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Module 5 – SENCO Support for SEN Students

October 11, 2024

Estimated Time: 20 minutes

Student Aims:

· To understand who the SENCO is and what their role entails in a school setting

· To know what SEN Support is

· To identify the steps required in making a plan to meet the pupil’s educational needs

· To know the definitions of leadership and inclusion, and be able to apply each of these qualities in a school setting

· To understand the needs and implications of coaching and mentoring a SEN pupil

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5.1 Introduction

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Special Educational Needs support is often a complex requirement, in need of experienced and qualified education professionals and a network of other individuals with extensive knowledge of learning difficulties.

Many students have learning barriers that must be overcome in order for them to make any educational progress. To ensure that this happens, the right support must be provided for each student.

5.2 The Role of the SENCO

SENCO is an acronym that stands for ‘Special Educational Needs Coordinator.’

The main responsibility of a person in a SENCO role is to ensure that the day-to-day operation of a school meets the Special Educational Needs policy. By law, all mainstream schools must have an appointed teacher as their SENCO. This individual will establish and accomplish a lot of beneficial areas for SEN students within your school’s environment.

Some of the tasks in this role are to coordinate appropriate support for the students with SEN and collaborate with the student’s parents and other teachers or professionals that are involved in the student’s life. Requesting an Educational Psychologist’s involvement or an assessment by a specialist dyslexia teacher is another responsibility of the SENCO, as well as requesting other external services for SEN students such as parental and administration support and applying for Educational and Health Care Plans – EHCPs (previously called SEN assessments).

The SENCO should receive support from the school staff and the headteacher, to establish strategies to overcome the barriers to a SEN student’s learning. This support will also aid in ensuring that the student gets effective teaching through proper assessment of the student’s needs, and that appropriate improvement goals are set.

Liaising with curriculum coordinators at the school is also a responsibility of the SENCO, which will help to make sure that the requirements of SEN student learning have the same priority as the requirements of all other students in the school.

SEN Support

SEN Support is the official title for the support protocol for SEN students. SEN Support is sought and used when a SEN student has not been showing learning progress in the classroom, and there is an apparent need for action to be taken to help the student overcome their learning difficulties. This kind of action can include additional teachers to play a role in the student’s learning, as well as utilising a variety of teaching strategies, learning materials and specialist equipment.

The school may need to collaborate with the Local Authority to seek external support from education, health, or social services. The child’s progress should be monitored and reported on regularly.

The SENCO will work with the student’s teachers to evaluate the student’s needs. The SENCO will also take on the responsibility of getting a further assessment of a child through collaboration with the Local Authority.

A SENCO is responsible for ensuring that a student thrives and fulfils their greatest capacity. He or she connects the community of the child and helps to create an environment filled with the resources that each pupil needs in the school.

So, as you can see, the role of the SENCO is key for a student with SEN.

5.3 Planning to Meet a SEN Pupil’s Educational Needs

The needs of a SEN student will vary as much as his or her strengths and abilities vary.

When working in this field, it is important for you to remember that just as all mainstream students are individuals, so are SEN students, and they will all be different. The same principle is applied to planning to meet a SEN student’s needs – there is no universal plan that will apply to all SEN students. Even if two students share the same condition, their needs will be undoubtedly different because they are unique with their own sets of strengths, weaknesses, personalities and experiences in life.

You will, therefore, have to make a plan customised to each SEN student’s learning needs. This is essential as it is the most effective way that you can aid a struggling pupil.

When you are making a plan to meet a pupil’s educational needs, there are four main steps that you should complete:

1. Identify the student’s learning and individual needs

2. Identify where support for the student is needed

3. Set achievable learning goals

4. Create a support team to make achievement faster and easier

As previously discussed, the SEN Code of Practice cycle stipulates a graduated approach – assess, plan, do, review.

The needs of a SEN student will vary as much as his or her strengths and abilities vary.

You will, therefore, have to make a plan customised to each SEN student’s learning needs. This is essential as it is the most effective way that you can aid a struggling pupil.

