Support for school leaders, teachers, TAs, children and families

Our specialist teacher is employed centrally and works across the trust and with children of all ages.  We identified that communication and interaction was the area of need where school leaders needed the greatest level of specialist input and, as a result, we resolved to ensure that our schools could access the support that they needed when they need it!

There is a myth that children need to have been assessed and diagnosed by CAMHS in order to access support if they are neurodivergent – this is absolutely not the case … SEN support provision should be needs led and there is no need for a diagnosis to unlock access to the support that is available to children in any of our schools.  We are challenging these myths day-by-day and helping children and families to see that a diagnosis is not the most important thing in helping us to break down barriers to education.

There is another myth that says that the local authority will only assess a child if there is a formal diagnosis in place – this is categorically not the case.  The whole SEN system in education is built on needs and responding to an individual child’s needs.

Our specialist teacher will work with schools and families to unpick a child’s needs and to help to understand their presentation.  Engagement with the team around the child process is a key part of this particular service.  In the development of an APDR cycle with the school, our specialist teacher will gather the child’s voice – after all, without their engagement and participation in the process, the most important voice is absent.

Part of this piece of work is the provision of high quality CPD for the adults in our schools.  Take a look at our CPD offer for more information about the trust CPD offer.