The graduated approach is the working rhythm behind almost every inclusion framework, including the ones Dubai and Abu Dhabi schools are inspected against. It says that support for a student should grow in steps that match the need, and that each step is a cycle: assess what is happening, plan a response, do it consistently, review the evidence, then decide whether to continue, adjust, step up or step down. It is simple to describe and easy to lose in a busy term. This page is about keeping it real.
Assess
Assessment here does not mean a formal report. It means the school gathers what it knows: the teacher's observations, work samples, attainment against expectations, attendance and behaviour patterns, the family's account, and any external report that exists. KHDA's framework asks Dubai schools to carry out an assessment of educational need on entry and to keep identifying as students move through school. The output of this stage is a short, plain description of what the student finds hard and where, written so that a colleague could recognise it.
Plan
The plan states what will change: which strategies, how often, delivered by whom, and what success will look like by a date. For most students this is a note on the class teacher's planning and a line on the register. For students who need more, it becomes an individual plan with a small number of measurable targets. The plan should also name what the family will try at home, because consistency across settings is one of the strongest levers a school has.
Do
This is the stage schools skip without noticing. A strategy that is planned but delivered on two days out of five is not being tested; it is being blamed. The people who deliver the plan need to know it exists, understand why it was chosen and have a way to note what happened that takes seconds, not minutes. Consistency matters more than sophistication: an ordinary strategy applied every lesson beats a brilliant one applied when someone remembers.
Review
At the agreed date, look at the evidence against each target and answer four questions. Did the strategy happen as planned? Did the student move? Is the movement enough? What does the student say? Then decide: continue, change the strategy, step up to more intensive support, or step down because the need is now met. Record the decision and the next date. A review that ends without a date is not a review.
Stepping up and stepping down
The graduated approach is graduated in both directions. Support should increase when consistent, well-delivered strategies have not worked, and it should decrease when the student no longer needs it. Schools that only ever step up end with a register that grows every year and specialist staff spread across too many children. Schools that step down deliberately free the most intensive support for the students who need it most.
The mistakes that stall the cycle
- Waiting for a diagnosis before doing anything. Both UAE regulators expect a response to need, not to a report.
- Too many targets. Three targets that everyone knows beat eight that nobody remembers.
- Tracking that lives in one adult's head. If the evidence is not written down between reviews, the review becomes an argument about impressions.
- Reviews that drift. A cycle without dates becomes a plan that is "ongoing", which usually means unmeasured.
- Leaving the family out of the plan. Parents are the only adults who see the child every day in every setting.
One cycle, two settings
The same cycle works at home. A parent who assesses what is hard, tries one thing consistently for a few weeks, tracks it simply and then reviews with the school is doing exactly what the framework asks of the school. This is why Nooravi gives families and schools the same strategies and the same tracking: one plan, one language, two settings.
Sources
- KHDA — Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework (2017)
- ADEK — Education for People of Determination
This page describes an educational planning cycle. It is not a diagnosis, a treatment plan or a substitute for advice from a qualified professional who knows the child.