Professional Development Programme for the Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCO)
Background
Starting from the 2017/18 school year, the EDB has been, by phases in three years, providing each public sector ordinary primary and secondary school with an additional teaching post to facilitate school’s assignment of a designated teacher to take up the role of SENCO to support IE.
SENCO is required to lead the student support team (SST) and assist the principal and the vice principal(s) in planning, coordinating and implementing the WSA to IE in order to further cultivate an inclusive school culture and enhance the effectiveness of the support given to students with SEN. The school management should support SENCOs and enable them to lead the SSTs in planning and executing relevant work, encouraging active co-operation among all school staff and informing all stakeholders (including school staff, parents and students) of the school policies, measures and strategies in supporting students with SEN. Besides, the school management should give recognition and support to the work of SENCOs, create room for them to implement support measures, and empower them to deploy the additional resources and manpower under the IE policies.
Description
The qualifications and professional training of SENCOs are the major factors facilitating the development of their role. Schools should give due consideration to teachers’ teaching experience, work experience and relevant qualifications when identifying a suitable teacher for the post of SENCO. Basically, teachers assuming the SENCO role should have at least three years’ experience in teaching and in promoting IE respectively. They should have received training in special education, such as having completed the BAT Courses on supporting students with SEN commissioned by the EDB or offered by tertiary institutions, or holding equivalent qualifications.
Apart from receiving relevant training in special education, to enhance the professional competence of SENCOs, the EDB organises the “Professional Development Programme for Special Educational Needs Coordinators” with a duration of approximately 120 hours for SENCOs who have not yet received relevant training. The content of this Programme covers leadership, planning and management, student-centred support strategies, lesson study, provision mapping and management, etc., so as to enable SENCOs to exercise the leadership role more effectively, arrange appropriate support to students strategically, strengthen collaboration with subject panels at different levels, promote home-school cooperation further and develop an inclusive school culture.