How to brief a new shadow teacher or LSA on a student's plan: a checklist for SENCOs

A rushed handover is where most placements start going wrong. If a new LSA or shadow teacher walks in without a proper briefing, your SENCO team ends up doing that work reactively, mid-term, instead of once, upfront.

Before day one

Share the student's actual plan — goals, current strategies, what's worked and what hasn't — not just a name and a start date. If the specialist arrives having only read a job description, they're starting from zero.

The first conversation

A short call or meeting between the SENCO, the class teacher and the specialist before the placement starts surfaces the details that never make it into paperwork: how the child responds to transitions, what de-escalates them, what the family has already tried.

Week one check-in

Schedule a short review after the first week specifically — not "if there's a problem," but as standard practice. Small mismatches are easy to fix early and much harder to unwind after they've become habits.

Ongoing communication, not just an emergency line

Decide upfront how the specialist reports back — weekly notes, a shared log, a standing check-in — so progress (or drift) is visible before it becomes a crisis.

Who owns the briefing

This is the staffing agency's job, not yours. If your current provider hands you a CV and expects you to do the briefing yourself, that's worth raising — see our schools & centres page for how we structure this differently.