SENCo Network Meeting

Led by Kate Browning

Overview

Our SENCo Network offers a wealth of opportunities for new and experienced SENCOs to come together to receive expert guidance through professional development – enhancing their skills to help them to thrive in their role, keeping up to date with research and developments and fostering collaboration by creating a community for sharing best practices, resources and advice.

As always there will be opportunities to share practice, network with colleagues and discuss challenges faced within schools.

Facilitator Profile

Kate Browning, for over 25 years, has been passionately committed to supporting schools to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Kate has worked as a SENCo, a Local Authority School Improvement Officer for SEND and interim Education Development Officer for NASEN for whom she wrote guidance and delivered national training on the SEND Code of Practice. Kate has a successful track record of working with individual and groups of schools, trusts and local authorities through consultancy, training, reviews and producing written guidance. Kate is an associate of the University of Northampton where she teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in SEND.

Network Partner

Scanning Pens are passionate about helping every child become a confident, independent learner. Their mission is

simple: to make reading and learning more accessible for all pupils, particularly those with dyslexia, reading difficulties, EAL needs, and other additional learning requirements.

Trusted by thousands of schools across the UK, their award-winning assistive technology is designed to support learners both in the classroom and during assessments. Their portable, easy-to-use reading pens help pupils access printed text independently, reducing barriers to learning and boosting confidence.

The C-Pen Reader 2 is widely used in primary schools and features an Exam Lock mode, allowing the device to be used in line with access arrangements during KS2 SATs. This gives eligible pupils the support they need to access written materials while maintaining exam compliance.

The C-Pen Reader 3 is their next generation of powerful support tools. Alongside industry-leading text-to-speech scanning, it now includes speech-to-text functionality, enabling pupils to dictate their ideas and see them converted into text. The Reader 3 also provides comprehensive multilingual support, helping EAL learners access curriculum in over 40 different languages more confidently and independently.

Whether supporting early literacy development, enabling access to curriculum content, or helping pupils build greater independence, their technology empowers children to participate more fully in their learning journey.