Holding Supportive Meetings
Holding Supportive Meetings
Holding Supportive Meetings
Attending meetings at school or college can feel like an intimidating experience for some parents/carers. Their own previous experiences of education may influence how they feel about working with and meeting staff, particularly during meetings or occasions perceived to be more formal.
Experienced SENCOs identify that it is helpful to support parents/carers by:
Having a shared agenda for all meetings.
Agreeing with parents/carers in advance and again at the start of the meeting what will be discussed and with whom. A questions prompt sheet has been created for parents/carers which includes important points to cover when setting up meetings. The prompt sheet for arranging meetings with parents/carers can be downloaded in the 'related files' section.
Providing parents/carers and children and young people with a summary of what has been discussed they can take away with them.
Some SENCOs create parent/carer versions of IEP targets and share the children and young people's provision map to help parents/carers understand what is in place and what is happening to support their child in school/college. A meeting summary template has been created, which can be adapted and completed with or by parents/carers following meetings in school or college. This can be downloaded in the 'related files' section.
Facilitating person-centred meetings
Facilitating person-centred meetings helps to promote participation and ensure that children, young people and families are at the centre of decision-making. Some schools run all meetings as person-centred meetings as part of a whole school ethos of participation and co-production (see Participation, co-production and person-centred planning).