School Years

Navigating education

If your SEND child is school age, you may be wondering about the best place to seek information and support. Not all of us begin our journey from the same place. Some of us know our child has an additional need or disability from birth, or possibly before, while others do not find out until a later stage or may even just be wondering. Wherever you find yourself, there are many questions and feelings you may have and SGPC can help you navigate through them.

Let’s start with some easy steps to follow when you are planning or thinking about support.

Not all of us begin our journey from the same place. Some of us know our child has a disability from birth or before, others may not find out until a lot later on

with our help…

you can find your way

Top Tips for School Years

CONNECT ONLINE

Join SGPC’s mailing list for local information, support, and guidance

Join our community Facebook group and relevant online groups to chat with other parents

See our additional sources of information for guidance

Check out the Council’s SEND Local Offer website

Check our videos which can signpost you to further guidance

TO DO

Talk with someone else who knows your child well

Spend time identifying, understanding and meeting your child’s needs

Contact your GP, School Nurse, education setting or specialist consultant and share your concerns regarding your child

Keep a record of key information to share with professionals (one shareable document is easier than constantly re-telling your story)

Contact SEND and You (South Gloucestershire’s SENDIAS service) who can provide information, advice and support about SEND to children, young people and their Parent Carers

For those families with high needs consider accepting all forms of support or respite available for your child, making the most of what is available

Plan for transitions such as from home to school, moving between lessons, changes to teachers as well as moving between education settings as some children and young people find transitions harder than others

Visit groups who run activities for families, the council has an article about “things to do” on their Local offer website

Remember, making most of what is available without feeling guilty is looking after your wellbeing – it’s practising good self-care

Our support

Regardless of the level of need that your child has, you will benefit from support and understanding by contacting us. This can be the first step on a learning journey for both you and your child.

Finding the right school

The first big step may be to find the right school for your child. Visit your local schools (or specialist school if applicable), to talk about what is on offer and whether it feels like a good fit. Talk to other local parents of children with additional needs if possible and ask how well they felt their child was supported in school.

The council’s Information and Advice website details the different types of educational choices available.

Choices relating to education will be based on the assessment of the needs of your child and any combined information, both personal and professional. The council have information about how education settings should be supporting your child in their education setting in their Inclusion Toolkit.

Adjusting to their needs

When your child starts at their education setting it will take a little time for anyone involved in your child’s care to become familiar with their needs so a good transition plan is important. You will also have a part to play in making sure that the educational setting knows as much as possible, so together you can work around the needs of your child. Suggestions around transition planning are available on the Council’s Local Offer.

Remember, making most of what is available without feeling guilty is looking after your wellbeing

Being aware

Some families may spend some of their child’s school years unaware that their child has additional needs. We refer to this as hidden needs.

Sometimes you will notice things happening within the home that doesn’t show at school for a long time if at all!

You may see more behaviours displayed by your child which often are:

a means of communication
the result of an unmet or unidentified need.

You are not alone

If this sounds familiar, let us reassure you that you are not the first Parent Carer to live through this experience and we invite you to access the guidance and support available in our community – sometimes being heard and believed can make an enormous difference.

If you require any help or impartial guidance about your child’s education, the local SENDIAS service SEND and You can work with you to take the next steps towards gaining the support you need. They are a great resource for understanding the legal processes and requirements that underpin SEND education, what you can expect and what your rights are.

Watch our information videos

Elective Home Education (EHE)

We are noticing an increasing number of Parent Carers are considering EHE and this can be a preferred route for many reasons. However, if you are considering this route because you are dissatisfied with the provision from the education setting your child is in, we would urge you to research EHE thoroughly before switching to this pathway. In the right circumstances, the benefits of EHE can be immense but this is a pathway that comes with legal requirements that need to be met by the Parent Carer.

You can find information on electively home educating a child with SEND on the Local Offer and SEND and You have an EHE Toolkit for parents considering elective home education.

Help us collaborate and shape services to ensure they are fit for purpose.

When you share your views and experiences with us, we can feed them back to the service providers and stakeholders via the collective voice of our community, to form and shape the services we use. Working with us in this way truly makes SGPC our community for positive change.

This can be in the form of:

completing the surveys we create to gather your views
Speaking directly to our team
Giving feedback at any of our support groups or training and information sessions

VISIT OUR PARENT CARER VOICE PAGE TO LEARN MORE