When you are making a plan to meet a pupil’s educational needs, there are four main steps that you should complete:

1. Identify the student’s learning and individual needs

2. Identify where support for the student is needed

3. Set achievable learning goals

4. Create a support team to make achievement faster and easier

As previously discussed, the SEN Code of Practice cycle stipulates a graduated approach – assess, plan, do, review.

Identify the Learning Barriers

The first step in creating a plan to help meet the needs of a SEN student is to identify the child’s learning needs, which includes the learning difficulty, but most importantly, how it manifests itself in relation to the student. Most often, there are three areas in which a student could be facing barriers that inhibit his or her learning experience. They are physical barriers, behavioural and emotional barriers, and core areas of difficulty, e.g. cognitive.

Physical barriers involve physical limitations that the pupil may experience, e.g. mobility. They might be sensory, affecting hearing or seeing. They may be cognitive and affect speech or are specific to more general abilities to learn. Many learning difficulties are hidden, e.g. dyslexia, autism, ADHD, and will all be different in individual students.

The graduated approach recognises that the process is more complex than just identifying a learning difficulty. A student experiencing a barrier may not always show obvious signs. In some cases, these barriers may be straightforward to remedy once identified if they are the exclusive problem.

Behavioural and emotional barriers may involve cognitive, communication, social interaction and attention difficulties. These barriers can be very complex and can require a more in-depth plan to best accommodate the student’s needs.

Core areas of difficulty is where the pupil may be experiencing a limitation in a specific area of their learning environment. This can manifest as a difficulty in a particular subject, difficulty within the teacher-pupil relationship, or something else that presents itself as a barrier to the pupil’s learning. Generally, these pupils are not seen as having SEN.

When you identify what the barrier is, it is important that you understand how it is affecting the pupil. For example, an autistic pupil may have difficulties with speech or may speak clearly but have difficulties with inferential understanding.

A SENCO is required to have a great deal of experience or training. There is a statutory requirement for all newly appointed SENCOs to acquire a specialist qualification: Mandatory qualification for SENCOs.

Identify Where Support is Lacking

Once you know the barrier the pupil is facing, the next step is to identify where the support for this limitation is lacking. Ask the question: what is it in the student’s learning environment that is not working for the student? It is important for you to realise that it is not the learning difficulty or disability itself that is to blame, but rather, the lack of support, the learning environment or perhaps the learning and teaching strategies employed. It is the responsibility of the SENCO to ensure that all teachers are making reasonable adjustments in their teaching.

For example, if a student that has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is easily distracted by noises, which is the cause of his or her inability to focus on schoolwork and, thus, is unable to complete it, the problem is not the ADHD. The problem is that the work environment is not supportive of his or her lack of focus – so, creating an environment without this distraction is the means to helping to overcome this barrier.

Essentially, once you have identified all aspects of the student’s needs, you must then figure out the best way to work with them. This can require a variety of things, from specialised equipment to additional staff in order to provide one-to-one learning support. Whatever the pupil’s needs, be sure to consider the resources that you can draw upon to create effective support for the pupil’s limitations.

Set Learning Goals and Create a Support Team

Setting learning goals and creating a support team for a SEN student is the final step of the plan. This should be done with deep consideration of what the student needs and can achieve. The SENCO’s evaluation of a student’s needs involves acquiring information from the teacher, parents, and others – from where the student is now to where he/she needs to get to. Following this information gathering and very much including the student in this process, the SENCO would then set short-term and long-term goals with smart targets.

Setting learning goals will be based on a fair evaluation of a student’s current strengths and weaknesses. These goals should not extend beyond the school’s year, as the student may have a new teacher and different changes in the following year. These learning goals – often established during the annual review process – should reflect what the SENCO, the teacher, the parents and the student want to accomplish. These goals can include but are not limited to: a measurable improvement in grades, an improvement in the student’s behaviours in the classroom, or greater self-esteem.

