​​Education Scotland has produced a set of milestones with accompanying guidance to specifically support learners with complex additional support needs. The aim of the milestones is to support practitioners to identify the progression of learning.

Foundation milestones provide an outline of key skills and competencies for all curricular areas. In addition, milestones for literacy and English and numeracy and mathematics have been produced for learners who are working at a pre-early level.

How to use this resource

Milestones are important points in development, and demonstrate progression. Learners who are not able to achieve any of the benchmarks within Early Level still require tracking and monitoring of their progression. Whilst many of these learners will move on to work at Early Level, some learners will continue to make progress at the pre-early stage.

Milestones are intended to support practitioners to track the progression of learners. They are not intended to provide an alternative curriculum for children and young people with complex additional support needs. Planning for such learners should continue to be based on the Experiences and Outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence, with personalisation where required.

A number of tables are provided which support practitioners to explore the different ways in which learners with complex additional support needs engage with their learning, and the levels of support they require. It is hoped that the use of the milestones will support a more learner-centred approach which celebrates the differences of all learners. We recognise that whilst there are individualised milestones that children and young people with complex additional support needs may move through, these are by no means all necessary aspects of progression.

Improvement questions

When using the guidance and milestones for literacy and English and numeracy and mathematics, schools should ask themselves.

• Have we moderated our understanding of the milestones as a staff group to ensure that we are able to track progression effectively?
• Do we have a clear knowledge and understanding of how children and young people with complex additional support needs learn and progress so that we can take this into account when using the milestones?
• Do we ensure that for each milestone we have incorporated the levels of engagement and the types of support required to determine whether the child or young person has been able to reach that milestone?

Videos

Tracking, Recording, Reporting and Planning

Word file: Example of a Generalised Pupil Profile (2.4 MB)

Word file: Example of a Simple Communication Profile (20 KB)

Excel file: Example of an Electronic Pupil Tracker (24 KB)

Word file: Example of an Individual Learning Plan (99 KB)

Word file: Example of an Evidence Form (22 KB)

PDF file: Example of Sensory Audit Tool for Classrooms and Schools (202 KB)

PDF file: Example of Interim Report (571 KB)

PDF file: Example of an Annual Report (589 KB)

PDF file: Example of Review Presentation Report (1.7 MB)

Continuum of Engagement and Types of Support

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Assessment and Moderation

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PowerPoint presentation: Assessment and Moderation (3 MB)

Differentiation and planning for multiple levels within a class

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PowerPoint presentation: Planning for Differentiation (1.8 MB)

Download the resources

These resources are included to support individual or staff professional learning relating to the Milestones.

PDF file: Milestones to support learners with complex additional support needs (770 KB)

PDF file: Frequently asked Questions (223 KB)

PowerPoint presentation: Introduction to Milestones Presentation (2 MB)

Further resources, and exemplars

PowerPoint presentation: Milestones to support learners with complex additional support needs (2.1 MB)

PDF file: Summary of theoretical frameworks of development (200 KB)

Word file: Foundation Milestones (33 KB)

Word file: Literacy and English milestones (36 KB)

Word file: Numeracy and mathematics milestones (33 KB)