Busy SENCO

[Spain1986]

Hi all, I am a SENCO in a primary school. I teach a year 4 class for two days . It’s awful doing a job share as the teaching assistant and children don’t really respect you either. Last year, I did not have a teaching commitment. I am finding it really difficult to mange everything and I have been asked to do cover on the other days. Why ask me to cover when I already have two days of teaching? How can I navigate it all? The SENCO role is already overwhelming. I think I will have to go elsewhere. I don’t think I would do a SENCO position again after this experience.

How big is the school? I've worked in different size schools. In my experience, SENCOs in 2 form entry tend not to be class based, apart from PPA cover. I'm a 3 form entry they may not even do PPA cover. In a small village school though (not even 1 form entry), they're likely to be class-based with perhaps 1 day release for SENCO duties. It totally depends, as the size of the school will likely have a direct correlation to the amount of SEN cases you're dealing with.

Teaching two days AND providing regular cover does sound a lot though. I would definitely broach it with SLT, mentioning that the additional cover on top of your two days a week teaching commitment is impacting on your ability to effectively carry out your SENCO duties.

That is interesting to hear that. I was starting to think that it must work like that. I work in a one form entry school. I will look for a larger school as the workload is too much and nobody listens to you when you mention it.

I can't promise anything, but I don't know of any 3 form entry schools whose SENCO has class responsibilities (except maybe one afternoon a week of PPA cover). The caseloads are just too much. Obviously you'll still be super busy, as by nature a 3 form entry will likely have triple the amount of SEN pupils to what you're dealing with now, but at least you can focus solely on your SENCO role. On the flip side, I don't know any one form entry schools whose SENCO doesn't have at least part time class based responsibilities. A non class based SENCO would be considered a luxury in a small school.

I was SENDCo in our four form entry school - I wouldn’t recommend that for managing workload! I do think that funding a full time out of class SENDCo in a 1 form entry school is not realistic in the current climate. We now also have a deputy SENDCo who has two days to be SENDCo for 12 classes

I worked in a four form entry school before as a class teacher. That was bad enough with resources and just too large for a primary school in my opinion.

The SENCO role is a hard one. As there are too many things to do, oversee and you simply don’t have enough hours to do it all. Then your SENCO days are not protected. It’s just pure madness. I have some thinking to do. It’s easier just to have your own class five days a week. That way, you know what you are doing and you don’t get extra things on top. As I said, I have some serious thinking to do.

The new Deputy SENCO appointments seem to acknowledge that the SENCO role is a difficult one. Yet, schools do not care about their main SENCO. However, they are happy to pay two people to work on SEND.

Our one form entry has a part time senco with no class, except if asked to cover for someone who's ill etc. I'm honestly not sure how on earth it is afforded.