Parents and Carers
- SEN Support in Mainstream Schools
- SEN Support in School Meetings
- Choosing a School or College
- Education Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessments, Plans and Reviews
- Appeals and Mediation
- Attendance and Exclusions
- Transitioning Between Schools or Settings
- Early Years
- SEND Funding
- Transport to School and College
- Preparing For Adulthood (PfA)
- Making a Complaint
- Health Needs and Education
- Elective Home Education (EHE)
- School Admissions
- Disability Discrimination
- Children's Disability Register
SEN Support Meetings in School
If you are concerned that your child isn’t making the expected progress, isn’t receiving the correct support, or you feel that your child may have a special educational need, it is important that you talk to school. In the first instance, it may be helpful to talk to your child’s class teacher. It is a good idea to ask for a meeting rather than just try to catch the teacher at the start or end of the school day when they are busy.
If you are still concerned after you have spoken to the class teacher, or you feel your child needs more support, you could ask to meet with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). They have responsibility for what happens on a day-to-day basis in the school for pupils with SEND (Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities) and they also provide advice to other teachers in the school, to help all pupils with SEND to make progress.
If your child has an EHC Plan and you have concerns that the needs and provision in the plan are not being met, or the outcomes are unlikely to be achieved, you may also want to invite the Local Authority SEN Officer (Nottingham City Council) or ICDS Coordinator (Nottinghamshire County Council).
Once a meeting has been arranged, make sure you know:
- where the meeting is
- what time it will be (and how long the meeting has been scheduled for)
- who will be attending
- is there an agenda?
- if there are external professionals involved with your child, will they be invited? If not, are there any up-to-date reports?
If you would like to bring up certain matters, you can ask for these to be added to the agenda, and often it is helpful to send any areas of concern or questions that you may have to the school ahead of the meeting.
You may wish to take someone with you to the meeting for support (a friend, relative or supporter). Let the person organising the meeting know in advance who you will bring with you.
Writing a list of things that you would like to raise at the meeting is a good way to help you remember and can also be useful to keep the conversation structured.
Does my child have any difficulties in the following areas:
- Communication and Interaction
- Cognition and Learning
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health
- Sensory/Physical
- Does my child have an Individual Education Plan? (sometimes called a Pupil Profile, Pupil Passport, Pen Portrait or similar)
- Is my child on the SEN Register?
- Where are school with the Graduated Approach?
- What extra provisions are available to my child?
- What are my child’s current attainment levels and are they in line with their peers?
- What communication routes exist for me to ask about my child’s needs and support?
- How do I know that all staff involved with my child understand his/her needs? (Tell them what would make you feel confident about this.)
- Can I have contact details for a key person involved with the provision for my child? (This is the person you would contact first if you have a query.)
- What can I expect once my child is placed in the SEN Support category?
- Has my child had, or are they due to have, any additional screening or assessment?
- What training has school, or the setting, had to help them understand the types of need that my child might have? Is any further training planned?
- Does the school/setting have any support from a specialist?
- Are there strategies in place for my child? What are they?
- Are there outcomes designed for my child? What are they?
- What is the school’s (or the setting’s) standard offer?
- How is my child’s progress tracked and monitored?
- How are they gaining the child’s voice? You may want to provide them with information.
- What concerns do you have?
- Are there issues around your child being independent and looking after themselves?
- How will school meet health needs?
- Are there issues around friendships?
- Have school noticed any sensory issues in the school setting?
- Are there points within the day that my child struggles with? What are they?
- What could you do as a family to support at home?
- What will happen if things do not start to improve?
- When will the next review meeting be held? You may want to ask for this to be termly or half termly.
What would you like to get from the meeting? Is there any information that you need them to give you?
Are there any other services that you would like to be involved, either with your child or with you as a family?
Are there specific things that you want to happen, as a result of the meeting?
What are you experiencing at home, before or after the school day? It may be helpful to share this with school.
You may want to share how your child is feeling about how things are going for them at school or at home. If you think that this would be helpful, you could talk through some of the questions below with them, to give some more information about their needs.
- What do they enjoy?
- Do they have any worries?
- Is there anything they would like to ask their teacher/s?
- Is there anything they think would help them?
- Is there anything that is not helping them?
- What would they like to change?
- How will you remember what has been discussed at the meeting? Will someone be taking notes?
- When looking at agreed action points, how have these been recorded? Can they be SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time framed)?
- When will the next review meeting be? Can this be set at the end of the meeting?
SEND Local Offer
The Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council SEND Local Offers are a great resource for finding events, support and activities in your area.
City Council County Council