Best Practice

SEND: Meeting with parents and carers

The SEND Code of Practice requires schools to involve parents in decision-making about their children’s education. Garry Freeman considers how teachers and others can hold effective, impactful meetings with parents/carers

We as professionals need to remember that parents/carers are the experts on their child and according to Chapter 1 of the SEND Code of Practice (DfE, 2015) you must to involve them in decision-making.

In order to build parents’ trust in you, your teachers, your leadership team, and your school as a whole, your ultimate goal is to build the relationship before you need it.

We need to ensure our meetings and/or communications with parents and carers are productive and interactive, based preferably on a whole-school approach.

Getting in touch: I offer my contact details and invite parents/carers to contact us to arrange meetings or to discuss their concerns and give them the means to do so. We pro-actively offer contact details such as a school email address and/or a direct phone contact number, and we remind parents that both are available on the school website.

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