Speaking to nursey, school or college about support

Where to start

If you think that your child or young person needs some extra help and support at school, college or nursery it can hard to know where to start.

The first step is to try and have a conversation with someone in the school who knows your child or young person.  This could be:

• The class teacher
• Nursery staff
• Head of year
• Support staff
• SENDCO (Special Needs Coordinator)
• Head teacher

There could also be someone else in the setting who you could speak with.

Sometimes the setting may also contact you if they think that extra help is needed.

It is also a good idea to visit the school’s website to read about the SEND support on offer within your child’s school.  You can find details of schools available to those living in Kirklees on our Education Setting search page.

Search Education settings | Kirklees SEND Local Offer

What to think about?

Before you speak with someone from the setting you may want to write a list of your concerns, for example:

• school work and behaviour at school
• concentration, physical skills, relationships
• behaviour and mood at home
• how they feel about school
• any other issues such as bullying

You could also gather examples showing your child’s difficulties. This could include:

• schoolwork and homework, school reports, test results
• any professional reports or information (ie from health or social care)
• details of support they may have had at a previous setting

It’s also a good idea to write down any questions you might want to ask at the meeting, for example:

• what assessments have the school done to find out about my child’s difficulties?
• what extra help does my child get?
• how do you measure my child’s progress? Is he/she making the progress you’d expect?
• what can I do at home to help my child?

After this meeting, the setting should be able to explain what support they can put in place.  This could be:

• Teacher support - the teacher/staff adapting how they work with your child
• Small group support - such as extra spelling/reading sessions or social groups
• Adaptions to the setting such as different place in the classroom, different equipment or the use of technology to help
• Different ways of communicating and recording work
• Asking for help from services outside of the school 

Don't forget the positives!

It is a good idea to think about the strengths that your child or young person has, as these may help the setting to think about how best to support them.

Support Plans

The school may create a plan to describe any needs and what support is in place (sometimes called provision).

This plan may have a name like an IEP, MSP or I-Apdr - you can find more information about these plans here:

IEP's ANPs, provision maps and I-APDR's and MSPs

The support your child gets will vary depending on the specific needs of your child, but should be designed to ensure they receive the help they need to achieve their full potential.

Ask lots of questions!

If you don't understand something, don't be scared to ask lots of questions.  Make sure you understand what the setting is going to do next and when it will be reviewed. 

Perhaps consider setting up a follow up meeting so that you know you will get a chance to discuss this again.