How can a SENCo review support for using changing rooms?

Ask about privacy and access before judging avoidance

Check the actual room and transition, including how support can be provided with dignity under school safeguarding arrangements. Do not require personal concerns to be explained in front of peers.

Agree a practical arrangement with the relevant staff and pupil, following individual care or physical advice where applicable. Review whether it enables timely, comfortable access to PE rather than simply moving the pupil elsewhere. Preparing for the PE lesson can connect changing arrangements with the rest of the routine.

A SENCo review of using changing rooms should connect evidence, pupil voice, classroom practice and the impact of support already tried. Avoid assuming that one explanation fits every pupil. The same visible difficulty can arise from language demands, uncertainty, prior experiences, attention, memory, sensory load, skill gaps, relationships, fatigue or a mismatch between the task and the support available. Look for patterns across people, places and times of day, and compare difficult moments with occasions when using changing rooms goes more successfully.

Bring together four sources of evidence

Review using changing rooms using pupil voice, family information, classroom observation and concrete school evidence such as work, attendance, prompt levels or participation. None is sufficient alone. Look for convergence and for important differences between settings.

Make a decision

Further reading