To get a good education, parents and carers must, by law, make sure that their child goes to school or has other types of education such as home schooling (elective home education) or a training provider. This will help them get a good start in life and give them the chance to learn new skills and get the qualifications they need to give them the best chance of getting a job when they leave school.
We know that children who go to school regularly, or who get the best chance to learn through elective home education, are less likely to get into trouble with the police or be taken advantage of by others when they are out in the community. For all these reasons, we want to see children going to school so that they can learn and grow as people, make friends, fit in where they live, connect with their community and understand the world around them.
Around 14.5% of children and young people in County Durham are recognised as having Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). A child’s or young person’s SEND can make it harder to learn, and in some instances communicate their thoughts and feelings. To support children and young people with SEND, care needs to be taken to understand their individual needs. Once understood, the support that they receive from their family, friends, services and schools will have the most impact, and this may require some extra or different help from that given to other children of a similar age. Support may be required for a short period of time or sometimes for the whole of their school life and beyond.
If SEND goes unidentified or unmet, children and young people cannot develop with their peers and may become withdrawn or challenging. With the right support, it has been proven that children and young people can function well and make progress in many or all aspects of their life.
We would like children and young people with SEND, and their parents/carers, to feel confident in the support they receive at home, at school and in their community so that children can grow up to be happy, and be the best they can be, and for parents to feel that they can cope and have networks of support that they can rely on.
Information sources
If you have access to the Durham Schools Portal, there is also information on there for children missing education.
- Anti-Bullying Alliance
- Department for Education
- Durham Insight: children and young people
- Durham Insight: special educational needs and disability (SEND)
- DurhamEnable
- DurhamWorks
- DurhamWorks: programme for schools
- Early years education
- Families Information Service: Local Offer
- Gov.uk: guidance Working together to improve school attendance
- Making sure your child attends school
- Ofsted
- School attendance
- West Sussex Council Local Offer: Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) Toolkit
Tools
If you have access to the Durham Schools Portal, there is also information on there from the Attendance Improvement Team.
- Anti-Bullying Alliance
- Schools and Education Settings: Health and Wellbeing Framework
- Support Inclusion in Durham – guidance for school and service leads