Today we welcomed forty-four SENCOs to the seventh cohort of our National SENCO Award course. We work with The University of Birmingham to deliver this programme. The University is a Department of Education and National College for Teaching & Leadership approved provider for the National Award and has been running professional courses for SENCOs for fifteen years.

In 2010 when we first collaborated with The University of Birmingham, we used to show a film clip from Teachers TV to start discussion about the role of the SENCO.The clip showed a High School SENCO who was largely disorganised and struggled to prioritise tasks. She was shadowed by a ‘guru of priorities’ who gave her helpful tips throughout the day. On the National Award we used the clip to demonstrate organisation, and filled carrier bags with paperwork that could be the contents of a SENCOs ‘pigeon hole’ or their ‘in tray’. We asked our SENCOs to file the paperwork in order of priorities and encouraged them to ‘trash’ (word used in the clip) some of the items. The clip also promoted provision mapping as a new concept and an SEN Consultant visited her to help her set one up for her school.

Since 2010 nearly two hundred SENCOs have undertaken their National Award with us and a lot has changed since we welcomed our first cohort. The Teachers TV clip is no longer available (I’ve searched hosting sites such as you tube, and can’t find it), a version of a provision map is standard in every school and the carrier bags have either been replaced with a range of canvas bags acquired from The Education Show, or more likely  with a range of electronic devices and storage systems.

In 2010 I brought my first iPhone (iPhone 3s and I’m now on version 6) and the iPad had yet to be available, so most SENCOs had limited access to electronic resources and we would photocopy and/or scan journal articles, which could fill another set of bags over the course. Now we keep everything on the Canvas learning platform in the cloud and provide wi-fi for everyone to access them.

However the biggest changes to the Award since 2010 have been the recent SEND Reforms and the NCTL Learning Outcomes Framework. The National Award has always been a Masters level course (60 credits) which has required coursework to enable participants to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding but the role of the SENCO within school has evolved, and we now prefer to describe it as  SEN Leader. We would expect all SENCOs or would actively encourage them if they are not, to be a member of the Senior Leadership team. We want SENCOs to be  in a position to monitor the effectiveness of staff who work with pupils with SEND, to monitor the provision for pupils with SEND more effectively and to contribute more widely to  leadership and management across their school.

Over the ten days that we deliver the course  SEN leadership is integral  to the programme and we ask participants to reflect on their role back in school. The focus of each day still remains in general terms as it was in 2010,

Day 1- The Role of the SENCO and The SEN Code of Practice

Day 2 – Identification, Assessment & Intervention

Day 3 – Cognition & Learning

Day 4 – Communication & Interaction

Day 5 – Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs

Day 6 – Managing & Developing Provision

Day 7 – Partnership & Participation

Day 8 – Physical & Sensory Needs

Day 9 – Leadership & Management

Day 10 – Presentations

At the end of the programme, participants give presentations on a SEN Leadership activity they have undertaken in School, which focuses on a range of themes from assessment & identification, monitoring, tracking & evaluation, improving teaching & learning, efficient use of resources, developing expertise, working with pupils & parents and improving outcomes.

I am very proud to be supporting SENCOs again this year to become great SEN Leaders and hope this cohort benefit as much from this course as our previous SENCOs have. I wish all our SENCOs the best and hope we have now fully moved on from the days of the carrier bag file. I’ll let you know.