I'm a SENCO. And essentially, that means I am the special educational needs coordinator for my school. Ideally, a SENCO would be part of the leadership team of the school. This ensures that special needs is high on the priority list for the school. And it shapes the ethos of the school. There's lots of liaison with external agencies, lots of frustration. But ultimately, it's the best job in the world because you're advocating for the most vulnerable people within our society. I think the parents are always the first to notice when there's something maybe not quite right with their child, something that you think-- unusual behaviours. There's obvious signs to look for if there's a language delay or a physical delay. But there's also quite sort of small signs that parents look out for. And what I hear a lot from parents is that when they're at children's parties or if they're at a playgroup, they notice things with their children that perhaps of stand out to them. And it could be anything. It could be anything. The two-year check is vital for young children, I would say. That's when a health visitor can pick up on anything that they see or anything that the parents might have seen. And then the health visitor's a key person in directing the parents to some additional support or some places that they can go to potentially have an assessment for their child. During the pandemic, lots of two-year checks didn't take place, unfortunately. Well, certainly not face to face anyway. Lots of these two-year checks were virtual. And I think a lot of things were missed. Once your child starts at nursery, it could be that the teacher, the nursery teacher, notices things about the child. Again, lots of little things. Maybe that they're walking on tiptoes or they're playing alongside children rather than with other children. Perhaps they don't want to come and sit with the other children on the carpet, they're struggling physically outside, they're not picking up on basic phonics, rhyming, songs. Lots and lots of different signs. I would say go with your gut. And I would say forge a really good relationship with your nursery teacher, your reception teacher, or your child's teacher. Form that great relationship. And it's easier to talk to them. I would go to them as soon as you're worried. The teacher can look out for things. They can give you the heads up. Are they doing this at school? Do they not notice in this school, doing this at school? Are they doing other things at school? I would go pretty much straight away. And just speak to them. Just speak to them. And have an honest conversation with them. A school can do quite a lot of things. So what we would say is that we would look for any provision that's ordinarily available within a school. So that could mean some changes in teaching styles, the classroom setup, small intervention groups. And every borough has got an ordinarily available document on their website that you should read. Have a look at it. It will give you ideas about things that your school should be able to provide. So for example, we run an intervention called Talk Boost. So Talk Boost for our younger children helps them with their language acquisition and their social communication. We've got another group called Attention Autism. So these are for pupils that have been diagnosed with autism. And it's a highly motivated group that is working on their attention and listening. There's loads of interventions that you can provide as a school within your ordinarily available provision. If a child requires more than this, provision that is more than what is ordinarily available at your school, then you would apply for an education health care plan. The application for this, it varies borough to borough. It's a big, lengthy document that takes a while to complete. But ideally, the plan comes with funding. And this funding is usually used for additional support at school, hopefully through the form of a learning support assistant. Some boroughs, it doesn't come with funding straight away. That's an additional application. But here in Barnet, it comes with funding. The funding is banded. So they look at the needs of the child. And they give you abandon for what they think would cover the provision cost for that child. The document then is a legal document. We call it the golden ticket. This is your legal document that will track your child until they-- and be given to your child until they are 25. It has measurable outcomes on there that your school must help the child meet these outcomes. And it's reviewed annually. The ideal scenario would be if a parent noticed something about their child before you. And they came to you. But on occasions is the teacher that has to speak to the parents. And I think this is a key conversation and something that's so important because guaranteed, these parents will remember this forever, this first conversation with a teacher that there's something may be quite different. Or there's something that the teacher is concerned about. So you have to go about it with lots of love and lots of nurture and empathy. So ideally, the teacher would speak to the parent first of all. Because I think if you call in the SENCO at the first stop, it's really intimidating for the parents. And when you see another adult that you're not used to seeing attending a meeting, I think it can be quite scary for them. So initially, the teacher would have the conversation with the parents. And perhaps you would come up with a few strategies together on things