What is a typical day in a life of a Senco" I found myself thinking.
As Senco every day is different and that is why I thoroughly enjoy each day and I have developed an ever-growing interest in special educational needs.
A Senco's day is one of variety which sees the clock ticking by extremely quickly and sometimes there are never enough hours in the day.
Typically, I arrive before 8am and will begin by double checking my diary and the 'to do' list I have written the night before, as a reminder of what I need to do. Then it will be a quick catch up on emails. My day is always well organised but even the best laid plans are often interrupted. That is why I feel if you are going to be a successful Senco you must be extremely flexible, supportive and willing to change your plans at any given time. I work very closely with class teachers to ensure all SEN learners have access to high quality teaching, and teachers have high expectations for all SEN learners whatever their starting point. I also work with a team of ten Learning Support Assistants who support individual pupils, three SEN assistants who support children on the SEN register and additional support staff, which may mean offering them advice, suggesting different strategies to use with pupils and of course hearing about the progress each individual is making. It is very much a team effort which I promote every day so all children succeed.
My school day always involves teaching individuals or a group of SEN learners, which is truly rewarding as each child has their own unique barrier to learning and it is so rewarding when a child makes their own small steps of learning or to hear “Miss I can do it now!”, watching their confidence and resilience with learning grow is truly heart-warming.
My day may also begin or end with meetings with parents of the children I teach or the children on the SEN Register who partake in a variety of targeted interventions to ensure that they make progress. Parents are extremely supportive but there can be challenging structured conversations that take place where parents need a longer time to consider their children’s special educational needs and the further support they need to progress and flourish. As a Senco it is at these times you must be patient, understanding and remember that all parents are the first educators of their children, and with experience I have learnt that working together for the child at the centre delivers the best outcomes.
Days always involve meetings with other professionals which are organised between teaching, parent or class teacher meetings. Meeting with outside agencies is crucial to ensure that I gain the best support for all pupils with the most complex needs throughout our school. I believe it crucial to listen to the expertise of all outside agencies and spend time with them as this enhances the provision each child has access to each day within the school. Our school Educational psychologist visits throughout each term. Visits must be well organised and may involve pupil observations, teacher-parent meetings or consultations with myself, and are invaluable as they offer an extremely high level of support.
My ambition as Senco is that all pupils receive an inclusive education and receive the best intervention possible to succeed during their time at primary school. My day will involve ensuring that the children with Speech, Communication and Language Needs are met by my endeavours to promote communication friendly classrooms for all, meetings with speech and language therapists and embedding a Language Champion within our school. Each day also entails promoting my huge ambition of supporting pupils with social, emotional and mental needs. I am delighted that we have two skilled ELSA’s (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants) who I work closely with each day to work alongside individual pupils who are displaying the early signs of SEMH, but also with our play therapist and outside agencies such as CAMHS.