[senco-forum] SENCO room

Hi Linsey
  I am lucky enough to have a classroom and an office which are next to each other.  A classroom was divided into four.  The 'sin-bin' has one quarter, my SEN room has a half and my office has a quarter.  Mind you, for fifteen years the SEN classroom, my office and the Head of English's office were in the same room!

  My office is pale pink.  We have two desks, a computer, a filing cabinet and large bookcase full of files.  My displays are mostly personal pictures.  I have jsut about covered the walls.  I try not to display confidential stuff.
  I also bought a coffee table and four padded chairs so we can have meetings in there.
  The door between my office and the classroom is a double door for soundproofing.  Pity you can hear conversations through the walls!  It is very difficult to have meetings about confidential matters!

  The classroom is pale blue.  We have a large display board which my TAs do on a half-termly theme.  The rest of the space is covered with stuff we want kids to 'absorb'.  Large clocks with the lesson times on them are near the movable hands clock face which is under the real clock, for example.
  We have a 'festivals' notice board which has info about any religious festival we notice.  (Not a lot of 'other faiths' in Cornwall so you have to be more obvious)
  I'm really keen on Brain Gym so we have lots of physical activity equipment such as balls with prickles, frog shaped bean bags and balancing boards.  We have a double sided blackboard (for Speed Up work) and a large white board.  We have two computers attached to the school network and a stand alone.  We make pupils sit round the table to eat at break and lunchtimes and I have a strict 'no eating standing up' rule.  The best thing I ever bought was a rechargable hoover so they all fight over who is going to hoover up any crumbs!
  We have padded chairs for the pupils and desks which look like office furniture.  We have bookcases stuffed with books they might like.  We use Foolscap sized box files to store pupils' work so they are responsible for their own work but we know where to find it.  We have loads of games ranging from those blocks ywhre ou have to take one out of the tower to scrabble.
  We have posters of 'great dyslexics' which came from the BDA and were free.  
  Personally, I'm a great believer that if kids think they are playing and I know what they are learning, that's fine.
  Your ideas sound great.  I'm sure others will give you better primary ideas than me.
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Linsey McKeen <linseymckeen at hotmail.com> wrote:
  Hi

New to the site so apologies if I get this all wrong!

The head has asked me to revamp the current SENCo room in my primary school 
this summer. At the moment it is an office but we want to make it more of a 
welcoming, calming safe haven for parents, children (and staff!).. Have 
basic carte blanche and some ideas, but would welcome additional guidance.

The room is big enough to take my desk and paperwork, but there's also room 
for a seating/floor area so children can play/act out there if need be. 
Thinking along the lines of role play equipment - dolls, puppets and cars, 
bean bags, mobiles, murals, shelving with games/ occupying activities for 
accompanying babies!

Wonder if anyone knows of any research on colour schemes conducive to 
creating this sort of atmosphere? Has anyone developed their space/room (if 
you are lucky enough to have one) along similar lines? Would love to hear 
from you if you have or even photos to inspire me.

Desperate to get it right - the chance may not come again!

Linsey

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall