Stop Press . Round 4 of National Scholarship Fund Launched

SENCO Bulletin – 7 May 2014

STOP PRESS …. ROUND 4 OF NATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND LAUNCHED

We have just heard that the latest round of scholarships for teachers, SENCOs and TAs has been launched – THE CLOSING DATE IS 30 MAY.

Essex runs two courses, in collaboration with the Eastern Leadership Centre (ELC), the University of Hertfordshire and OCN ,that fulfil the criteria for scholarship funding. SENCOs who have completed the National Award can apply for further Level 7 modules and work towards gaining a full Master’s degree – the first module is the ‘Advanced SENCO’ course (which will run in Essex at Chelmsford City FC) and then you move on to the ‘SENCO as Leader’ module and finally the dissertation module. For our wonderful band of TAs, there is the Higher Level TA course (SEN Focus) – Level 4 (this one will also run in Essex). For full details of all these courses, please visit

Our colleague at ELC, Angela Feria is happy to take phone calls from anyone who wants to know more. Her direct line is 01223 652047.

Guidance on how to apply has just been released

Scholarship funding for Teachers 2014

Scholarship funding for Support Staff 2014

It would be wonderful to see some of you and your TAs on these courses. The Level 4 opportunity for TAs could be the stepping stone into a foundation degree and possibly open the door to a teaching career!

How exciting is that?!!

Back to business ….

At this time of year SENCOs start thinking (and worrying) about the pupils with SEN who are transferring to secondary school. This can be an anxious time for everyone and the SENCO has an important role to play in helping the process go as smoothly as possible. We have found some really useful little booklets for teachers, pupils and parents on . One in particular, ‘Moving on… top tips for pupils moving on to secondary school’ - looks very good and it would be worth having a look. It all fits perfectly with the draft Code of Practice (still draft as I am writing this but the consultation period finished on 6 May so there may be more news very soon on when it is going to become un-draft …) and would support the pupil to prepare for transfer and also to take part in the decision making process

INSET News

We have been working closely with our colleagues from the Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) team and have been really pleased that they have designed and delivered a couple of (very successful) courses for us this year. The next ‘Include me in – SEBD’ for primary schools is taking place on 4/18 June at Chelmsford FC. We are going to run a bit of an experiment with this one. We want as many teachers as possible to attend this course so we are offering the course for the usual fee but the main delegate from the school must hold Qualified Teacher Status. However, the teacher attending will have the option to bring a TA with them free of charge. Please e mail if you want to take up this option and the necessary arrangements can be made. You can see more information about this course on

SENCO up-date meetings

Many of you attended the SEND Readiness conferences that ran at the end of March. We have looked very carefully at the evaluations and, in particular, your ideas on what needs to happen next to help schools prepare for the changes ahead. The INSET Development Team’s response to your comments is to offer an extra round of SENCO up-date meetings and some additional training during the second half of the summer term. Our intention is to do some work around the ‘one page profiles’ with the aim that SENCOs will have the information they need to go back to school and train the teachers on how to create them. The Code of Practice is on your side here in that class teachers are expected to take full responsibility for the pupils (hence our experiment with the SEBD course).

6.48 The class or subject teacher should remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis. Where the interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class or subject teacher, they should still retain responsibility for the pupil. They should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved, to plan and assess the impact of support and interventions and how they can be linked to classroom teaching. The SENCO should support the class or subject teacher in the further assessment of the child’s particular strengths and weaknesses (Draft CoP)

Another area that seemed to be of particular interest was ‘one planning’. This is based on the principles of person centred planning and can be seen as a huge culture shift. We heard several SENCOs make comments like ‘we do this sort of thing anyway’ or ‘I’ve just got to tweak things a bit and I think we’ll be nearly there’. We have always maintained that you are on a pretty firm foundation if your current practice around SEN is effective and leads to positive outcomes for the children. However, there are specific issues to consider when embedding person centred planning and we thought the SENCO up-date meetings would be an ideal forum for you all to explore ideas and to tell us what kind of training/information you need. We are planning to design a few half day sessions for SENCOs before the end of term to make sure you all feel confident in leading this change in your school (more news of this soon). The Educational Psychologists are leading the work on the Provision Guidance materials (we understand this as being equivalent to the Banding Descriptors under the old Code of Practice). They are coming along to the up-date meetings to talk about the Provision Guidance – we are really looking forward to hearing how this has shaped up and the implications for provision for SEN in schools.

10 JuneWeston Homes, Colchester9.30 – 11.30am and 1.30 – 3.30pm

11 JuneLatton Bush Centre, Harlow1.30 – 3.30pm

12 JuneChelmsford City FC9.30 – 11.30am and 1.30 – 3.30pm

(Book your place on or by calling 03330 139834)

13 JuneLower Academy, Basildon1.30 – 3.30pm

(Email or call 01268 498819)

As always, these up-date meetings are your opportunity to share your thoughts/concerns with other SENCOs and to take some comfort from the fact that other people are feeling the same as you!

The next SENCO Bulletin will appear in a couple of weeks (week beginning 21st May) by which time SATs will be done (hooray!)

That’s it for now.

Best wishes,

The INSET Development Team

PS Don’t forget to book your place on the Primary SENCO Conference on 4 July at Weston Homes

EMAIL:

CALL: 01268 498819 01268 557797