23rd May 2019

If a child has special education needs, then the school-appointed SENCO is likely to play a very crucial part in it. But what exactly is a SENCO and what is their exact role?

Well, a SENCO is a Special Educational Needs Coordinator or a Teacher who actually coordinates the provision for children who needs special education. They are children with special abilities or special needs child.

They can also be class teachers who can fulfil the duty of being a SENCO on a part time basis. These are the people who are properly trained to do this specific job and they need to complete a master’s level to cater to the children with special educational needs.

Here are some major functions that SENCO plays in order to help the parents of a special child:

Assessing your child

They play a major role in assessing the child. In fact, they go to the class and try to observe them well and then in terms of that, they can advice the parents on what are the needed steps that are to be taken in order to support the child. One should remember that SENCO not only helps and works out with children who have only learning and other physical disabilities. They also help to deal with the behavioural and emotional needs of the special child and also try to give them some short term support in order to help their parents. They arrange special children education according to the ability of the child’s learning and understanding.

Referring your child to a professional

When the SENCO has a feeling that the child can benefit by getting some external support, then they can always make some referrals to the professionals. Who are these professionals? Well, the SENCO can ask the child’s parents to take them to an occupational therapist or a language therapist if they think they can be of great help and can enhance the child’s performance. The SENCO can also be present when the diagnostic process and the therapy sessions take place in order to gauge the progress.

 Arranging SEN support in school

Special needs children should always be under the observation of SEN teachers and the class teachers along with the SENCO together needs to come up with a proper SEN support plan for the child. Once it is done, this has to be shared with the parents of the child so that they can also understand how to deal with the teaching and learning sessions with their kids at home. This plan actually sets the learning targets of a special needs child and the process on how to support them and what methods or resources should be used so that the child can make progress in learning. The parents also get a clear idea on how they can help and aid in their child’s learning process.

Helping with an EHC process

EHC means education, health and care. All of these need special assessment when it comes to special needs child.  It is a kind of a detailed investigation for that child and then one can decide if they need any additional requirements or not. Here, the authority running the test will ask the parents and the SENCO to provide all the reports of the child’s difficulties (that they face everyday) and then the future plan is shaped according to that.

 Helping the teacher to help your child

The SENCO goes through a special SENCO training for the job that they are assigned to do later. They play a very major role in helping the teachers to plan the procedure of teaching which will be easily accessible to the special needs child and they also give proper advices on how they can improve their practices. They also provide suggestions on many new activities and resources that can help the child. They can also suggest these activities to the parents so that they can guide their children properly at home.

Co-ordinating meetings

When there is a special needs education for a child, there are many people who are included in the process. They include the parents, the SEN teachers and the other professionals. The SENCO can properly co ordinate the meeting and bring them together and ensure that the meetings can be successful and the child can get help from that.

A SENCO can also arrange for a special education for parent if they think that they need it in order to guide their special child at home. They are the ones, who take care of the entire journey on how the child will learn and how they will progress with that.