The SENCO Handbook

Sarah Martin-Denham is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the ′Post Graduate Certificate National Award for Special Educational Needs Co-ordination′ and a Masters short course ′Supporting children with Social Emotional and Mental Health Needs′ at the University of Sunderland.  Sarah is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Vice Chancellor Teaching Fellow, Chair of an independent SENCO network and a Convenor of an interdisciplinary research network for developing knowledge, understanding and approaches for supporting children who are experiencing adverse childhood experiences.  She has extensive knowledge of learning and teaching in the North East of England in a variety of settings ranging from Early Years to Higher Education.  Sarah began her career as an infant school teacher in Sunderland then taught from entry level to foundation degree level study in a college.  For the last ten years Sarah has successfully developed and led four programmes and research projects in the School of Education at the University of Sunderland.  Through her work with children and families over the last twenty years and her own neurodiverse abilities she has developed a particular interest in special educational needs and disabilities. Steve Watts is currently a Lecturer in Education at Durham University, and was previously the Head of the School of Culture at the University of Sunderland.  He began his teaching career in schools in Northumberland.  Following a successful career as Head of Humanities, Head of Year and SENCO Steve moved to the University of Sunderland as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, eventually becoming a Principal Lecturer in secondary education.  In 2011 Steve successfully led the Secondary ITE Team through an Ofsted inspection to Grade 1 Outstanding. Steve became a Head of Department in 2011 and Head of School in 2016.  During this time he wrote, developed and taught the Mentoring and Coaching module on the MA Education Programme.  The module was delivered to students studying from around the world as part of an independent distance learning course.   Steve contributes to the NASENCO Programme at the University of Sunderland.  In addition to coaching and mentoring, Steve’s interests include ethnography and action research where he has been involved in working with teachers, both in the UK and across the globe.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Part I
Chapter 2: The Statutory and Regulatory Context
Chapter 3: Leading in the SENCO role
Chapter 4: Best Practice in Collecting and using Data
Chapter 5: Practitioner Enquiry
Part II
Chapter 6: Adverse Childhood Experiences
Chapter 7: Meeting the Needs of Looked After and Permanently Placed Children
Chapter 8: Social, Emotional and Mental Health
Chapter 9: Neurodiversity
Chapter 10: Learning and Physical Difficulties
Chapter 11: Preventing School Exclusion
Part III
Chapter 12: Person Centred Approaches
Chapter 13: Managing and Working with Support Staff
Chapter 14: Coaching and Mentoring
Chapter 15: Leading on Professional Learning