Job Title: SENDCO
Responsible To: Vice Principal (Inclusion & Behaviour)
Salary: Leadership Scale / Competitive Outer London/National Spine (dependent on experience)
Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent
Job Purpose
The SENDCO will provide rigorous strategic, operational, and statutory leadership for the academy’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. The successful candidate will ensure that the academy is not just fully compliant with the SEND Code of Practice, but structurally future-proofed against evolving national frameworks.
A key dimension of this role is bridging exceptional statutory compliance with our high-structure, 'Teach Like a Champion' (TLAC) instructional model. We do not believe that high expectations and inclusive practice are mutually exclusive. The SENDCO will ensure that the graduated approach is executed with absolute operational precision, ensuring that students with SEND are empowered to meet the academy's uncompromising academic and behavioral standards through expert scaffolding and elite compliance tracking.
Furthermore, you will be a forward-thinking leader who deeply understands the shifting regulatory landscape, specifically the implications of the latest SEND White Paper and national Improvement Plans, ensuring the academy proactively adapts its practices and provisions now in readiness for these reforms.
Key Responsibilities
Statutory Compliance and Operational Excellence
- Oversee the day-to-day operation of the SEND policy, ensuring absolute alignment with the statutory SEND Code of Practice and the Children and Families Act 2014.
- Manage all statutory processes with meticulous precision, including Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) consultations, annual reviews, and emergency reviews within legally mandated timeframes.
- Coordinate funding streams, including High Needs Top-Up Funding applications, ensuring that all submissions are evidence-rich, clear, and legally compliant.
- Maintain flawless, audit-ready documentation and student profiles on school management systems, serving as the definitive point of contact for Local Authority audits and Ofsted inspections.
Strategic Reform & Future-Proofing (White Paper Readiness)
- Act as the academy's expert advisor on the implications of the SEND White Paper and upcoming statutory shifts (e.g., National Standards, digitized EHCP templates, and changes to Alternative Provision partnerships).
- Formulate and execute a proactive action plan detailing what the academy needs to be doing now to prepare for these reforms, ensuring our infrastructure is ahead of the compliance curve.
- Lead the strategic development of the SEND policy and accessibility plan, regularly reporting progress, data metrics, and legislative risk assessments to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Governing Body.
Teaching, Learning & TLAC Integration
- Collaborate with Subject Leads to ensure that the curriculum is masterfully adapted for students with SEND without watering down expectations or cognitive challenge.
- Train and support teaching staff to seamlessly execute universal high-quality teaching, demonstrating how TLAC techniques (e.g., Format Matters, Break It Down, Standardize the Format) can be weaponized as powerful accessibility tools.
- Ensure the Graduated Approach (Assess, Plan, Do, Review) is deeply embedded in classroom practice, moving away from passive "LSA reliance" toward teacher-led, high-ratio accountability for SEND progress.
- Work alongside the Head of the KS2–3 Bridge to ensure seamless transition pathways and immediate, compliant diagnostic screening for incoming vulnerable cohorts.
Leadership and People Management
- Line manage, deploy, and develop the team of Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) and Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), ensuring their interventions are high-impact, data-driven, and explicitly monitored.
- Design and deliver a robust CPD calendar for all teaching and support staff, focusing heavily on operational compliance, adaptive teaching, and evidence-informed neurodiversity strategies.
Person Specification
Qualifications & Professional Development
- Essential: Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
- Essential: National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination (NASENCO) or the new NPQ for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (NPQSENCO).
- Desirable: Further post-graduate qualifications in safer recruitment, psychometric testing (CCET), or access arrangements (AQA).
Experience
- Essential: Proven, successful experience as a SENDCO or Assistant SENDCO in a secondary school setting with a heavily compliant framework.
- Essential: A track record of successfully managing complex EHCP processes, local authority panels, and defending provisions through evidence-based compliance.
- Essential: Experience working within or leading a high-structure, high-expectation school environment that utilizes centralized routines or TLAC frameworks.
- Essential: Direct experience managing or restructuring a team of support staff to maximize measurable student outcomes.
Knowledge and Skills
- Operational & Statutory Mastery: An encyclopedic and up-to-date working knowledge of the SEND Code of Practice, safeguarding legislation, and funding mechanisms.
- Strategic Foresight: A deep conceptual understanding of the SEND White Paper / statutory reforms, including a clear vision of how schools must operationally pivot right now to adapt.
- Data Literacy: Exceptional ability to interpret data, identify trends across SEND demographics, and translate metrics into sharp, compliant intervention plans.
Personal Qualities
- Uncompromisingly high expectations; a firm belief that compliance and structure provide the ultimate safety net for vulnerable children.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and unflappable under bureaucratic or high-pressure timelines.
- An articulate communicator who can maintain firm, supportive, and legally watertight boundaries with staff, parents, and local authorities alike.
Safeguarding Statement
The organisation is strictly committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, expecting all staff and volunteers to share this unwavering commitment. The successful candidate will be required to undergo an Enhanced DBS check, secure satisfactory professional references, and clear all statutory pre-employment screenings.