that you can try and work on initially at school. And then I would say not long after, you would call in the SENCO. And then maybe some formal referrals would be made at that point, maybe to speech and language therapist, to the paediatrician. We've got lots of external agencies that we can refer to depending on the need. Quite often, children are very different at home to how they are at school. And I think a really good sort of tip would be to take videos of your children. Make notes of the things that you're worried about. And show them to the teacher. And say, look, have you seen this? Have you seen this behaviour at school? Is this something that you see? Because quite often, they are different at school and at home. But the key thing is that you work together. It doesn't matter that they're different at school to at home. You both have a common sort of goal. And you work together. Initially, when you see that your child is different, perhaps they would get a diagnosis of some sort. Often, parents go through a grieving process because the child is not quite who they thought they would be. And you're worried about their future. Because when you have a child, you have their future planned out in your head. And it might not be the future you saw for them. And I think it's so important for schools to be sympathetic about that and to understand how the parents are feeling. And it can put a big pressure on families as well when you do have a child that may get a diagnosis or who has difficulties. It puts a big pressure on the family, on your relationships. But you'll get through it. You'll get through it with the right support. But it is a process. And we all need to be aware of that and be sympathetic to it. I can remember the first time that my son's nursery had some concerns about him. And I remember going into the room. And again, there was somebody there that wasn't expecting to be there. And they didn't actually want to say to me that they were worried he had autism. I think they wanted me to say it first. And yes, I had feelings that maybe he did have some autistic tendencies. We have autism in the family. So it wouldn't have been that much of a shock if he was. But I think hearing it from them was a big shock to me still. And I remember the day well. And I took him to Pizza Express. And then I went to meet a friend of mine at Barnet Library. And I sobbed because I thought, what now? What's going to happen now? And sometimes, your family can be supportive. And our family is supportive. But sometimes, you will get maybe members saying, don't be silly, he's lovely. What's wrong with him? There's nothing wrong with him. And you're saying, well, no, we're not saying there's anything wrong with him. We're just saying that perhaps he's autistic and we need to find the right support for him. And it puts a huge pressure on the family. And I know some parents here don't tell always members of their family. They keep the diagnosis quiet because they are still worried about the effect or a stigma attached to a diagnosis. I see parents who don't want to chase a diagnosis. And I see parents who really want a diagnosis. There's still in lots of parents' minds a stigma attached to a formal diagnosis of some sort. Here, we see a diagnosis as some sort of superpower because it shows you who you really are and the things that you're brilliant at and the things that you struggle with. And I think the older your child gets-- and certainly, in my case with my child, the bigger the understanding he has of himself, the less he worries about things. He understands why he finds some things difficult because he's got that understanding of himself. And he doesn't use it as an excuse to get out of anything. And he just gets on with it. But with this knowledge that he's got this superpower, that makes him unique and makes him special. I think you really need to be transparent when you're a SENCO. The best relationships I have with parents are when I'm completely honest with them about processes and completely transparent because processes, sort of referrals, applications for things are frustrating. And they can take a very long time. And I think you have to be transparent about the mistakes you've made because there will be mistakes that you make. And you have to have a really good relationship with them. And that is a big part of it-- being transparent, being honest. I have great relationships with our parents here-- not always, not always. And that's difficult. And it is always difficult to not take it personally. But generally, I have great relationships because I'm honest. And I give them a lot of time. And I think you need to be available. You need to be available when they're having a bad morning. You need to be available when they just need a chat. You just need to be available to them. And I think that's what makes the best SENCOs. So the most successful children that I see here is when we've had a really good relationship with the parents and we've worked together through their school life, to come up with outcomes, support plans that are beneficial for them, that really tap into what we need them to be able to do before they leave us. I think being open to this dialogue with parents is just so essential. And I think not everybody gives parents the time that they deserve because, really, they know the child best and listen to them. And I would say that to all SENCOs, all teachers, listen to these parents. They do know these children really well. They know them inside and out.