rach04 Report post Posted March 21, 2007 Ours is the senco, deputy head, and year 6 teacher. The only day you can have an appointment with him is on a wednesday and then if you are lucky. Does anyone else have a multi-tasking Senco? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Karen A Report post Posted March 21, 2007 ''Not much'' Sorry no other comment to make that would not be removed from the forum by mods for being slanderous. Karen. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aawmum Report post Posted March 21, 2007 Our SENCO is doing very well getting that extra bit in the wage packet for knowing nothing at all about SEN. Well done!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darky Report post Posted March 21, 2007 The senco at my daughters school is teacher 3 days senco 2 days. the senco at my sons school is deputy head, senco and supply teacher. Their last school made me laugh! their learn support assistants, one of them was lsa, librarian, and worked in the first aid room. quite a few of them had several jobs in addition like lunchtime superviser, i wondered if this was their way of using their salary out of the sen budget, but taking on multiple roles. how much of their "other role" salary was paid for other than sen funding eh? makes you think! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
openyoureyes Report post Posted March 21, 2007 I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the SENCO at the schools just has the title to earn a bit more money!!!! At a support meeting the other night we discussed the need for at least the SENCO to be clued up on ASD, out SENCO has absolutely no idea, just seems to fob you off with words like "all the work I put in", your not the only parent who has a child with difficulties" etc etc It makes me so mad that these people are given such a huge responsibility with our kids when a lot of them are only doing it for the title, I am sure there are some SENCO's who are excellent and who really care, but upto now I have not met one. Our SENCO comes across as a bit of a bully, at our last meeting it just ended up with him shouting at myself and hubby, saying he would not be threatned!!! (just because we said if nothing was done for our son we would take our case to the governers of the school) he even had me in tears, as if we have not got enough stress in our lives. Oh well, rant over, but if anyone has any ideas how we can get the government to make sure at least one person in the school has some form of education themselves on ASD let me know!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rach04 Report post Posted March 21, 2007 mine told me that j showed no autisic traits at school WHAT he does here and infront of drs but he doesnt at school ???? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zaman Report post Posted March 21, 2007 My son's SENCO is a full time Y2 teacher, and I have met her once in two years. I have been contacting SALT to try and get them into school to work with him, and they have said that the request needs to come from the SENCO, so have been trying to get hold of her to ask her to make the request. Grrr... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BusyLizzie100 Report post Posted March 21, 2007 Ours is the head teacher. I guess she feels that she has so few SEN children at her school that she can squeeze in 5 minutes of SENCO work a week... It doesn't work. Lizzie Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sandyn Report post Posted March 21, 2007 Don't get me started on SENCO's!! Our SENCO at our school was my son's year 1 teacher (he's now in year 2) last year. She was hardly in the classroom. Always on her special needs duties. Consequently my son and his class had supply teacher after supply teacher. One week they had 6! Great for children who find change difficult - as my son did. She realised my son had problems when he started in her class at the beginning of year 1 yet in her SENCO capacity, she didn't send R's referral (for social communication problems) to community paed but filed it instead. She found it 3 months later, then told us R was getting on so well she wasn't sure he needed referral!! GRRRR!!!! Fortunately we disagreed and he was dx with HFA, ADHD and Dyspraxia. So much for doing well! Most SENCO's are full time teachers, who are not only dealing with their own class, but their special needs duties, queries from outside agencies, supply teachers for their own class. The list is endless. No wonder they are stressed up to the eyeballs. Unfortunately the ones who suffer most are the children. Sorry i've ranted on a bit. Sandra xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
David Matthew Baker Report post Posted March 21, 2007 The SENCO who is my line manager has a split role. He is incharge of the Special Needs department and also the Rainbow Centre which is an initive to try and get (or keep) students with very bad attendance back into school by slowly reintroducing them to the system. This means that they are there most of the time with a qualified teacher who sets work for them and they can choose to go to lessons if they wish. Seems to work fairly well. From things that have been said to me I'm not sure the SENCO really wanted the job (more he'd been covering it and was more or less forced into it) but he does seem to care about the students and is fairly clued up on the system. The SENCO at the other mainstream school (both secondary) that I worked at had a similar role too. Instead of students who's attendance where a problem it was more incharge of a unit for students who behaviour was a problem. Again she seem commited to the students. The special needs teacher at that school was also great and happy to offer me lots of advice. At my latest school it is the person who mans this room for the students who have attendance problems seems to be the one to go to for advice. Or the SENCO for that matter. He feels a bit more approachable than the last one. Not sure how organised he is though. You should see his desk it is impressive. Having said that never heard of him been late to meetings. He did lose one the other day though. I think a lot of his organisation goes down to one of the other teaching assistants though. She seems to run round the entire school checking things are organised. Always seems stressed too. Having said that she is friendly too. So are all the support staff actually and the few teachers I have got to know. Still not as friendly with anyone at my present school as I was at the special school (talking staff here naturally). That said I was closer to some students at the special school too but that is more the difference in ethos between them. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caren Report post Posted March 21, 2007 Our senco is a class teacher also and 2 years ago kirk was in her class and she was doing a report has he was being assessed off LEA and all she said was he was bright clever and all this stuff which i was shocked , he could'nt read write spell nothing when i questioned her about him getting lost in school her response was he'd been in toilets messing about for 3 months he got lost round school but she said nope he had'nt and when asked about the report she said well he can spell "I " and "IT" since leaving her class he can read write and spell abit he's nearly 11 and i feel she let him down big time , I'm all for positive feedback but also need to be truthful when dealing with children with special needs , he starts secondary soon and i'm scared for him as for reasons said he got no statement but a note in lieu Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LizK Report post Posted March 22, 2007 At Adam's school the SENCO role is now split between two teachers one of whom happens to be his class teacher who works 4 days a week I think she has one day every fortnight out of the classroom to do SENCO related work and is disappearing on courses at the moment presumably getting up to speed. It's been great having him taught by the SENCO though I was worried he'd struggle with having supply teachers on her SENCO days or when on a course but he's seemed to have managed well. Adam's school seems to manage the full-on SENs very well, it's the children with the more 'minor' SENs like dyslexia or dyspraxia tendencies that don't seem to get as much help as they ought Lx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cat Report post Posted March 22, 2007 I can't quite believe I am making this post but here goes. I would not be a SENCO if you paid me what they get paid extra to do the job. Before you all scream I am fully aware that there a far too many terrible SENCOs who are clueless some have been pushed into the job some just want the brownie points. The reason that there are now some Heads and Deputies doing the job is because none of the teaching staff want this job, because if it is done correctly, there is a great deal involved. One of the problems is none contact time. If a SENCO is to do their job well they need none contact time. That means time out of class. Schools often promise this time and then do not deliver. All it takes is for one teacher to be ill and the SENCO has to stand in there goes the none contact time. Legally every school must have a SENCO but it is now the hardest post to fill after that of Head Teachers. Many Heads pay lip service to the role and do not free up funding or time for the job to be done well. But the SENCO may not be able to impart this to parents. If you are not allowed to attend training and conferences it's difficult to understand how a SENCO can be effective it's like working with your hands tied behind your back. I realise that this does not apply to all SENCOs but it does to quite a few. Where I live I have heard that some schools are actually sharing a SENCO and in some schools it's NTA who have undertaken the role. Cat Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Karen A Report post Posted March 22, 2007 Hi Cat now I am in a less stroppy mood I think you are making a good point.There is also the fact that parents like myself have very high expectations and are at different stages in coming to terms with their child's special needs-not always easy people to deal with. Karen. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Katiebell Report post Posted March 22, 2007 The job of SENCO at my children's school has gone from a dibolical arrogant headteacher who thought his opinion out weighed that of the ed psychs, to a fantastic young teacher eager to learn, ready to hold her hands up and say "I don't know" who has educated her collegues as she has learnt. In our LEA (Leicestershire -the lowest funded in the UK) she doesn't even get paid any extra for her job. I have always thought that Headteachers' who are SENCOs not only have a lack of time to adequately do the job but also have a conflict of interests as they hold the school purse strings. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
palgem Report post Posted March 22, 2007 hi our senco is deputy head i think most of them just draw the short straw and its not what they offer but how little they can get a way with doing . and they must have a hand book of common phrases to get away with things like its not my fault but the lea funding won,t stretch that far [which translates into we r using the funding else were in school ] . or may be they r the only one left in the staff room when the head asks for a volunteer because their to dopy to leave . and i am sorry to any sencos reading i,m sure their must be a couple somewhere doing a good job i just haven,t met them. why have this title when everthing sen is so unco-ordinated and left purely to chance that someone may want to do something to help , Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
julieann Report post Posted March 22, 2007 Ours is the senco, deputy head, and year 6 teacher. The only day you can have an appointment with him is on a wednesday and then if you are lucky. Does anyone else have a multi-tasking Senco? Hi Rach 04, I haven't been able to get an appointment with my SENCO this week either and I'm one of her three TA's. My SENCO is also Learning Enrichment Co-ordinator, English teacher trying to get sixth formers through their A levels, teach year 7 pupils, get Year 11's through their GCSE, chase up English coursework and deal with issues, assessments, IEP's and review meetings for the numerous SEN pupils at the school. She is run off her feet and unfortunately is looking for posts elsewhere. I feel and I'm sure you mums out there will agree that the job of SENCO should be the teachers only job. Julieann Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
