DFE


Senco-forum - DfE hosted forum to support Special Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) and others involved in the education of pupils with special educational needs share ideas and learn from each other

Welcome to the SENCo forum

If you are already a member of the forum and want to:

  • change how you receive your messages
  • unsuscribe

Please scroll down to the Senco-forum Subscribers section.

The SENCo Forum is an electronic mailing list for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (and those with similar job titles) and others who are involved in the education of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. The Forum was started in 1996 with the aim of providing an opportunity to discuss issues and share practical advice of help to SENCos in carrying out their roles. The Forum has a commitment to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and inclusion, and to offering a solution-focused, collaborative and mutually supportive resource.

The Forum was initially hosted by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) but is now hosted by the Department for Education (DfE). An Advisory Group that meets three times per year supports the Forum. This Group’s function is: to monitor the operation and membership of the Forum; to ensure that message content is of use to SENCos, and to ensure that the Acceptable Use Policy (see below) is observed. The Group has a rotating three-year membership, currently consisting of 3 primary SENCos; 3 secondary SENCos; 3 advisory/support staff; 2 trainers; a representative of the DfE and an independent chair.

Members can use the Forum to raise issues important to them and share information. Your input is crucial to making the forum useful and we welcome any suggestions for its future development. Please send any comments or questions to forums.sen@education.gsi.gov.uk

Using Senco-forum

When you become a member of the forum, you can send your messages to this email address: senco-forum@lists.education.gov.uk. Your message then goes to all the members.

The SENCo-forum is an open discussion group; this means that anyone with an interest in this area is welcome to participate in the discussions. It is important to note that anyone with internet access can read messages sent to the Forum and when you send a message your email address will be visible to other members of the Forum.

The Department for Education (DfE) commit to never censoring a discussion and/or amending messages due to content and/or views expressed, as long as messages comply with the rules established by the forum (see below) and the DfE acceptable use policy (see below).

All messages sent to the SENCo-forum are stored in a publicly available archive. Archives are provided as an additional resource to users and enables non-members to browse the messages. The archive also means that you do not have to save every message you receive from the forum. An archive of messages up to October 2010 can be found at  Senco-forum Pre-March 2011 Archives, and messages from March 2011 at  Senco-forum Post-March 2011 Archives .

If you need to contact the SENCo Forum list-owner, please send an email to: forums.sen@education.gsi.gov.uk 
Subscribing to Senco-forum

Please read the Acceptable Use Policies (see below) before subscribing to the Forum – by subscribing you are deemed to agree to abide by them.

The Forum is operated by an automatic ‘mailman’ system, so please use the process below.

    Your email address:  
    Your name:  
    Password: You can choose a password (optional), or a password will be sent to you when you receive confirmation of your subscription. Passwords must contain a combination of letters and numbers. Do not use a password that is valuable to you as you will be reminded of it on a monthly basis in plain text by the automated ‘mailman’ service.

    If you prefer to choose your own password, enter it here: Once a month, your password will be emailed to you as a reminder.

    Pick a password:  
    Reenter password to confirm:  
    Which language do you prefer to display your messages? English (USA)  
    Would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest? No Yes

Unsubscribing or changing how you receive your messages - for existing members
(The subscribers list is only available to the list administrator.)

Enter your admin address and password to visit the subscribers list:

Admin address: Password:   

To unsubscribe from Senco-forum, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options enter your subscription email address:

If you leave the field blank, you will be prompted for your email address

Acceptable use policy

By emailing and/or subscribing to the SENCo-forum mailing list, you are expected to follow the DfE acceptable use policy and follow the rules established for the SENCo-forum by its members to:

  • ensure all members feel confident that they are not open to abuse or harassment;
  • not use the forum for purposes of advertising and marketing products or services except those that are free resources that are in the context of this forum.