21 Mar SEN in Secondary School: is it Everyone’s ‘Department’?
I am currently considering a secondary school placement for my daughter, who has an EHCP. Her primary need is SLCN. Droves of considerations are jostling for space in my mind. Will the school day be too long for her? Will she make friends if she doesn’t go to our most local secondary? They pile up ad nauseam and compete for attention in my thoughts. But the one that really elbows the others to the side is at the fore because of my dual role as a parent and also a specialist teacher working within the world of SEN. In a UK secondary school where there are on average just under 1000 students and where class sizes are increasing year on year (according to the statistics I was able to find), how on earth will she not get ‘lost’ in the system? How will the school ensure that both she and her needs do not slip through the cracks?
Ultimately, this all boils down to an aspect of the very area that I specialise in (communication) and yet this does not make me feel any better: I know how much of a challenge it is within a large, busy school to communicate successfully and to ensure that there is a ‘child centred’ element when there are so many other considerations and expectations for secondary school staff. This can sometimes be a reactive environment with lessons to plan; attainment to track; duties to run to in-between lessons; enrichment activities to facilitate… and that’s probably just a quarter of it… Can I also expect for all of my daughter’s new teachers to understand her needs, when they are not SEN specialists? I feel as though the answer is, reasonably, ‘probably not’.
SEN is generally ‘done’ very differently at primary school because there are different considerations than those that exist at secondary. In what I see as a best-case primary SEN set up, my daughter’s current teacher has been with her for all of Year 3 and 4 and is the main adult outside of our family who exists in her world. She is extremely experienced and is well informed by an efficient SENCO who has built up a good knowledge of her children on the SEN register over time. TAs and mentors are deployed to provide meaningful interventions and to support the children in class. This is clearly a model that can also be utilised in secondary school to an extent but with the glaring difference that there is not one teacher: there are often up to 15 teachers per student per week. Some of these teachers, for example a Drama teacher, may be allocated an hour per week per class at Key Stage 3 and so therefore may see up to 600 different students weekly. In some of the schools we are working with in Enfield, at least a third of their students have SLCN. For a teacher to ‘know’ all of these children in the same way that their primary school teacher would have done is impossible. And this is where I start to worry about the inevitable cracks that can emerge that these students may well fall through.
There are different ways to address the enormity of this issue and the one I want to focus on here is how our SEN departments are structured at secondary school. For our children on the SEN register and those who have an EHCP, it is my assertion that they will only all have their needs met and reach the highest standard if SEN becomes everyone’s ‘department’. The SEN Code of Practice section 6.4 states that: ‘The quality of teaching for pupils with SEN, and the progress made by pupils, should be a core part of the school’s performance management arrangements and its approach to professional development for all teaching and support staff.’ This idea, that responsibility for and understanding of SEN lies with the whole school and not just with the SENCO/ SEN department was echoed by a SENCO I visited on a recent Learning Walk at a local school, when I asked her about the school’s SEN provision. She was quick to correct me: ‘We don’t have a specific department’ she said, ‘SEN is a whole school responsibility. Everyone needs to be involved for it to work.’
I am very much inclined to agree and as always, what separates a good sentiment from a transformative one is the execution of the idea. If we start from that point: that SEN is a whole school business, how do we actually facilitate this in practice?
- Training for staff. Time needs to be allocated to train staff in understanding SEN in all schools nationally but particularly in those areas which have high cohorts of students with need. Research suggests that there are some inner-city schools with upwards of 50% of students who present with SLCN, for example. I would argue that in these schools, we need to move away from the perspective of seeing this professional development as being ‘SEN’ specific to viewing it as fundamental to meeting the needs of the general student body. Relevant training in ‘SEN’ is broad and varied: it could range from reminding staff about Quality First Teaching strategies to signing up to the new training offered by the borough in Trauma Informed Practice. Much of this professional development has a place on our calendars and it must be prioritised considering the needs of the students we are working with.
- Effective strategies for SEN being prioritised in lessons. SLT and HODs must consider what is seen as a ‘priority’ when they are undertaking their Learning Walks and observations. It is not possible (or particularly effective) for the SENCO to perform Learning Walks to focus on all students with SEN within a secondary school. If teaching is being planned to employ Quality First Teaching strategies for all students including those with SEN and it is a whole school responsibility, all HODs and SLT should be able to observe a lesson and comment on the quality of the SEN provision. Teachers being made aware from the outset that this is a priority means that they will think about their classes carefully in this respect. Does this class need a greater amount of pre-teaching of vocabulary? Might they benefit from repetition and additional thinking/processing time? And so on.
- The actual structure of the SEN department. In too many schools nationwide, it is clear that SEN is not everyone’s business as it too often left to the SENCO and a number of TAs. If we could reach a stage where SEN support involves all school staff, we could also address a long running issue of how to track SEN students in terms of their needs when some London schools have so many of them on the Register. According to the SEN Code of Practice 6.65, ‘Where a pupil is receiving SEN support, schools should talk to parents regularly to set clear outcomes and review progress towards them, discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them, and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school. Schools should meet parents at least three times each year.’ This is a legality and yet is extremely hard – if not impossible – for a SENCO to achieve, when considering the number of students on SEN support at some local secondary schools. Tracking these students is imperative though in order that they are not left treading water and that their parents are kept informed and are able to work in partnership with the school. One particularly effective model I have seen and used enlists the support of most members of staff who are trained by the SENCO to create and track IEPs for all students on the SEN register. Students are matched with an appropriate member of staff: for example, for those students without an EHCP but who are on the SEN register, Learning Mentors may be trained to support and track those with SEMH; Form Tutors might support those with SLCN and so on. Equipping the whole of the staff team to monitor the progress of the students with SEN is beneficial for their own professional development and helps to build relationships with parents. Targets can be set and reviewed on pre-existing Academic Review Days alongside attainment in subjects, making the progress in these areas of challenge part of the way we view and support the student holistically.
A parent recently spoke to me at a primary school coffee morning about their child with SEN who was about to transition to secondary: ‘I was worried about choosing a primary school and getting it right but not that worried. I felt like she would be looked after. But the worry about making the right choice now is completely different: it feels huge’. From my vantage point as both a parent and a teacher of 20 years, this is not a rogue sentiment. Making systems speak to and inform one another effectively in large schools is no mean feat but we know it is essential so that we can track progress and ensure that students achieve academically and are supported emotionally. For this to happen, we need the professional development and involvement of all staff in key areas and SEN undoubtedly qualifies as one of these.