How to write a provision map for a primary school

A provision map is a single view of the extra support a class or school provides, who gets it, and what it is meant to achieve. It is not a statutory document, but it is one of the most useful tools a SENCO has. A good one shows at a glance whether provision matches need, where staff time is going, and what is actually working.

A bad one is a spreadsheet nobody opens after September. Here is how to write the first kind.

What a provision map is for

The SEND Code of Practice expects schools to plan, record and review the support they give pupils at SEN support, and to be able to explain it to parents, governors and Ofsted. A provision map does that job across a whole class or school, rather than pupil by pupil.

It answers four questions:

• What support is in place, beyond normal good teaching?
• Which pupils receive it, and how often?
• Who delivers it, and what does it cost in staff time?
• What is it meant to change, and is it changing it?

If your map cannot answer the last question, it is a timetable, not a provision map.

The three waves

Most primary schools organise provision maps into three waves. The model is old, but it still describes how support is layered in a real classroom.

Wave 1: quality-first teaching. What every pupil gets, adapted for the needs in the room. Examples: visual timetables, pre-teaching key vocabulary, chunked instructions, movement breaks, word mats, seating plans that reduce distraction.

Wave 2: small-group interventions. Time-limited, targeted support for groups of pupils working below expectations or with a shared need. Examples: a phonics catch-up group three times a week, a fine motor skills group, a social skills group at lunchtime.

Wave 3: individual or specialist support. Highly personalised provision for pupils with significant needs, often with outside agency input. Examples: one-to-one speech and language programmes set by a therapist, an individual sensory diet, a personalised reading intervention.

How to build one, step by step

1. Start from the needs, not the interventions

List the pupils on your SEN register and their primary area of need, using the Code of Practice's four areas: communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health; sensory and/or physical. Grouping by need first stops the map becoming a list of whatever interventions the school happens to run.

2. Record Wave 1 adaptations for each class

Ask each class teacher what they already do. You will usually find good practice that nobody has written down. Recording it shows that the first response to need is in the classroom, which is what the Code of Practice expects.

3. Add Wave 2 groups with a clear purpose

For each group, record: the pupils, the area of need, who runs it, how often, for how many weeks, and the expected outcome. “Reading group, Tuesdays” is not enough. “Six Year 3 pupils, 20 minutes three times a week for ten weeks, to secure Phase 5 phonics” is.

4. Add Wave 3 provision pupil by pupil

Link each entry to the pupil's SEN support plan or EHCP outcomes, so the map and the plans tell the same story.

5. Put an entry and exit point on everything

Every intervention needs a start assessment and a review point. Without them you cannot tell whether a group is working, and pupils stay in interventions for years by default.

The mistakes that make provision maps useless

• No outcomes. If nothing is measured, nothing can be stopped, and the map only ever grows.
• Written once a year. Needs change termly. Review the map at least every term, alongside your SEN support reviews with parents.
• Kept by the SENCO alone. Teachers and TAs deliver the provision. Share the class map with them and ask them to keep it accurate.
• No costing. Even a rough count of adult hours per week helps you have honest conversations with leadership about what is affordable.

Keep it light enough to maintain

The best provision map is the one that is still accurate in March. One page per class, three waves, clear outcomes and a termly review will beat an elaborate whole-school spreadsheet every time.