Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
SENCOs Presentation Part 1
- 7. Speaking up for the families of children & young people with additional needs in Surrey
Editor's Notes
- Hello. We are delighted that Family Voice Surrey has been invited to share with you a parent's viewpoint within the transfer process. We’re sorry that we can't attend every session, but we are hoping that this presentation will give some insights into parents’ perspective that perhaps you hadn’t considered before. We’d love to get your feedback so please fill in a feedback form at the end and we’ll report back after all the workshops.
- Daniel Sobel wrote an article for The Guardian in October last year entitled “Support for SENCOs: what needs to change?” He cited various factors, one of which was about parents.
- He called for “a better attitude amongst parents”, claiming that “a significant percentage of a SENCO’s time & emotional energy is drained by dealing with parents who have learned that they can get their way by shouting the loudest”. He recommended that there should be training for SENCOs in how to manage parents.
- Interestingly, one of his solutions was to get his TAs to put in a weekly call to parents to share their child’s successes over the last week. We think the majority of parents would welcome this, and he clearly found that it worked, but it’s a shame that the driving force was to manage parents rather than to value them as an equal part of the team.
- We realise that the SENCO’s role is very broad, with many challenges and responsibilities that do not revolve around the parent relationship. In fact, when we reviewed the National Award learning outcomes, only a relatively small % of the named outcomes were concerned with the parent relationship.
- We’d like to work with you to try and create an alternative view where parents are seen as a resource, a partner and someone who can support you in your role as SENCO. The new reforms put parents in the driving seat of the SEN process, as described by Carrie Grant, voice coach and mother of three children with additional needs.
- So this is our parent plea….we have all met some amazing SENCOs out there, and we realise that the job is a challenging one (even more so now) with many constraints. However, some of our experiences with schools have not been so good. We’d like to do whatever we can to help you engage with parents (even the hard-to-engage ones), to create a mutually respectful relationship and a genuine spirit of working together.
- We’d like to pass on some requests from our members, but first we’d like to give you the opportunity to share your own list of ‘do’s and ‘don’ts’ for us as parents. It’s really important that we understand more about your role and the challenges you have in engaging with parents, so please take the time to discuss this and tell us your views.
- We’re sorry we can’t be there to discuss these with you in more detail but we will review them all and report back to you and to our parents. For our part, we’ve asked some of our parents for the ‘do’s and ‘don’ts’ they would like to share with you. These were some of the most common ‘asks’.
- Parents need to feel empowered but the difference between feeling empowered and either ignored or undermined can be quite subtle. It’s often to do with a tone of voice, being asked your opinion, or feeling that you have some control over decisions within the process.
- We appreciate that your role is a difficult one, and that you will be dealing with emotional and often angry parents. Too often parents have already had to fight battles for their child, either with another school or to get professional help & home life may be extremely stressful. Parents are likely to be fragile & sensitive and the more empathy you can bring to the relationship, the more appreciative they will be. Understanding what it’s like to have a child with additional needs (24/7) is key – visits to special schools as part of their training are a great idea.
- We appreciate how different the SENCO role is in primary and secondary school and that as a secondary school SENCO you probably have to rely on your team (particularly those that know the child well) to build relationships with individual parents. Maybe some of them find it easier to build a rapport with a particular type of parent? For parents too the difference between a small, nurturing primary school and a large, unfamiliar secondary school is huge. If their child is vulnerable and they aren’t confident that staff have had time to really understand his/her needs, it will make them extremely anxious. Events like workshops specifically for new Yr 7 parents of children with additional needs might help in building this trust.