How to make the most of your time as a SENCO

How to make the most of your time as a SENCO

Working to meet the needs of a diverse range of students is a universal challenge in schools today. For SENCOs this is even more challenging, given the specific and complex needs of the students they look after. SENCOs also have a lot of student data to manage (and not to mention lots of paperwork).

 

What makes an effective SENCO?

Often with other teaching or wider school responsibilities, SENCOs have limited time in their days. Not only have they got to run effective interventions, they’ve also got to be able to communicate well with their colleagues to recommend the best ways to support SEN students and guardians across the school. 

To be most effective, SENCOs need good data management, organisation and communication. Above all, they need good tools at their disposal that make reporting and communications as quick and easy as possible, so they can make the best use of their time.

 

 

Top 4 tips for school SENCOs

Our in-house SEN expert, Tammy, who has over 30 years experience in working with SEN children from EYFS to Key Stage 5, has put together her top four tips. If you’re a SENCO or staff member with SEN responsibilities, these principles will help you maximise your time.

1. Organise your SEN data

Organising your students’ SEN data in an efficient way is the first thing that will help you quickly access the information you need regularly. It’s best to identify the data you need to cross reference or report on a lot, as well as the SEN information you need to share with Teachers and other staff. Keeping this data together will save you time and effort when it comes to running reports and preparing for meetings.

2. Keep communication consistent

It can be time-consuming to keep staff across the school up to date on critical SEN information. Having a consistent format for communicating information can help your colleagues know what to expect so they can immediately jump to the most important parts.

Find a format that’s easy to produce and to speak to, time after time. Think about sending weekly updates, sharing access to a live document or folder, or setting aside five minutes during staff briefings for SEN announcements. 

3. Connect regularly with parents and guardians

As every SENCO knows, it’s vital that parents and guardians are part of their child’s SEN journey but it can be a challenge to achieve open communication between school and home. Building a rapport with your parents and guardians outside of meetings can help achieve this. 

Look for ways to connect on an informal basis, such as spending a few minutes outside after school to say hello. Think about ways to celebrate students’ successes in the form of a short email, phone call or postcard home. You could even create a termly newsletter providing helpful tips and information for parents.  

4. Use SEN Provision Maps

Provision Maps are great tools for organising your SEN information and monitoring the effectiveness of the support you have in place to meet students’ needs. They’ll also help you target and plan future interventions.

When creating your Provision Map, make sure you include details of the interventions you’re providing, with measurable outcomes and individual students’ aims and strategies. If you’re tracking intervention costs, be sure to add these details as well. Consider including student behaviour and attendance information to help you track student progress. 

 

How Arbor helps with SENCO responsibilities

Arbor MIS is built to make a measurable improvement to the way schools work. It’s intuitive, people-friendly tools free staff from busywork so they can focus where it matters most – on their students.

For SENCOs in particular, here are a few ways Arbor helps you support the students in your care: 

• Record SEN information consistently on Student Profiles, including medical information, SEN needs and pastoral notes, plus relevant demographic factors
• No need to pull a report to compare SEN status, SEN Needs and key progress measures thanks to built-in dashboards
• Get staff on the same page with SEN – Choose how you display SEN information on Teachers’ Lesson Dashboards so everyone’s tracking the same factors. Student information will update automatically whenever there’s a change  
• Get SEN information at your fingertips by downloading any student list. Add any other key information to the list, such as attendance stats or something unique that you’re tracking such as guardians’ medical conditions, or students’ access to technology at home
• Take action straight away – As soon as you spot something to follow up on, you can send a communication, schedule a meeting or set up an intervention in a few quick clicks
• Monitor the effectiveness of your interventions – Built-in Provision Maps and intervention dashboards in Arbor let you run interventions exactly how you need to, and track their success across school

 

 

Join our brand new CPD course for SENCOs!

Are you an Arbor user? Do you want to grow and develop in your SENCO role? Our new CPD course – Core Skills for SENCOs – is designed to give you a deeper understanding of your data so you can make the biggest impact for your students. 

Led by our in-house SEN specialist, Tammy Middleton, who has over 30 years experience working with SEN students, this online course shows you the best way to manage your data and take action to support your SEN students.

By the end of this course you’ll be able to:

• Record key student information
• Tailor your reporting to target student groups
• Set up and manage effective interventions
• Track SEN provision, funding and all performance measures at school level

Perfect for:

• SENCOs, SEN Support Staff
• Primary, Secondary, Special schools

Get in touch with your Account Manager to find out more today! Accountmanagers@arbor-education.com