You may have come across the term ‘SENCO’ or ‘SENDCO’ in teacher training, as a parent or as a professional. This sometimes-allusive acronym represents one of the most rewarding, yet challenging roles within a school. As a SENCO for over a decade I want to bring some insight into what the role involves, the highs and the lows. And help others understand why your SENCO may not be responding to your emails as quickly as you want!

Sophie answers some of our questions, gives valuable insights and advice for dealing with a new diagnoses and health concerns

Imagine you’ve woken up in a foreign land and don’t understand a word that anyone has to say. Imagine that you can’t speak that language and so can’t ask anyone where you are, what’s going on or how to get back home.

It was spring 2016 and my first born Inaya was 18months old. In my head and deep within myself I knew we were not meeting the “milestones.” There was no “mama” “dadda” or imitation of language, just what I know now as jargon.

Travel back to 2014, schools, parents and professionals waited with bated breath as the ‘reinvention’ of the SEN system began with the national government reforms.

Hearing loss can impact children in a lot more ways than we think. Hearing loss refers to the partial or full loss of hearing in one or both ears. This means a child will struggle with communication, listening and taking on new information.

We often focus heavily on the needs, wants and life chances of our children with special educational needs. Rightly so, as SEN parents you become superhuman over night!

Dyslexia is a learning differences that influences how children read and write. It does not only affect reading and writing skills. Dyslexia is actually about information processing. Dyslexic people may have difficulty in processing and remembering information they see and hear which can affect learning. It can also have an impact on organisational skills.

This article intends to highlight a series of easy to implement behaviour practises to help young people both at home and at school. Teachers may find this useful when thinking about their students and lesson planning.

We will begin this article with a story about a previous student of The SEN Experts. We first met Jack when he was 12 years old. He was in a mainstream secondary school.