About Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND): Guidance for Families

This guidance is intended for schools to share with multilingual families, whose children have, or may have, a special educational need or disability (SEND).  

The guidance has been written in comprehensible language to help families navigate the processes and provision for learners who have SEND in primary and secondary schools. This information is especially helpful for those families who are new to the UK and are attending a school in England. 

The guidance is available in the following languages:

Families can access information and advice on the following: 

  • The first interview; 
  • School assessments; 
  • Dealing with the school, accessing and providing information, and confidentiality; 
  • Reasonable adjustments schools are required to make; 
  • Access arrangements for tests and exams; 
  • Help from SEND and community organisations. 

The guidance also contains a glossary of key terms and simple descriptions of the four categories of SEND.

Upcoming courses and webinars

How to adapt teaching for learners who use EAL (online course)

Date
3 November 2026
Time
9:00am
Price
£49 - £73
Type
Online course, Run by The Bell Foundation
Location
Online
Webinar

Developing a language policy for multilingual schools: Coventry’s model (webinar)

Date
3 November 2026
Time
4:00pm
Price
Free
Type
Run by The Bell Foundation, Webinar
Location
Online
Regional training

Embedding EAL Assessment Primary (Online Regional Training)

Date
4 November 2026
Time
3:30pm
Price
£45
Type
Online course, Regional training
Location
Online
Regional training

Adaptive Teaching for Learners Using EAL – Secondary (Online Regional Training)

Date
4 November 2026
Time
1:30pm
Price
£49
Type
Online course, Regional training
Location
Online