What has been your favourite part of the EY SENCO programme? 

I have held the role of a SENCO for many years without any formal qualification, so my favourite part of the EY SENCO programme was attending the online training sessions. These sessions were extremely informative and interactive with other SENCOs; this provided a great springboard for me to review different aspects of knowledge as a team and develop our Local Offer.

How has the programme developed your career and helped you support children with SEN in your setting? 

The EY SENCO programme has not only improved my practice, but it has also impacted the confidence of my team in supporting parents, liaising with other professionals and acting on the early identification of needs and neurodiverse development.

We use a range of interventions and strategies to support individual children with SMART yet ambitious targets to promote progress.

We have had good feedback from neighbouring schools that our children have transitioned to, for example, we have organised visits, inviting teachers into my setting so they could observe what worked well, and the sharing of documentation with the parent's consent enabled the schools to prepare for the child in advance.

We have made changes to the environment and created different spaces following team training on provision mapping and continue to ensure we are committed to reflective as well as developing practice.

From your time on the programme, what strategies have you implemented in your setting? 

• Updated information regarding our Local Offer and creating our own leaflets.
• Greater focus on SMART targets when creating plans as part of the graduated approach.
• Establishing 1-1 support meetings with key people to support understanding of their role in terms of contribution in the observation, assessment and planning stages.
• I have submitted EHCP assessment requests to our local authority, all of which have been accepted due to a greater understanding of the detailed information required.
• On-going development of our transition arrangements based on experiences.

What would you say to someone thinking about applying for the EY SENCO programme?

In my 29 years of experience in the early years sector, this has to be the most organised, well-delivered and supported training I have completed to date.  

This was a wonderful training opportunity for me, as I use every aspect of my training in my day-to-day work. 

Looking for more information?

If you would like any more information on our EY SENCO programme, get in contact with us:

 Email: eysen@bestpracticenet.co.uk

 Tel: +44 (0) 117 920 9200 (8.30am-5.30pm, Mon-Fri)

Visit our EY SENCO page