Education - National Award for SEN Coordination
PGCert
Key facts
Start dates
September 2024 / September 2025
Location
Course length
Part time: 12-18 months
This course is not available to students classed as International for fees purposes.
Overview
The PGCert Education: National Award for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Co-ordination is a mandatory qualification for all newly appointed SENCos. It must be completed within three years of your SENCo appointment.
The government is committed to improving outcomes for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEN/D).
SENCos play a central role in schools to ensure that:
- effective provision is made for children with special educational needs and disability (SEN/D)
- and that the needs of individual learners are met.
Our course is delivered jointly with the Oxfordshire School Inclusion Team (OXSIT),
who support the development of best practice in schools and provide portfolio
guidance.
Our course tutors have professional experience of senior leadership and the SENCO
role in a variety of schools. We also work in close partnership with hundreds of
schools and colleges and other organisations, some of which also contribute to the
course, e.g. Oxfordshire SEN team, Mulberry Bush Outreach Team, Oxfordshire
Hospital School.
How to apply
Entry requirements
Specific entry requirements
All applicants must have one of the following:
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
- Qualified Teacher Learning Status (QTLS)
- Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS).
Please note that Students with (EYTS) will gain NASENCO applicable only to Early Years settings.
The National Award for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Coordination is a mandatory course for new SENCOs and the award must be achieved within 3 years of being appointed. All school staff in the role of SENCo will have completed the NQT induction period in full before applying (SEND Regs 2014).
An additional entry requirement is that the support of the Head Teacher (or equivalent) is required in order to support the school-based studies associated with this qualification and ensure that students are released to attend university teaching sessions.
Please contact the Programme Administrator at pgeducation@brookes.ac.uk to make an enquiry about the course.
Please also see the University's general entry requirements.
Pathways courses for EU students
We offer a range of courses to help you meet the entry requirements for your postgraduate course and also familiarise you with university life in the UK.
Take a Pre-Master's course to develop your subject knowledge, study skills and academic language level in preparation for your master's course.
If you need to improve your English language, we offer pre-sessional English language courses to help you meet the English language requirements of your chosen master’s course.
Terms and Conditions of Enrolment
When you accept our offer, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of Enrolment. You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.
Application process
Tuition fees
Questions about fees?
Contact Student Finance on:
Tuition fees
Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.
The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.
How and when to pay
Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.
- For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
- For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page
Additional costs
Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.
Optional costs
| Additional costs | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
It’s your responsibility to cover print / binding costs where coursework submission is required. Please note that a lot of the coursework is now submitted online. |
From £30 |
| You may choose to purchase books to support your studies. Many books on our reading lists are available via the Library, or can be purchased secondhand. | £20-60 per book |
Accommodation fees in Brookes Letting (most do not include bills) |
£94-265 per week |
Accommodation fees in university halls (bills included, excluding laundry costs) |
£122-180 per week |
Graduation costs include tickets, gowning and photography. Gowns are not compulsory but typically students do hire robes, starting at £41. |
Typically £0-200 |
Students are responsible for their own travel to and from university for classes. BrookesBus travel is subsidised for full-time undergraduate students that are on a course with a fee of £9,250 or more, or living in an Oxford Brookes hall of residence. There is an administration fee for the production of a BrookesKey. |
From £10 |
Funding your studies
Financial support and scholarships
Featured funding opportunities available for this course.
All financial support and scholarships
Learning and assessment
This is a three module course (60 credits) leading to the award of Postgraduate Certificate in Special Educational Needs.
Study modules
The schedule for each module is:
- one whole day and five evenings (approximately 21 hours of contact time)
- one online discussion (approximately three hours of contact time)
Learning and teaching
Teaching and learning activities include:
- online learning
- lectures
- online discussions
- presentations
- practitioner enquiry.
Assessment
Assessment methods used on this course
Module assessments will include reflective commentaries based on online discussions, essays, presentations and an SEN development project. Completion of the three modules leads to the PGCert. To attain the full National Award for SENCO, you must also present a portfolio of evidence from your practice, demonstrating that you have met all the 49 learning outcomes specified by the National College for Teaching and Leadership.
Research
The School of Education, Humanities and Languages is a thriving centre for educational research and teacher professional development. Students on master's level programmes therefore join a large research community comprising researchers at all levels of higher education study.
We hold two major research conferences each year - the School of Education Research Conference and the EdD Colloquium. All students are invited to attend our annual Research
Seminar Series (which attracts both internal and external speakers). We also organise a number of conferences, lectures, seminars and debates, some of which have an international reach.
The School’s six research groups exist to encourage engagement in research, publication, conference presentations, seminars and workshops:
- Inclusion and Wellbeing
- Policy, Partnership and Leadership
- STEAM pedagogy and learning
- Humanistic Perspectives on Education
- Early Years
- Applied Linguistics
View all staff profiles for School of Education, Humanities and Languages
After you graduate
Career prospects
Many of our SENCOs who complete the course go on to further career progression,
for example as:
- deputy / assistant head with responsibility for inclusion
- director of inclusion across a federation of schools
- LA consultant
- Leader of organisations supporting CYP with SEND.
Many non-SENCOs joining the course have secured SENCO positions during or
after completing the course.
Related courses
Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been
published on the website. For more information, please visit our
changes to programmes page.