If you’re a primary school SENCO

[Lacey405]

How did you get there ? How long did you teach for before getting a SENCO role ? Do you enjoy it? I’m a Mainstream RQT but would love to specialise as a SENCO. There is a brilliant one at my current school & she won’t be going anywhere anytime soon so no chance of getting the role at my current school. I’m just wondering would I be laughed at if I applied for a role I’ve seen. I don’t have the qualification but the job spec says they would consider applicants who would study on the job. Any advice?

How long have you been teaching? What’s the job that’s been advertised? Is it just SENCO? How big is the school, what proportion of children have SEN/EHCPs?

I was teaching three years before I started being SENCO. I did it alongside teaching/SLT for about 5/6 years in total with 5 years when I only did teaching (not all by choice, all responsibilities were removed from me when I had DC1) then did two years as a part time SENCO with no teaching. This was in three different schools.

I’m just about to stop doing it because I was offered a great opportunity elsewhere.

Thing is, it’s a very different job from school to school so you wouldn’t be mad to put yourself forward but having been part of the recruitment process for my replacement, we wouldn’t have gone with someone who has no experience because they simply wouldn’t have been able to handle the demands. In a previous school, they probably would have been ok with little experience so long as you were able to take an intro to SENCO or something.

Could you shadow your SENCO maybe? Or ask if there is anyway you could provide some admin support so you get to know the paperwork requirements?

I did 6 yrs in my 1st school then moved to special school for 7 years then applied for a SENCo role after that.
As pp says - the SENCo role is very, very different in one school from another school.
What is an RQT ?
ME schools will usually support you to get the qualification, but you would need to bring experience of working with dc with different needs to get the role in the first place - what experience do you have ?

Although, with any job, it will always depend on how many other applications they get and what skills and experience the other applicants have.

I’ve never heard of an RQT-are you in England?

Schools obviously tend to prefer people with the qualification already as they don’t have to pay to send you on the nasenco course. If it’s a big school with complex SEN, they’ll probably want someone with experience as the role will be huge, but they can also have senco assistant roles which can be a useful stepping stone.

I trained in the school I was already working in (as a classroom teacher) and had been teaching for 15 years then. As a big part of the role is checking teachers are providing HQT and advising them on good practice and next steps, I think if you are a very new/inexperienced teacher, this could cause issues.

Thank you all for your responses, Sorry RQT - recently qualified teacher . I’ve been teaching two years but PT so I don’t think anywhere near enough experience and yes I definitely wouldn’t be able to advise more experienced teachers yet . I’m going to have a chat with our school SENCO when we go back and see if I can get involved more with what she does at all and maybe see if I can find an introductory course . Yes the role is at a 3 form entry school with a fairly high proportion of SEN so probably way above me thinking about it it was just the fact it said a candidates who are willing to undertake training welcome to apply got me thinking but I think realistically I need a good few more years in the classroom. An assistant SENCO job could be a good shout though in a few years will have a look out for one of those. A friend has also suggested possibly looking out for a teacher role in a specialist SEN school.