The Key for School Leaders
Supporting pupils with SEN
SENCO’s strategic tasks planner
Area of focus Autumn term
Spring term
Local offer Review school’s information on the
local offer, and that of other schools
Summer term
Support the local authority in its
annual local offer review process
Consider what wider services could
support your setting
Policies and
documents Update SEN information report Procedures
and structures September: review wave 1
interventions Audit levels of SEND paperwork and
make improvements where required Support staff and feeder schools with
transition
Review whole-school and
intervention-based assessment
processes (waves 2 and 3) Maintained schools: ensure budget for
SEN provision is in place Review provision maps and data on
interventions, and use this to plan a
provision map for incoming cohort
January: ensure in-depth SEN data is
recorded accurately for spring census,
including SEN types and pupils
attending SEN unit provision May: ensure pupil SEN provision is
recorded accurately for the summer
census
Review school accessibility plan
Review school policies on assessment
and learning, ensuring they conform
with the SEND Code of Practice
Work with school business manager
to review tracking of SEN funding
Academies: ensure budget for SEN
provision is in place
Reporting
October: ensure pupil SEN provision
is recorded accurately for the autumn
census
Meet with the link governor for
SEN, and circulate minutes at a full
governing body meeting
Parental
engagement
Meet with the link governor for
SEN, and circulate minutes at a full
governing body meeting
Hold a parent focus group to discuss
how the school can improve its SEN
provision
Send an end-of-term questionnaire
to parents to gauge opinion on the
school’s SEN provision
Consult parents about the format
of SEN support plans and the
effectiveness of communication
systems
Pupil
engagement
Hold school council focus group to
discuss SEN provision
Roll out plan for specialist SEN
training Audit teaching staff SEN knowledge
and skills
Run SEN training for new teaching
and support staff Evaluate the impact of continuing
professional development in relation
to SEN
Gather staff feedback on how the
graduated approach is being used in
the classroom, to feed into review of
wave 1 interventions
Monitoring
Meet with parents to review
the school’s contribution to the
development of the local offer and
SEN information report
Meet with pupils or use a pupil
questionnaire to review the school’s
contribution to the development of
the local offer and SEN information
report
Consult pupils about the format
of SEN