Special education in the United Kingdom

Special education in the United Kingdom, being an aspect of education, is a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments: the UK Government is responsible for education in England, the Scottish Government is responsible for education in Scotland,^[1] the Welsh Government is responsible for education in Wales^[2] and the Northern Ireland Executive is responsible for education in Northern Ireland. In school documents, it is referred to as "SEN", which stands for Special Educational Needs.

For details of special education in each country, see:

Legislation

Foundation Stage	Nursery Playgroup Reception

Key Stage 1	Year One Year Two

Key Stage 2	Year Three Year Four Year Five Year Six

Key Stage 3	Year Seven Year Eight Year Nine

Key Stage 4	Year Ten Year Eleven

Key Stage 5	Year Twelve Year Thirteen (Sixth form)

Schooling

Exams and qualifications

Regulation

Former

v t e Education in Europe

Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria

Dependencies and other territories	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man Svalbard

Other entities	European Union

v t e Literacy

Teaching literacy	Reading education in the USA Phonics Whole language Dick and Jane National Council of Teachers of English NCLB Family literacy Adolescent literacy

Defining literacy	Functional illiteracy Critical literacy

Literacy internationally	International Reading Association List of countries by literacy rate Literacy in India International Literacy Day List of Chinese administrative divisions by illiteracy rate

Major contributors to literacy	Frank Laubach Paulo Freire Griffith Jones Marie Clay

Related concepts	Agricultural literacy Aliteracy Asemic writing Computer literacy Cultural literacy Dyslexia Diaspora literacy Ecological literacy Electracy Emotional literacy Financial literacy Health literacy Information literacy Information and media literacy Literacy test Media literacy Mental health literacy Mental literacy New literacies Numeracy Oracy Orality Oral literature Postliterate society Racial literacy Scientific literacy Statistical literacy Technological literacy Transliteracy Visual literacy Writing system

General conditions

Speech and language impairments / communication disorders	Expressive language disorder Landau–Kleffner syndrome Language disorder Lisp Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder Specific language impairment Speech disorder

Scholastic skills/ learning disorder	Developmental dyslexia Dysgraphia (Disorder of written expression) Dyscalculia

Motor function	Developmental dyspraxia

Other	Auditory processing disorder Scotopic sensitivity syndrome