5:15 pm, Monday, 17th October 2022

Successful SENCo Forum Autumn 2022

On Monday 17 October 2022 over 100 Headteachers, SENCos and Inclusion leads attended NE Lincs new look SENCO forum at the Town Hall, Grimsby.

Rebecca Taylor (Head of SEND and Inclusion) led the agenda for the morning and discussed the big picture of SEND in our local area with a particular focus on Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) for children and young people aged 0-25.

SENCos were introduced to NE Lincs Graduated Response to SEMH created by Claire Gordon (Specialist SEMH Advisory Teacher).

This is a comprehensive new resource to support the implementation of appropriate support for all our children and young people with additional SEMH needs.

We met the leads behind the new Emotional Based Barriers to School Attendance (EBBSA) Support Team and the Emotional Literacy Support Advice Team. Compass Go shared their offer for NE Lincs pupils with SEND and Sadie Anjum, (Trainee Educational Psychologist) shared more about the opportunities to be involved in NE Lincs Autism in Schools project.

Early Help and Children’s social Care updated on the support they can provide and Jo Nejrup (SEND Health practitioner) explained more about 14+ health checks for young people with additional needs.

Professionals from education were able to meet with partners from health and social care as well as the NE Lincs SEND and Inclusion teams.

We were also delighted to welcome our old friend Ben Lord, who was the original chair of NE Lincs SEND Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG). Ben is currently taking part in an intern programme with Learning4Life as a PA to the Principal. Ben said “There was a large pool of expertise” in the room and scored the event a 4 out of 5 Stars.

Feedback from SENCos included:

“A great opportunity to find out what is new in terms of support”.

“The SEMH toolkit looks useful and informative”

“EBBSA looks very interesting – I will be looking into this for my school”

“This event was great for me as a new SENCo”

“Having all organisations together was a real bonus”

“As a SENCO I often find I get bogged down in the day-to-day managerial tasks of being a SENCO so this morning it was really useful to have the time to reflect on a more strategic level about my role, our school, and our learners. Looking forward to the next one!”

In addition to sharing information and talking through ideas and concerns, SENCos were able to meet face to face with providers that offer support for children and young people in our local area. These included:

We look forward to meeting up again at The Town Hall Grimsby for the Spring Term SENCo Forum on Monday 27 February 9:00am -12:30pm. Just follow the NE Lincs SENCo Forum Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite to book your place.