Becoming the SENco

[Fruitcocktail6]

Hi,

I work for a small, privately run nursery/pre-school and have done so for two years.

Our SENCO is leaving soon and the school principal/owner has offered me the role. I have accepted, I think it will be really interesting and good career development. I already know the SEN children we have very well and have spent the last year supporting the current SENCO, so am familiar with the paperwork and the various professionals we work with. The training begins next week and I'm very excited.

The current SENCO has told me that the role comes with a payrise of around 2-3k per year. I guess I am posting to find out if this is the case and if anyone has any experience of becoming the SENCO?

I received a payrise this September, before we knew I'd take on this role. I'm really bad at asking for a pay rise and my boss isn't always forthcoming in this area. Is she obliged to do it?

Thanks for any advice you can give

I'm a senco in a state primary and the pay includes the SEN allowance which can be between £2000 and around £4000 depending on size of school and number of SEN children. This might be what she was referring to.

I'll come back with the link to the STPCD but not sure if this covers private nurseries. Hopefully someone else will know.

STPCD and details on SEN allowance here

Thank you

We do have quite a high proportion of SEN children, considering we are such a small school

Will you have to do the NASEN course (not sure if the rules are different from preeschool/nursery)? If so Make sure your employers are geared up to give you the necessary time and space to do it. It's very demanding on top of full time role.

I'm a primary SENCo and doing the NASEN course at the moment but don't get any extra money :(

My friend is a SENCo in a nursery and she's not actually a teacher-apparently you don't have to be in a nursery! My NASEN course tutor told us that the SENCo is only person in a school that has to actually be a teacher! I didn't know that!

No I don't have to do NASEN, and I'm not a teacher either. I actually work in a Montessori so our staff are qualified teachers. So I guess the rules are different for pre school

*aren't qualified teachers, in a State school sense