Special Educational Needs (SENs)

What are Special Educational Needs (SENs)?:

An SEN is anything that causes a child to need extra help to achieve their full potential at school. As you can imagine this has expanded to cover anyone (some 20 per cent of children are reckoned to have an SEN at any one time, most children have an SEN at some time) and everything (SEN covers an amazing range of conditions, some of them in turn catch-all words for a complex of disparate difficulties with similar symptoms - e.g. dyslexia).Many SENs have an inherited component.

Unless you have an equable, social child getting A grades and into everything, it's worth boning up on SENs. Kids can use common sense, quick-wittedness, intelligence and other virtues to disguise the effects of an SEN - severe dyslexia has been uncovered in the second year at Oxbridge - and unless your school tests every child they are bound to miss some.Many SEN symptoms are also symptoms of normal childhood - which is why they can be so hard to spot.

Though things are much better than they were, you may still have to push hard to get the support that your child needs. SENs are the cause of immense financial pressure for Local Education Authorities, and increasingly for schools as the trend for 'inclusive' education (including children with severe SENs in mainstream schools) grows. Trust your judgement; do your research (good information on SENs is quite easy to come by, especially on the web); look for support from SEN organisations and experts. The law is (supposedly) on your side.

If you suspect an SEN, take your child to an educational psychologist (or other appropriate professional) for a diagnosis. A diagnosis makes it much easier for everyone - you, the school, and above all the child ('thank goodness, I thought I was stupid') - to deal with the problem.

There are always a large number of claimed cures for any SEN - e.g. for dyslexia coloured lenses, covering one eye, stimulating changes in reflexes, fish oils, seasick pills, etc, etc. Some of them work to some extent for some pupils, but there is a general lack of properly conducted and reported trials. They often cost a lot too. Don't be put off trying one, or more - but remain at all times sceptical of the possibility of improvement, and particularly cautious about how much of any improvement you ascribe to the cure.

Looking for UK Schools for SEN

1. Be honest with yourself. Neither over emphasise your child's problems nor diminish them. Be honest with the school too.

2. Get as good a professional assessment as possible. For a child who has a physical problem it is likely you will have much useful information from the clinicians who have worked with him or her. For the child who has a learning difficulty, be it specific or global, get as much up to date advice as you can. The more a school knows about your child the more easily they can be sure of their ability to do well by him or her.

3. Make use of an appropriate support group, who will be able to recommend professional people who can give you a frank description of your child's needs.

4. Think of the end point. What would you realistically expect your son or daughter to be doing in twenty years time? Education must be challenging, bringing out a child's full potential, and, if possible, going beyond what that potential is currently perceived to be.If you are looking at mainstream schools, for a child with a relatively mild degree of need:

5. Ask if the school tests all children on entry - there are lots of ways of doing this, and most will do as long as the assessor is SEN-aware. If a school is really switched on to SEN they will be testing.

6. Ask if the school's special needs support is an integral part of the school, with a two way flow of information between specialist teachers and subject teachers. Schools where SEN support is an 'add on', with help found when needed and specialist teachers having little contact with the school, are really only suitable for very mild cases. Ask a teacher or two where they turn to for advice, and how often, and how good it has been.

7. Ask how many pupils in the school have special needs like your child's and how many teachers offer specialist support. A sizeable peer group will ensure that support is there in depth, and that your child's difficulties are not misunderstood or looked down on by staff or pupils.

8. Are teaching methods appropriate for SEN children - worksheets always provided, lessons in relatively short sections - or are there long periods of dictation / copying off the board, or half an hour's chat and then 'now make notes of what I have said?'

9. What do pupils miss in order to receive extra help? Do you mind?

10. What is the head's attitude to special needs? Does he have high expectations of them? Does he celebrate their successes? A head who is not enthusiastic about helping SEN children may mean that staff are not as supportive or understanding as they should be. Be sure that your child will never be asked 'is this the best you can do?'

11. Do the school make use of concessions for public exams, such as providing a laptop, or an amanuensis - and is a full degree of training available for your child in how to make best use of these aids?

12. Talk to some pupils with the same diagnosis as your child - are they bubbling with pride and confidence?

13. In the independent sector, will you have to pay extra for the support that you want?If you are looking for a school for a child who needs a high level of support, or specialist facilities:

14. When it comes to choosing such a school beware of those schools that offer all things to all men.

15. Remember that headteachers of special schools, like their mainstream counterparts, need to fill places in order to 'balance the books'. Be wary of those schools who say they will take special measures for a child who is obviously going to be treated differently from the other children in the school.

16. If a child has a substantial learning difficulty, exam results may not be particularly useful as a measure of the success of a school (though they will give an indication of how well it is possible to do in that school). Try to find another base line from which to work. See if you can discover what the typical SEN child has in terms of both emotional and educational status on arriving at the school, and see if you can determine what value has been added to that child when he/she leaves. What success do the school have in getting their SEN students into further education, or employment, and how successful are they in keeping a relationship with their ex-students to see if they are successful in their chosen field of work? Look for signs of confidence in the older children, and see what help they are given with 'life skills', either formally through programmes in the curriculum, or informally in the way the pastoral side of the school is run. Ask for contacts with existing parents of children like yours, and make your telephone calls to three or four across the age range.

17. And again, what is the head's attitude, and what are the kid's like? There is simply no excuse for a school with low expectations and dulled kids

Information on Schools and SENThere is no easy way round finding the right school for your child - you have to look and ask - particularly support groups and other parents.You can locate special schools in the GSGDirectory, and The Good Schools Guide contains a good deal of SEN information on the schools that it covers.

CReSTeD, The Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic pupils, produces a register of schools that have been through a registration procedure, including a visit by a CReSTeD selected consultant. CreSTeD does not inspect a school for aspects not connected to dyslexia - e.g. many of those covered in the Good Schools Guide. Many such schools will cater for other SENs too

.The Gabbitas Guide to Schools for Special Needs is useful reference - as are other guides which tell you which SENs each school deals with - but they don't tell you how good the schools are or what they are like (and some special schools are extremely grim).

For more information visit The Good Schools guide at www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk