[senco-forum] Newbie

Hi Matt
  Glad you've joined the forum - it is a very useful place.  If course, all LAs have different rules and regulations about everything so we can't all help.

  Two things about your query about a pupil at transfer - my feeder schools would invite me to contribute to the Annual Review and I would expect to work closely with them, the parents and the pupil about transfer.  The secondary school should have been named at the Annual Review in Year 5 and it is suggested that someone from that school attends the Annual Review in Year 6.  You are right that the statement might need to be changed but I'd expect to have some input into what changes are suggested.  In Cornwall statements are only changed by the Resources Panel.
  Also, support for extra curricular activites is a difficult one.  We have often supported pupils who have full time support who want to go on day trips because our TAs are already paid for that time.  Pupils who have fewer than full time hours cannot always be supported on day trips and residentials are a bit of a nightmare.  There is nothing in any of my pupils' statements about access to extra curricular acitivities.

  Could you ask a SENCO in another primary school what they do?  Is there some sort of advisory service you could talk to?

  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

mgoodyear <mgoodyear at warren-j.bardaglea.org.uk> wrote:

Hi Everyone

I joined the list recently.  I thought it would be good idea to introduce
myself.

I have been working in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham for twelve
years, most of that time I spent as ICT co-ordinator in a 4 form entry
junior school.  This included 3 years working as a project manager for the
ICT Test Bed project which some of you may (or may not!) have heard of. 
Eighteen months ago I inherited the role of SENCo following the promotion of
our deputy to a local headship.  It has been a ridiculously steep learning
curve at times but I finally feel I’m getting somewhere thanks to the
support of many colleagues across the LEA and beyond.

I wish I had found this list much earlier than I did!

I have two questions.

Firstly, following an annual statement review for a visually impaired year 6
child I am trying to support the parents who are very concerned to ‘cross
dot every i and cross every t’ in the statement before transition to KS3.  I
need to know how much I can do to the statement given that a lot of the
items will relate to the child’s KS3 school and not the current school. For
example: Ensuring the availability of SSA/TA support for extra curricular
activities.

Could anyone point me at a resource which might guide me on this type of
issue?  I don’t want to tread on the toes of the KS3 school but I do want to
ensure the statement is robust and effective, etc.

I hope that makes sense?

My second question relates to this list.  I notice that people tend not to
use signature files, or very simple ones, on their emails. Is there a reason
for this other than confidentiality?

Many thanks for your help.  I look forward to getting to know you all.

Regards

Matt

Matt Goodyear
SENCo London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

http://www.gordano.com - Messaging for educators.

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall