SEND Provision: How To Find A School Where Your Child Will Thrive
By Annabel Dunstan
Summary
Every child learns differently. Each individual has a unique set of skills, strengths, and things they find difficult, and everyone has a preferred way of absorbing teaching, whether it’s visual, auditory, or tactile. For some children, this learning profile is shaped by a particular need. It might be a speech or language difficulty, an autism spectrum condition, a physical impairment – or anything else that means they need extra support or adjustment to access their learning. Schools are responsible for teaching and nurturing every child who comes through their doors, but provision for learners with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) can vary widely from school to school.
If your child is someone who needs that extra help, then you’ll be looking for a school at which they can flourish alongside their peers – and this article exists to equip you in that search. SEND is a vast and capacious umbrella, covering everything from mild dyslexia to profound deafness, so we cannot hope to address every nuance in one article. But with expert insight from James Watson (Headmaster, Milton Abbey School), we provide clarity and advice on how to approach school applications as a parent of a SEND child. With our pointers, you can feel prepared to find a school where your child will thrive and succeed, both in the classroom and beyond.
Understanding the Difference in SEND School Types
Before we dive in, a point of clarification: there’s a distinction between specialist SEND schools and mainstream schools that offer specialist support. Whilst specialist schools are tailored exclusively for SEND learners (usually those with more complex needs), mainstream schools accommodate all kinds of learner, integrating the support for those who need it. Both routes are valuable depending on your child’s needs, but this article deals only with the second: mainstream schools that have specialist SEND provision.
Keeping Your Child at the Centre of the Search
How do we go about finding a school with good SEND support? The main thing to remember as you begin this journey is that your search should have your child at the centre. This point may seem obvious – the child must inform the choice whether SEND is on our priorities list or not – but with SEND more than anything else, your school search needs to be personalised. It’s a twofold challenge. Firstly, your child’s educational need is as unique as their fingerprint; even if they have a named condition, the required support looks different for every individual.
Secondly, the SEND support on offer from schools is extremely diverse: SEND provision can be cognitive, behavioural, pastoral or physical (or any combination of the above!), and no school can excel in every single area. Make sure their offerings apply to your child: they may have an outstanding specialist ADHD unit, or an excellent reputation for speech and language development, but neither is worth much if your daughter has dyscalculia. In short, strong SEND support looks different from person to person, and from place to place; your job is to find the best match between what your child needs and what the school offers.
Understanding Your Child’s Current Needs
You might now be feeling daunted by the task before you, but don’t worry. A really easy (and important) first step is to get yourself clued up on what your child’s needs actually are. What support are they currently receiving at school? What are their targets for the academic year? Which skills do they find most challenging, which interventions most helpful? If they have an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) or other personalised provision map, it’s worth refreshing your memory of what’s in that document. It might even be helpful to meet with the SENDCo (SEND Coordinator) at your child’s current school in order to gather the details about their current provision. Being well-informed is your ticket to success.
Asking Schools the Right Questions
Once you’re confident on what kind of provision your child needs, you can start approaching schools – and the key is to ask specific questions. Don’t settle for vague terms like ‘strong support’ and ‘good provision’; you need to know the details of what a particular school can offer your child, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask them directly. Fear of asking can be a barrier to some parents, who assume it might be easier to store up their SEND questions until after their child’s place has been confirmed, rather than show their hand straightaway. But in truth, asking intentional questions from the very beginning is the most helpful approach for both you and the school: not only do you need to be sure you’re making a well-informed choice, but the school also benefits from knowing the full picture. Getting an understanding of your child’s learning profile straightaway means that the school has time to ensure the right support will be in place from the moment your child arrives. The right school will not be perturbed by your questioning, but will respond supportively and proactively to ensure a good fit for your child.
Curriculum Considerations
So what are the magic questions? What should we be asking the schools that we’re looking at? Well, there are some key aspects to consider as a parent. The first is curriculum. Does the school offer flexibility in its curriculum options? Enquire about the number of subjects studied at GCSE. Some students with SEND, particularly those whose conditions affect particular cognitive skills or processing speed, may benefit from channelling their energies into a smaller number of subjects. Achieving excellent grades in eight GCSEs is better than scoring averagely in eleven; is there room for your son or daughter to take the right number for them? Also look at what kind of qualifications are on offer. Will your child be expected to take three academic A-levels at post-16, or will they have the option to study BTECs, which provide vocational training and test practical skills? Can they mix and match with A-levels and BTECs? Consider which path your child might most enjoy and succeed in, and find a school that will give them the flexibility to choose.
As James Watson (Headmaster, Milton Abbey School) reiterates:
‘An important consideration for parents should be the subject pathways and qualifications on offer. Many employers and universities are looking for quality over quantity; gone are the days of recommending children sit 10+ GCSEs. When children feel they have choice they will invest themselves more in their own learning and therefore see better outcomes.’
Staff Specialisms and Expertise
As well as curriculum, you should look at the staff and their specialisms. Are there any particular specialists onsite, such as an educational psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist? Perhaps there are high-level Teaching Assistants who offer everyday support in the classrooms. Or maybe the whole staff has had particular training; for example some schools enrol every teacher in dyslexia training, so that they are all experts in supporting that need. Again, shortlist schools whose staff are geared towards your child’s particular learning profile. It’s also worth considering the ratio of staff to students; even the most fabulous therapist cannot deliver quality support to every child if they’re the only specialist in a school of thousands.
How Support Is Delivered
Additionally, find out how and when the support will be implemented. Is every teacher making small adjustments within their regular provision in order that your child can be included? (They should be.) Will your child have a one to one mentor helping them in lessons, or will a specialist take them out for interventions? Will sessions be in groups, and if so, how many children? Are there extra out-of-hours sessions in addition to the main timetable, or do interventions happen during the day, replacing other lessons? Each arrangement (and combination of arrangements) is valuable in different ways for different children, depending on the nature and degree of their need. Above all, you should make sure that the support a school offers to your child is directly tailored. Your child should be regularly assessed as an individual, and the frequency and nature of interventions should be adapted throughout their school journey according to their progress.
As James Watson explains:
‘Every child benefits from targeted teaching strategies that support them as an individual, regardless of whether they have a diagnosed learning profile or not. Teachers and learning support teams must assess what works for each student in relation to each subject, and disseminate that information to all teaching staff to adapt their teaching and resources. The era of all students with SEND being deemed to benefit from the same interventions is over; the modern world and technology allows for an individual approach within whole school systems.’
Does School Size Matter?
Ample staff, regular input, personalised approach: if these factors are the key for children with SEND, it can be tempting to think that the smaller the school, the better the support. Fewer students means smaller class sizes and therefore more teacher attention per child – it’s a fair conclusion, right? Well, nearly. Smaller, more intimate, school settings can have wonderful benefits for children with SEND, especially those who might struggle with crowded, busy spaces due to social or behavioural challenges – and there are many small schools who offer outstanding support for a diverse range of learning needs. But we must be careful not to assume that a school has strong SEND provision solely because it is small; small schools can have disorganised systems, and large schools can have excellent ones. Size is not an automatic indicator of quality, and you should look carefully at each school for what it is.
The Importance of Ethos
Finding the right place for your child amongst all these diverse systems and setups might feel like searching for a diamond in a cave full of pebbles. But one thing that makes an excellent SEND school shine out is their ethos. Beyond any details of specific interventions, timetables or specialists, you should look for a school where your child will be happy.
James Watson emphasises that
‘Support for students should not result in them feeling marginalised, labelled or missing out on the community and having the same experience as their peers. It is imperative that teaching in lessons is inclusive, with reasonable adjustments, to challenge the students at appropriate levels.’
No one wants to feel singled out or different from their friends – and support shouldn’t have to look like leaving halfway through maths to go to an occupational therapy session, or putting your hand up if you need the sheet photocopied on blue paper. Look for a school where the support is as discreet, integrated, and thoughtful as possible. Your child should feel fully included when they’re at school, and the best schools for SEND make a conscious effort to ensure that this is the student experience.
Building Confidence and Self-Esteem
In addition, SEND provision is not just about manufacturing academic success; it’s about teaching your child to believe in themselves. Learning difficulties can make tasks more challenging and time-consuming, but every child is capable of reaching their full potential and achieving their goals. Self-esteem and inner belief are paramount: top schools are nurturing, encouraging, and inspiring, so that every child knows they can attain success, whatever their needs.
As James Watson elaborates:
‘It is the responsibility of schools and teachers to ensure that students do not feel they are limited or characterised by their diagnosis. Many students will have navigated negative experiences earlier in their education, often due to a lack of understanding or sweeping generalisations about learning differences. Everyone should be encouraged to understand their strengths and be given strategies to manage the things they find more challenging. Perhaps a student is an ‘ear reader’, or a ‘voice writer’, their version of reading and writing might not look like the Victorian ideal our education system seems to still desire.
The greatest gift an education system can give children, is not purely quantifiable by the qualifications they achieve, but rather by the skills and confidence it instils in them to be their own cheerleader beyond the protection of childhood.’
Key Takeaways
- Children are unique, and so are their needs – keep your child at the heart of your school search, and tailor your shortlist to their particular learning profile.
- Ask specific questions – finding out the details gives you the means to make an informed choice, and ensures the school will be equipped to welcome you into its community.
- Ethos is everything – the best schools for SEND are the ones that build children up, showing them that they are not defined by their difficulties but that they can achieve success alongside their peers.