[senco-forum] Can you give me feedback?

I'm a SENCO at a mainstream, secondary, LEA school. I've been told that I

You cannot arrange for the kind of needs that your figures suggest on 7 
hours a week.

You certainly cannot meet with each statemented student as often as you will 
need to - just to check - or rather monitor in the current politically 
acceptable jargon you all have to use nowadays.  I would want to check that 
those students have smiles on their faces and that they are managing the 
work they have to do - it may take only a minute or so or it may take half 
an hour - but I would want to pick up manageable problems - and not disaster 
areas!

I hope that your team manage to meet together on a daily basis - we used 
collective worship time - I hope too that you manage a weekly departmental 
meeting - and that you have time to train your TAs - and that they are all 
busy doing the two levels on certification as part of their development.

I used to meet each statemented student - usually with their parents each 
term - to monitor their statements and to set formal targets - I used to 
hope for half an hour - but they usually ran to much more of an hour at a 
time.

Do you manage to see and monitor the school action plus students - and the 
ESOL students too - and are you by any cgance the Gifted and Talanted 
coordinator as well?

And then their is all that testing - and the preparation of examination 
paperwork for those needing alternative arrangements  - and what are your 
classes like - large groups as a "normal class" - or are you able to teach 
all those statemented students in small groups of six students say?

Actually you will never do it on 7 hours a week - and you would be hard 
pressed to do it on half a timetable as well.

You will only be able to be the sort of SENCo who is like the little Dutch 
boy - with his finger in the hole in the dyke - trying to prevent the flood.

You cannot do all that has to be done as the school's SENCo - and carry 18 
lessons - especially if they have marking and preparation as part of them 
(or are you a PE teacher and can have them running about all the time!?)

I hope that your line manager is not supporting this school stance - and 
that the SEN Governor is aware of what you are being asked to do - when did 
you last report to the school's governing body - I used to do this every 
year - in person - and give them a true "warts and all" report.

Get your yearly planner out for what you have to do - cost each task in 
time - take it to your head and ask what would he like you to stop doing - 
so that you have a manageable task.  Rather like me preparing the case for 
NFER to do the marking of CAT tests - saying this took me 33 hours last 
year - this year I shall be doing it in all my spare periods - and that 
nothing else will be touched until I have completed this essential task.

Get someone to shadow you for a day - keep a day book of everything - and I 
mean everything you do.

I notice that you have written this on a Friday - have you had a bad week 
finding out that your time does not match the tasks required?

Perhaps the head will buy you a badge that says - "I walk on water too!"

Remember - this is your career - not your life!

"What is life if full of care - we have no time to stand and 
stare.........etc"

Regards

Ruth

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "steve griffiths" <stevengriff at hotmail.com>
To: <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 3:32 PM
Subject: [senco-forum] Can you give me feedback?

> I'm a SENCO at a mainstream, secondary,  LEA school. I've been told that I 
> need to teach for three quarters of my time (18 lessons out of 25) .
>
> This means I have just 7 hours of lesson time to carry out the SENCO role.
>
> We have 55 with statements, 150 on school action plus and I have 2 
> teachers plus 8 TA's to manage.  We also have many students who need to 
> learn english and one of the teachers manages this function.
>
> How does this compare with your experience and do you think it's 
> reasonable.
>
> Steve
>
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