Making the Most of Meeting with a SENCO

This guide has been created to support you when you are meeting at school with a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). Every school and early year’s setting must have a SENCO.

It explains briefly what a SENCO does within a school or setting, how to prepare for a meeting and what questions you may want to ask to find out how they can best meet your child’s needs.

Why meet the SENCO?

The role of the SENCO is to be responsible for ensuring that children have their special educational needs met.

This is usually needed when your child is starting a new school or, if you have been told that the school has identified that your child has Special Educational Needs (SEN) or you may have concerns about your child.

Don’t let these concerns grow. Talk to the SENCO sooner rather than later. Keeping clear, friendly and honest lines of communication with the SENCO is crucial as they are an important part of your child’s education.

If you’re not sure who the SENCO is, look at the school’s website or call /email the school and ask for their name and the best time to contact them.

What do I need to discuss with the SENCO?

Take some time to ask yourself these questions:

• What do I need to discuss? What am I worried about? What is going well?
• Who do I want to meet with from school to discuss it?
• Who else would I like to be there?

The answers to these questions can help you write a clear message to the SENCO so they know what you would like to talk about.

If your concerns are related to health issues, you may need to speak to your child’s doctor or health professional for example, the school nurse.

How do I organise a meeting?

To arrange a meeting, contact the SENCO via the school email marking the email “For the attention of the SENCO” requesting a time to meet. If there are other professionals involved, you could ask the SENCO to invite these to the meeting.

Hints!

• Make sure to have a pen and paper or even a mobile phone ready to help you record dates and times.
• Think about any special arrangements that need to be made so that you can attend the meeting.
• Who else would you like to be there?
• Keep a diary to make sure you have no other appointments that might clash with the meeting.
• Emails are a good way of keeping track of your communication with the school and important dates and times.

Preparing for the meeting

Preparing for the meeting will help make the most of the time with the SENCO. It will help you share your concerns, ask the questions to get the information you need and plan next steps.

Every child and circumstance is different so here are some examples of questions you could ask:

• What are my child’s/young person’s targets and how is this progress being tracked? Can I see them?
• What support is currently in place and who is providing this support?
• Is there an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or SEN support plan in place?
• What assessments have been done for the child/young person?
• What can we do together to support our ongoing communication? Is it best to e-mail/ phone or would a communication book help support this?
• How will I be involved regarding my child’s/young person’s support moving forward?
• How does my child’s/young person’s day currently look? Are they able to work comfortably and to the best of their ability? Do they have social opportunities throughout the day?
• How much time is my child spending inside and outside of the classroom? Is this timetabled? How long is he/she/they out of classroom and for what?
• Do we need to involve further specialists like an Educational Psychologist?
• If further specialists will be involved, how will their advice be followed and implemented?
• How have my child’s and young person’s views been collected and then reflected into their learning and school experience?
• What reasonable adjustments have been put in place for the child/young person?
• Can we plan regular meetings to review the progress towards my child’s outcomes. Schools should meet with you at least three times per year.

Hints!

• Write down your questions in a notebook with space to make notes during the meeting or use the meeting planner resource which can be downloaded from the PIASS website.
• Is there anyone who could come to the meeting with you who could make some notes?

Your child’s/young person’s views

You may want to share how your child is feeling about how things are going for them at school or at home. If you think this would be helpful, you can talk through some of the questions below with them and share at the meeting:

• What do you enjoy?
• Do they have any worries?
• Is there anything they would like to ask their teacher(s)?
• Is there anything they think would help them?
• Is there anything that is not helping them?
• What would they like to change?

Useful sources of information

There are several important sources of information which can help you understand what could be in place for your child.

1. SEN policy and School SEN Information Report. Every school must publish these on their website.
2. The anti-bullying policy and school behaviour policy can also be found on the school’s website.
3. Plymouth’s Graduated Approach (GATI). The Graduated Approach to Inclusion Framework outlines what schools should be providing for children who have, or may have SEN. See: Plymouth’s Graduated Approach to Inclusion (GATI)

At the end of the meeting

• It is important that at the end of the meeting you feel you have answers to the questions/concerns you had at the start of the meeting.
• It is also important that you and the SENCO have a clear plan about what is going to happen next.
• Try to make some notes about any next steps that you have agreed or ask the SENCO to send you a summary about what you have talked about, the next steps.
• Remember to set a date and time for the next meeting.

Resources

Download this page as a factsheet:

• Making the Most of a Meeting with a SENCO (PDF – 246KB)