Open evening, learning support not there

[DorothyL]

How would you feel about a comprehensive school having an open evening but the learning support/sn department not around that night?

Not great :(
You couldn't get your nose through the door at ours without being spoken to.

Hmm, depends. Most TAs probably not paid enough to stay late for open evenings, (unless it's Directed Time) imho! But I would expect the SENCO to be around.

the senco probably has a life outside of the school too.

I wouldnt expect tas or lsas to be there. I would expect the senco to be there.

Have to admit that everyone I know with SEN children has booked a separate appointment to see the SENCO at prospective schools as you don't get much chance to talk specifically about your child at an open evening. At least one school near us also has a separate session for SEN children and their parents to see the school.

I wouldn't be impressed.

I would wonder whether they were trying to quietly encourage kids with additional needs to apply elsewhere (thus making their stats in 6 years time look good).

You may want to have a detailed chat later, but a school should have someone around to talk briefly about how they support kids with dyslexia, HFA or whatever.

That's what I was wondering, teen

It's all fair and good a Senco having a life, but attending open evenings is a part of a teacher's job, isn't it?

The HTs speech should go some way to indicating how inclusive the school is - when they say how proud they are of all their students but only talk about those doing Medicine or going to Oxbridge it says it all.

It was raise an eyebrow for sure but as already been mentioned it isn't really the night for it. I'm doing this process next year and I'm planning to contact schools Jan time so I have longer to make, hopefully the right decision.

Blimey, even the schools with the strongest gatekeepers around here had at least 4 people in learning support to head you off talk to.

Look for learning support in the more public areas of the school, be wary if they're shunted off in a portakabin.

Surprising. In our school open evenings are compulsory for heads of department (including senco) but not unpromoted classroom teachers.

In every school I've worked In, Open Evening is directed time for all teachers regardless of whether they have a life outside school!. Astonished the SENCO at least wasn't there.

I was a SENCo and I always attended open evenings. Many of my TAs did too, although it was never a three line whip. We had activities going on and examples of some of the support programmes we used. We were happy to answer questions and talk to anyone who was concerned, anxious, or just needing extra information.

The only time I could imagine a SENCo not being there would possibly be in a primary school with a part time SENCo who didn't work on that day. But most would make the effort anyway, work day or not.