Once the goals are established, the SENCO must then create and inform a team of individuals involved in supporting the pupil. This team can include the student’s teachers, teaching assistants, parents and family members, and peers. The SENCO would need to inform and train the members of this team so that each member understands his or her role in providing support for the student. It is best to have a private discussion with each “unit” of support – the teacher and teaching assistants, the parents, and any siblings and peers – but some joint meetings can be organised, as appropriate.

Fact

Children who have special educational needs but do not have an EHC Plan must be educated in mainstream schools apart from in exceptional circumstances.

Source: gov.uk

5.4 Leadership and Inclusion

Two of the most important qualities in a school environment are leadership and inclusion.

Leadership is the term used to describe the action of leading a group of people or an organisation. In relation to the educational setting, particularly, it is the ability of the establishment to provide a good example for its students, giving them the support they need and including progressive forms of educational techniques and resources.

Leadership manifests in the school environment as empowered students who are willing to explore and speak about their beliefs.

Inclusion is the term used to describe a situation in which all members of a group feel valued and respected and where difference is celebrated. Both the teachers and staff of the school and each student’s peers provide this feeling. It is the ultimate sense of community, where everyone in the group matters to one another.

Inclusion manifests in the school environment as no segregation among groups, the absence of conflict between pupils, and a general sense of happiness. In a school that provides inclusion, students would not only have their needs met but they would also be involved in a group where these needs were just as important and just as accepted as anyone else’s needs within the school.

Ideally Applied in the School Environment

Leadership and inclusion in a school environment should ideally end up creating a school community that celebrates diversity and equality. The school should create a setting for their students that not only empowers them but accepts them and teaches them to accept themselves and each other.

Leadership and inclusion can affect special educational needs students and their learning in a positive way. A school that takes leadership and inclusion to heart provides support to all SEN students and creates a sense of community within the school that transcends segregated classrooms and mindsets. It ensures that SEN children participate in all of the things that the rest of the students participate in, and fosters a culture of acceptance.

A truly progressive school that embodies leadership and inclusion, however, would take the bold step of not having a SEN-designated programme. Integrating SEN students into the mainstream programme will empower them by being involved in the same activities as their peers. However, many schools may not have the resources or the progressive attitude to do this presently. In this case, schools with these limitations can do their best to host more school activities that amalgamate all students into singular, participative events. Destroying the walls of classrooms and “separateness” is what needs to happen to host inclusion in your school.

5.5 Coaching and Mentoring

You may not immediately know the support you need to provide to your SEN students.

Rest assured though that coaching and mentoring SEN pupils are very good strategies that should be incorporated into the student’s educational experience.

Coaching particularly refers to that of the student’s support team. The teachers and parents must be informed and guided continuously in the student’s educational plan. They must be reassured that the plan will be established in the near future, guided by the input of the pupil, parents, teacher and relevant specialists. Any support plan must be reviewed and monitored on a regular basis.

Mentoring takes place with a focus on the student. The SEN student must be continually supported through in-school mentoring by his or her teacher and the SENCO. Mentoring for the SEN student must involve trust between the pupil and the mentor. It should also be provided by an experienced professional so that the proper support can be provided.

Conclusion

Students with Special Educational Needs require extensive support in order to overcome their educational barriers or to adapt their educational experience to their varying needs. While it can be a complex task to accomplish, the rewards of seeing a once-struggling student reach academic success are incomparable to other accomplishments and goals.

What you must realise, regardless of whether or not you are directly involved in the education system at present, is that all students can succeed and reach their goals. You must also recognise that the need for inclusion in the education system is vital, to ensure the success of all students, not only those with SEN.

In this module, you were introduced to the types of support available and the methods of applying them. You now understand who the SENCO is, and what his or her role entails in a school setting. You know what SEN Support means and its implications.

You can also identify the steps required to make a plan that meets the pupil’s educational needs, and you know the definitions of the terms leadership and inclusion. You can apply each of those qualities in a school environment.

Finally, you understand the needs and implications of coaching and mentoring a SEN pupil.

In Module 6, we discuss the different types of special educational needs.

WELL DONE!

YOU HAVE MADE IT THROUGH MODULE 05! CLICK BELOW TO MOVE ON TO MODULE 6