Advocating for your child in the SEND system isn’t just about being heard—it’s about being understood, respected, and taken seriously. And while professionals might sit at the table with titles and policies, you bring something even more powerful: the unshakable determination to ensure your child is seen and supported.
SEND: “My Child Is Struggling! Now What?”
What is the APDR Cycle?
Assess, Plan, Do, Review (APDR) is part of the Graduated Response schools must follow under the SEND Code of Practice 2015. It’s not a “nice to have” it’s a legal requirement.
SEND: Surviving The Summer with SEN Parent Support Group
Summer’s lovely, but let’s be honest it can also be a lot. Our CYP’s SEND can be impacted profoundly as routines go out the window, everything’s louder, hotter, busier… and if you’ve got children with sensory processing or emotional regulation difficulties, it’s like turning up the volume on chaos.
WHAT IS EOTAS?
EOTAS is an alternative education arrangement for children who cannot attend a school setting due to their special educational needs (SEN). It is not the same as home schooling and it is not AP (alternative provision provided via a Section 19 submission). EOTAS is funded and arranged by the local authority (LA) through your EHCP.
Children Wellbeing & School Bill
The expectation within Law is built on the fact that the framework works from a schools point of view, to support the child. However, the onus is always on the families to PROVE SEN, due to the cash strapped schools not wanting to admit ‘SEND’ due to the funding they will then have to find!
SEN Parent TRAUMA
For me, it starts with hypervigilance, where I will be defending and justifying everything, this phase passes and then the numbness creeps in filling me with emptiness, progresses to a paralysis one which is similar to burnout. I can’t engage, I struggle to think clearly and I am unable to perform the simplest of self-care tasks. Yet, whilst all of this is going on – I can’t let my son see.
SEN Parent Support Group NEWS LETTER
SEN Parent Support Group 2024/2025 NEWS!! Message from Founder, awards, accreditations, media coverage and much more!
A SEN Parents Glimmer of Hope!
It was the day when, smack in the middle of year 5, his primary school days ended. He had a period of escalation leading up to that fateful day – refusing to do work at school, struggling to sleep, hiding under desks, pacing corridors, EBSA – but nothing could have prepared us for the abrupt end which led to him being unnecessarily restrained and traumatised. One year ago, my boy was broken.
It was awful, it felt like it would break our family. Our boy became aggressive, could barely talk at the beginning and was so clearly in mental anguish, barely existing day to day.
BUT … that is our past and not our future.
So, let me share with you some highlights from the last year
Living with PDA – No, it is not “spoilt child syndrome”
One approach that has helped us survive is low demand parenting. This means
strategically reducing the number of direct demands placed on a child so they feel
more in control and less anxious. Sounds simple, right? Ha. Think again.
Groundhog Day For Your SEND Child?
A new day, a new beginning – a chance to start again! That’s what parents say to bring about a positive start to the day, why, because we have foresight and hope! A child’s perspective is very different, you see when they open their eyes each morning, none of that happens quite frankly, because quite often they don’t have the developed cognition to see past the now, or the yesterday and the fear that the previous day brought!
