How SENCos And Parents Can Work Together For Better Results
When parents and schools are on the same page, children with SEND can soar, says Sylvia Edwards – so here’s how to get there
All teachers know the value of strong parental engagement – however, the Lamb Inquiry (2009) highlighted significant dissatisfaction with how schools and Local Authorities have interacted with parents and carers of children who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Amongst its recommendations for more equal partnership were:
- A stronger parental voice
- More effective communication
- Improved access to information.
Whilst educationalists agree that parents make that essential difference, especially for children with SEND, do families know how much they matter? Perhaps schools should tell them. Research by Harris (2012) suggests that major barriers to parents’ educational involvement are neither apathy nor lack of time, but rather a self-perceived lack of school experience (26%) and the skills needed to support their child’s schooling (18%) – both of which schools can address.
Aim right
For parents to engage effectively, they must understand what their child is aiming towards. Do the parents of children with SEND in your school know how aspirational outcomes (for leaving school), expectations (for each year or key stage) and targets (termly goals) interact through long, medium and short term planning? They may be aware of targets – but do they understand how these extend into longer term, futuristic steps along their child’s school journey? Parents should be at the centre of provision-mapping processes and policies. Ensuring they have the necessary knowledge can be time consuming, certainly, but it will prove rewarding – and all staff members should be aware of that, recognising parents as the ultimate solution to under-achievement.
Schools are expected to ‘aim high’ for all children, including those with SEND, but it’s important to put this concept in context, and identify aspirations that are just right to ensure individual success. Aiming too high risks failure if a child cannot reach the goals. When targets must be repeated on IEPs parents feel disappointed, learners become demotivated and teachers feel frustrated. So parents must understand how ‘aiming high’ is targeted towards their child’s personal potential, why class activities are differentiated and how setting realistic goals ensures that each step leads towards planned outcomes. When targets match individual potential – and result in learning – schools, parents and pupils can celebrate together and feel success at every step of the way.
Independence is key to measuring achievement. Skills and knowledge can only be measured by what learners do themselves, without adult prompting. Parents can benefit from training on how to:
- Support reading and comprehension – the difference between tricky words and phonics; how to support both; how to question their child’s understanding of texts.
- Support spelling – techniques for learning (look, say, cover, write, check); how to respond in encouraging ways.
- Help with writing – models of grammar and different text types; the handwriting system.
- Support motivation – praising strengths before offering sensitive feedback.
- Develop independence – never never helping unnecessarily.
True targets
All parents want their child to succeed – but it is not always easy is it to talk about success for children with severe levels of cognitive impairment.
Measuring individual achievement is difficult and Sylvia Edwards is author of The SENCO Survival Guide: The nuts and bolts of what you need to know (2nd edition: published by Routledge, March 2016). She has worked in primary, secondary and special schools across four Local Authorities, and as Manager of the SEN Support Service for East Riding of Yorkshire, trained schools in SEND policy and practice.
With regard to those (few) children from whom schools seek a personal best, these will by definition be below average in comparison with their peers. Teachers and SENCos often have the difficult job of collaborating on outcomes in ways that enable parents to remain futuristically positive and hopeful. Children with severe cognitive difficulties have often languished within low aspirations, but no longer. Achievement for All (2014) relies on the accurate assessment skills of teachers and SENCos to tease out each child’s personal best and communicate aspirational, yet realistic, expectations to parents within an atmosphere of mutual trust.
Honesty is the only basis on which home-school collaboration thrives. I remember talking to a parent who had just discovered that her child had dyslexia, having been constantly reassured that he was ‘doing okay’, and told not to worry about the poor levels of writing that she observed. When the truth finally came, it hurt. And that parent’s offer of valuable support, over many years, had been wasted.
Personal touch
Achievement for children with SEND also rests on personalisation – towards which schools need to work with parents. It is easy for institutions and external professionals to place individuals into boxes according to common diagnoses. Yet pupils with autism do not all have the same needs, nor do all young people with SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health) difficulties respond to exactly the same strategies. Indeed, I believe that there are far more differences than commonalities within any identified SEND group. We might also reflect that a ‘whole child’ is the sum of both its school and home parts. Given that children with SEND are individuals first, only genuinely personalised approaches will enable them to achieve planned outcomes – and for this to work, parents must be givers as well as receivers of information. Two-way partnerships enable vital knowledge about children’s learning styles and characteristics to be shared, effectively and productively.
How do parents feed personalised learning from home? From the learner’s perspective, a target of ‘personal best’ requires motivation, spurred on by sensitive guidance and encouragement. Children who sense that their parents are on the same wavelength as their teachers benefit from that combined strength. They get away with nothing, and there are no gaps to fall through. Knowing that their parents have been trained, not only in what to expect from home and school work, but also how best to achieve it in terms of learning styles and strategies, inspires learners to try harder – and achieve, even against the odds.
Finally, it’s worth exploring ways in which parents can become more involved in the life of the school more generally. Whilst families at one end of the spectrum may need help to support their child with homework or to encourage independence, others might welcome opportunities to get on board in more extensive ways, such as at policy level or on committees. In whatever form it takes, though, parent power is always worth harnessing, for the benefit of schools and learners alike.
Key points for a productive parental partnership:
- Remove communication barriers; ensure parents know they matter
- Help them to ‘aim high’ – towards what is realistically achievable
- Collaborate on personalised aspirations, targets and strategies
- Offer training in how to support basic skills and independence
- Show parents how to recognise achievement in small steps
- Celebrate success together!
About the author
Sylvia Edwards is author of The SENCO Survival Guide: The nuts and bolts of what you need to know (2nd edition: published by Routledge, March 2016). She has worked in primary, secondary and special schools across four Local Authorities, and as Manager of the SEN Support Service for East Riding of Yorkshire, trained schools in SEND policy and practice.
