Education A to Z

Education and Curriculum Terms: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.

Revising? We write GCSE revision songs — a playlist covering most subjects and the English set texts. Listen to the revision playlist.

80 terms filed under S, showing 21–30 (page 3 of 8).

S

SEN register

The school's list of pupils identified with SEND. Being on it is not a label to fear.

SEN support

Also called School support, SEN Support

Help arranged and paid for by the school itself, without an EHCP. This is where most supported children are.

SENCO

Also called SENDCO, Special educational needs co-ordinator

The qualified teacher responsible for SEND across a school. Every mainstream school must have one.

SEND

Also called Special educational needs and disabilities, SEN

The legal term for a child who needs something different or extra from what is ordinarily provided.

SEND Tribunal

Also called First-tier Tribunal (SEND), SENDIST, Appeal

The independent tribunal that decides SEND appeals against councils. Free, and parents win most of the time.

SENDIASS

Also called SEND Information Advice and Support Service, Parent Partnership

Free, confidential and impartial advice on SEND, which every council must fund. Under-used.

Sensory processing

Difficulty regulating sensory input. Common in autistic children and frequently mistaken for behaviour.

Sentence forms

Simple, compound, complex and minor sentences, and what each does.

Sequences

A list of numbers following a rule, and finding the nth term.

Setting

Where and when a text takes place, and what that does.

Something missing?

If there is a word or a process you have been nodding along to, tell us and we will write it up. This library exists because of the questions people were too polite, or too tired, to ask.

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