Special Educational Needs Allowance (SENA)
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What is SENA and who can claim it?
Who can assess my child’s SEN?
How do I apply for SENA?
Our child has already been identified as having SEN, which boarding school should we choose?
What is SENA and who can claim it?
SENA is the Special Educational Needs Addition Allowance. This can be claimed by Service families if a child, who is already in receipt of CEA, is then found to have Special Educational Needs (SEN). It can only be claimed to cover the cost of additional lessons to support your child’s SEN, it cannot be used for equipment.
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Who can assess my child’s SEN?
Your child can be assessed by a Chartered Educational Psychologist, however they must be from the recognised Dyslexia Action organisation to support your claim for SENA. Although the Educational Psychologist is employed by Dyslexia Action they will be qualified to determine, and assess, all forms of SEN, and therefore recommend the corresponding level of support required.
Details of Dyslexia Action and their nearest office are available at www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk. If the distance to your nearest office is not acceptable and you feel that this may affect the assessment, then you could approach Dyslexia Action and ask if the assessment could be carried out at the school, unfortunately the travel arrangements would be at your own cost.
N.B. Dyslexia Action offer an initial assessment in order to determine if a full assessment is required, this is worth undertaking as you can only re-coup the cost of the full assessment if your child is found to have SEN.
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How do I apply for SENA?
You can contact the Children’s Education Advisory Service (CEAS) to ask for a form or click here to download the form.
You need to include the report from the Dyselxia Action Educational Psychologist with your application, and a letter from the school outlining the support that they will provide based on the report including the corresponding costs.
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Our child has already been identified as having SEN, which boarding school should we choose?
If you are already aware that your child has SEN then it is a good idea to let CEAS know when asking for the boarding school pack. They can then send you the appropriate additional information on schools for you to consider. Deciding on the most appropriate school is a difficult choice to make, and to a large degree it is dependent on the severity of the child’s SEN. A list of schools that are approved by CReSTeD, the Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic pupils, can be provided to assist the decision. These schools must meet the criteria set by this organisation and are visited regularly to ensure that they are maintaining these standards. However, there are some schools that choose not to be registered on the CReSTeD list that also provide a high standard of support for children with SEN.
The type of support available at schools on the CReSteD list can vary, again dependent on the level of need. Some schools will have additional, specialised units to help support children. The children then spend specified time at these units during the school day to gain additional support in the areas they require. If the SEN are quite severe there are some schools where the class size is very small, and there is continuous support for the needs of the children in the class, this is understandably at a much greater cost.
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