Special educational needs (SEN) - placement in mainstream schools
Barnet Council promotes the principles of inclusive education and is committed to enabling the majority of children to be educated alongside their peers at their local mainstream school.
Every effort is made to ensure that our schools have the expertise and resources to meet children’s special educational needs, to enable them to achieve high standards and reach their full potential.
In recent years, Barnet’s Educational Psychology Service and Inclusion Education Advisory Team have pioneered the development of new and effective literacy and behavioural support programmes. This enables Barnet schools to provide effective, targeted support for children with commonly occurring difficulties in developing reading and spelling skills. In addition, many children also receive help from specially trained teachers, provided by the borough’s Inclusion Team.
The Council is constantly planning and developing new provision and resources to make sure that the needs of all children can be met in schools and settings in their local area. All Barnet schools have money in their budgets to enable them to provide appropriate support for children with different kinds of special educational needs.
The Council provides training for both teachers and classroom support staff to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to meet children’s special educational needs. Schools are encouraged and helped to share good practice with each other. Schools can also call on a range of Council-funded specialist advice and support services to help them plan for and provide support for children in school.
A number of Barnet mainstream schools are equipped with resource bases to meet a range of special educational needs.
The statement for Admissions to Mainstream Schools for Children with SEN 
(PDF: 100KB) will provide you with further information.
Special School provision
For some children with more complex needs it may be more appropriate for their special educational needs to be met at one of the special schools within the borough. If this is not possible, then the LA can also seek specialist provision in other boroughs.
Children, young people and families
