standard Assessment Tests	Compulsory tests sat by all pupils at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. The results of these tests contribute to how a school is judged.
SEF	Self Evaluation Form	Our SEF is a document where we have reflected and identified our strengths and areas for development to direct us to where to target additional focus.
SEND	Special Educational Needs and Disabilities	A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.
SIP	School Improvement Plan	At PaWS we use our Self Evaluation Form to develop a timetabled strategy for school improvement.
SLT	Senior Leadership Team	Our senior leaders take the lead on managing the school and driving school improvement.
SPaG or GPS	Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Grammar Punctuation and Spelling	This is taught across the curriculum and pupils are assessed on this area as part of the KS2 SATs.
SPOA	Single Point of Advice	The East Sussex Single Point of Advice is a triage service for professionals and families who are concerned about the mental health or emotional wellbeing of a child or young person.