Support in schools

Schools must use their best endeavours to make sure that any child with Special Educational Needs (SEN) gets the support they need – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s SEN. City of York Council has co-produced our Ordinarily Available Provision page which lays out what types of provision can be made for children and young people in schools and settings in the city. Your child may also be supported by teams at the local authority in addition to the support they receive at school if needed.

Roles within an education setting:

governing body - they have responsibility for the standards and policies within schools. The governing body of every mainstream school is encouraged to have a special educational needs governor, who has an oversight of the school’s arrangements and provision for meeting SEN. All governing bodies include parent governors
headteacher - they have overall responsibility for running the school. The headteacher will be available to talk to parents at the open evening in the autumn term. They report to the school’s governing body
Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) -  they are responsible for the arrangements in school for children with SEN
Teaching Assistant (TA) or Learning Support Assistant - TAs work in different ways in different schools. In secondary schools most teaching assistants will work with a number of different pupils, either individually or in small groups, for different lessons. This is managed by the school
lead practitioner -  supports you in coordinating the help you receive for your child. They may coordinate meetings, tell you where you can find things out and act as a contact point for other professionals. The lead practitioner could be any professional working with you such as a social worker, teacher, teaching assistant, specialist teacher or physiotherapist. You can approach any one of these professionals to ask them if they are able to be your lead practitioner. Alternatively, you may choose to take on this role yourself
Parent Support Advisor (PSA) - some schools have their own parent support advisor who may be able to provide information, signpost you to services, support your child’s transition into school and offer access to groups such as family learning
school nurse - within secondary schools, school nurses provide a confidential weekly 'drop-in' service for pupils to access should they need to discuss health issues. This incorporates a sexual health service. Pupils can access sexual health advice, be issued with condoms, emergency contraception and undertake pregnancy and chlamydia testing. School nurses also support schools to deliver aspects of the PHSE curriculum by delivering health education around sexual health, cancer awareness and healthy lifestyles (well woman, well man and stress management)

Secondary schools often have a Pastoral team to support all children in the settings – this may include:

head of year who will oversee the support for a year group
form tutor who has responsibility for the pastoral care of a class of pupils and will usually register pupils each day

Specialist Teaching Teams – support from Qualified Teachers of the Deaf, Qualified Teachers of Visual Impairment, Specialist teachers of Autism and Specialist teachers of Physical Needs along with outreach support from colleagues at Danesgate, Haxby Road ERP and St Oswalds ERP is available to schools through the Learning Support Hub