You're looking at an archived page, which may not reflect our current policy.
School coordinators
Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO)
SENCOs have responsibility for managing the effective delivery of the education psychology service, learning support, behaviour support, SEN assessment and administration, and parent support. A SENCO may be a member of staff of a school who has responsibility for coordinating SEN provision within that school. In a small school the headteacher or deputy may take on this role. In larger schools there may be an SEN coordinating team.
A child is defined as having special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty that needs special teaching. Children with special educational needs are not only those with obvious learning difficulties, such as those who are physically disabled, deaf or blind. They include those whose learning difficulties are less apparent, such as slow learners and emotionally vulnerable children. It is estimated that up to 20 per cent of school children may need special educational help at some stage in their school careers. There is more information on inclusion here.
The SENCO Guide was published by the DfEE in September 1997. It was intended to help teachers and others interpret the guidance in the SEN Code of Practice more effectively. The guide, which is based on three research and developmental projects commissioned by the DfEE, covers the role of the SENCO, individual educational plans, and schools' SEN policies. The guide is not intended to be prescriptive; but the DCSF hopes that all schools will find within it ideas and models of good practice to draw on. There has been a consultation on a revised code, which will need to be put to Parliament before coming into force. More information on this will be available in the autumn.
There are a number of useful sites on SEN. Please click on the hyperlink if you are interested in the SENCO Forum. The Virtual Teacher Centre site holds an SEN discussion group. There are also a variety of resources at the National Association for Special Educational Needs, who publish a journal to establish an international forum for the dissemination of research on SEN.
Numeracy Coordinator / Literacy Coordinator
Literacy and mathematics coordinators have an important role in supporting the implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategies in schools, including helping to monitor the effectiveness of planning and teaching of the subjects. Coordinators will lead school training sessions to enable teachers to become familiar with materials provided by the strategies. They will also give demonstration lessons for other teachers to observe and learn from good practice.
They will lead school INSET sessions to enable teachers to become familiar with high quality distance learning materials. Another part of their remit is to assist the headteacher in monitoring standards and the quality of teaching.
For information on mathematics in the National Curriculum, click here. There is information on government funding for numeracy and literacy here. Discover the benefits that one school has found due to the literacy hour. The Standards site has a wealth of information on both the Numeracy and Literacy Strategies.
Information and Communications Technology Coordinator
ICT coordinators have a number of roles within a school. They highlight areas for the development of ICT within the School Development Plan, as well as coordinating the purchase and maintenance of equipment, software licences, renewals of Cyber Patrol and virus protection software. There is also some responsibility to audit staff training needs and provide suitable training opportunities. An important part of the job concerns disseminating relevant information on integration of ICT into planning the curriculum. There is also a level of interaction with other staff members as the ICT coordinator has to keep up-to-date with development issues and keep colleagues abreast of any changes. The ICT coordinator also acts as a role model using ICT skills in everyday work.
Last updated: 02 August 2007
Recently visited
You're looking at an archived page, which may not reflect our current policy.