This job description outlines the main duties of the post at the time of writing. It may be amended in consultation with the postholder to reflect changing educational or operational requirements.…Job Title: SENDCO
Responsible To: Vice Principal (Inclusion & Behaviour)
Salary: Leadership Scale / Competitive Outer London/National Spine (dependent on experience)
Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent
Job Purpose
The SENDCO will provide rigorous strategic, operational, and statutory leadership for the academy’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. The successful candidate will ensure that the academy is not just fully compliant with the SEND Code of Practice, but structurally future-proofed against evolving national frameworks.
A key dimension of this role is bridging exceptional statutory compliance with our high-structure, 'Teach Like a Champion' (TLAC) instructional model. We do not believe that high expectations and inclusive practice are mutually exclusive. The SENDCO will ensure that the graduated approach is executed with absolute operational precision, ensuring that students with SEND are empowered to meet the academy's uncompromising academic and behavioral standards through expert scaffolding and elite compliance tracking.
Furthermore, you will be a forward-thinking leader who deeply understands the shifting regulatory landscape, specifically the implications of the latest SEND White Paper and national Improvement Plans, ensuring the academy proactively adapts its practices and provisions now in readiness for these reforms.
Key Responsibilities
Statutory Compliance and Operational Excellence
- Oversee the day-to-day operation of the SEND policy, ensuring absolute alignment with the statutory SEND Code of Practice and the Children and Families Act 2014.
- Manage all statutory processes with meticulous precision, including Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) consultations, annual reviews, and emergency reviews within legally mandated timeframes.
- Coordinate funding streams, including High Needs Top-Up Funding applications, ensuring that all submissions are evidence-rich, clear, and legally compliant.
- Maintain flawless, audit-ready documentation and student profiles on school management systems, serving as the definitive point of contact for Local Authority audits and Ofsted inspections.
Strategic Reform & Future-Proofing (White Paper Readiness)
- Act as the academy's expert advisor on the implications of the SEND White Paper and upcoming statutory shifts (e.g., National Standards, digitized EHCP templates, and changes to Alternative Provision partnerships).
- Formulate and execute a proactive action plan detailing what the academy needs to be doing now to prepare for these reforms, ensuring our infrastructure is ahead of the compliance curve.
- Lead the strategic development of the SEND policy and accessibility plan, regularly reporting progress, data metrics, and legislative risk assessments to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Governing Body.
Teaching, Learning & TLAC Integration
- Collaborate with Subject Leads to ensure that the curriculum is masterfully adapted for students with SEND without watering down expectations or cognitive challenge.
- Train and support teaching staff to seamlessly execute universal high-quality teaching, demonstrating how TLAC techniques (e.g., Format Matters, Break It Down, Standardize the Format) can be weaponized as powerful accessibility tools.
- Ensure the Graduated Approach (Assess, Plan, Do, Review) is deeply embedded in classroom practice, moving away from passive "LSA reliance" toward teacher-led, high-ratio accountability for SEND progress.
- Work alongside the Head of the KS2–3 Bridge to ensure seamless transition pathways and immediate, compliant diagnostic screening for incoming vulnerable cohorts.
Leadership and People Management
- Line manage, deploy, and develop the team of Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) and Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), ensuring their interventions are high-impact, data-driven, and explicitly monitored.
- Design and deliver a robust CPD calendar for all teaching and support staff, focusing heavily on operational compliance, adaptive teaching, and evidence-informed neurodiversity strategies.
Person Specification
Qualifications & Professional Development
- Essential: Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
- Essential: National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination (NASENCO) or the new NPQ for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (NPQSENCO).
- Desirable: Further post-graduate qualifications in safer recruitment, psychometric testing (CCET), or access arrangements (AQA).
Experience
- Essential: Proven, successful experience as a SENDCO or Assistant SENDCO in a secondary school setting with a heavily compliant framework.
- Essential: A track record of successfully managing complex EHCP processes, local authority panels, and defending provisions through evidence-based compliance.
- Essential: Experience working within or leading a high-structure, high-expectation school environment that utilizes centralized routines or TLAC frameworks.
- Essential: Direct experience managing or restructuring a team of support staff to maximize measurable student outcomes.
Knowledge and Skills
- Operational & Statutory Mastery: An encyclopedic and up-to-date working knowledge of the SEND Code of Practice, safeguarding legislation, and funding mechanisms.
- Strategic Foresight: A deep conceptual understanding of the SEND White Paper / statutory reforms, including a clear vision of how schools must operationally pivot right now to adapt.
- Data Literacy: Exceptional ability to interpret data, identify trends across SEND demographics, and translate metrics into sharp, compliant intervention plans.
Personal Qualities
- Uncompromisingly high expectations; a firm belief that compliance and structure provide the ultimate safety net for vulnerable children.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and unflappable under bureaucratic or high-pressure timelines.
- An articulate communicator who can maintain firm, supportive, and legally watertight boundaries with staff, parents, and local authorities alike.
Safeguarding Statement
The organisation is strictly committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, expecting all staff and volunteers to share this unwavering commitment. The successful candidate will be required to undergo an Enhanced DBS check, secure satisfactory professional references, and clear all statutory pre-employment screenings.
This job description outlines the main duties of the post at the time of writing. It may be amended in consultation with the postholder to reflect changing educational or operational requirements.WWWWW…