Support in School & College

If you need extra help with learning, you might have special educational needs or a disability. This is often called SEN or SEND.

If you are not moving forward with your learning and you have SEN or SEND, you might need extra support.

Your school or college should talk with you about whether you have had extra support (sometimes known as SEN support or SEND support) in the past and how this has worked for you. They might also ask your parents about this.

They will then decide what support might work for you now.

Some of the support that you may be able to get at school or college.

• Work that is a bit different to the work that they give to other people in your class
• Specialist equipment for you, such as a laptop, reading pen or noise reducing headphones
• Extra help from an adult in the classroom to help with your learning
• Teaching you in a smaller group
• Extra time to do work or more support in exams
• If you are worried about anything, someone to talk with regularly at school such as a mentor or counsellor
• Social skills groups, if you’d like help making friends or talking with people
• Help from a specialist service, for example the Educational Psychology Service or the Occupational therapy service

These are just examples of some of the extra help that you might be able to get. Your school or college should be able to tell you what they can give you.

You could talk with your teacher, tutor or an adult who you trust at your school or college. You could talk with your parents or you could get in touch with us.

If your school or college can’t give you all of the support that you need so that you can move forward with your learning, they might ask whether you would like an education and health care needs assessment. You can read more about this further down this page.

An EHC plan describes in writing:

• your special educational needs
• your health needs
• your social care needs
• what you would like to achieve (outcomes)
• the support you need (provision)

An EHC plan is a legal document, which means your school or college must follow what is in it.

You can have an EHC plan until you are 25 years old.

You can read more about EHC plans here.

If you have special educational needs and the support that your school or college can give you isn’t enough to help you move forward with your learning, you can ask for an Education and Health Care needs assessment.

To do this, you should write to the Local Authority (Bracknell Forest Council). If you would find this difficult you can get help with this. Your parents or carers could write for you, or if you have a social worker or support worker, they can help you.

We can help too and please do get in touch if you would like this support.

This is a careful look at your SEN and the extra help that you need to learn. During an EHC needs assessment Bracknell Forest Council will ask lots of people to meet or talk with you and think about the help that they think you need so that you can learn. These people will write reports and send them to the council.

Bracknell Forest Council will look at these reports and decide whether you need an EHC plan.

You can read more about EHC needs assessments here.

You can have an EHC plan until you are 25 years old, if you stay in education, employment, or training, but are not at university. You might not need your EHC plan this long.

If the council are going to stop your EHC plan, they must tell you this. If you think that you still need your EHC plan, you can appeal this decision and please do get in touch if you would like to know more about this. The council will usually decide this after an annual review.

At least once year, Bracknell Forest Council must think about whether your EHC plan is still right for you, and this is called an annual review. This will usually take place at the same time every year but might be earlier if you or your school or college think that you might need different support.

As part of the annual review there should be an annual review meeting. This will usually be held at your school or college and you should be asked whether you would like to go to this meeting. Your parents or carers might also be asked to go to the meeting, as well as the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities co-ordinator (SENCo) at your school or college, people from Bracknell Forest Council and any professionals that you work with.

You should be asked to give your views towards the annual review meeting and you can click here to see some information about how you might do this (produced by Flare).

Our child and young person case worker would be happy to talk about how they can support you to share your views and please get in touch if you would like to know more about this.