It is eighteen months since we first profiled SEN Diary. Now, version 2 is winning new converts, as Tracy Collins reports

SEN Diary—I struggle to remember how life was before it. Last year I was lucky enough to be chosen as a tester for version 2. The original program was designed to help make our jobs easier by providing an easy-to-use diary where all information pertaining to SEN pupils could be written up, printed off and utilised in a myriad of useful ways. How, I wondered, would version 2 build on that! While I found version 1 reduced my stress levels considerably, I felt that there were a number of other things it could have usefully included. When I mentioned these to the program’s designer, Ian, it seemed I wasn’t the only SENCo to have fed back their ideas. What I quickly found was that all these had been realised in version 2 in imaginative and extremely helpful ways. The new version is much better and has fantastic new features, such as the inclusion of any checklist relevant to a school. For example, I have columns for reading and spelling ages, so when I print off the register for staff all information I wish staff to have is included in it. No need for separate handouts for them to lose! When I open SEN Diary on my school laptop, a proactive ‘To Do’ list highlights those pupils for whom action is required within the next week. I am able to order pupils in any way I need and publish lists that meet the needs of my school. When I am required to produce figures showing the number of pupils at School Action Plus and with Statements it can be done quickly and easily at the press of a button. Gone are the days when I was asked to write a report for a review or a meeting and had to have scribbled notes typed up. Now I press a button and diary entries for individual pupils are printed off in a professional and informative format. New filters enable me to answer questions about the numbers of pupils with particular difficulties; eg, pupils in Year 10 at School Action with BESD. A user manual and ‘crib sheets’ (newly-introduced for version 2) offer excellent help when trying out a new feature. SEN Diary is an invaluable tool that is designed to help SENCos co-ordinate and organise the vast amount of information we have to hold and produce on individuals, Year groups and the whole school at any time. There were times when I couldn’t see the wood for the trees but using this software (which is automatically backed up every session!) means I don’t have to hold that information in my head or in lots of files in my office. SEN Diary is able to do that for me…and much more!       Click on the picture to see it full size Filter Panel       Filters enable you to easily concentrate your data entry and reports on a sub-set of Pupils       The Filters enable you answer questions about the Pupils who, for example, are in Year 8 and have SEN Type ‘BESD’    Order the Pupils by any column (and finally by Name) – means that you can provide check lists in the order most useful to the way your school works Pupil Summary – highlight the Pupil who’s Diary you want to edit/Publish       You see the same Pupils in the Pupil Summary as will be Published as Check Lists and other useful reports Panel selector       Individual Diary – The Diary for the Pupil highlighted in the Pupil Summary    Extra Columns – You can Set Up 18 of your own Extra Columns to store the information that is pertinent to your school – they can be seen and most edited here       Contacts – Can be used for Mail Merge or simply for letters to parents/guardians    Quick New Entry – Make Diary Entries for many Pupils without having to find each in turn – you can also copy Diary Entries to all the Pupils in the Pupil Summary    View – Set Up one or many predefined Views on your data – useful when shared Senco role    Publish – Flexible ways to Publish your data from Diary Entries (includes ‘To Do’ List, and NEW Pupil Summaries and Agendas)    Utilities – Delete Pupils; Year Change; and NEW Health Check and Auto Set Up    Help – Welcome to SEN Diary and access to User Manual and NEW Crib Sheets The currently-selected Panel – The Individual-Diary Panel is shown here which is used to record       Incidents that have taken place       Actions that you will need to do in the future       Meetings that have/will take place       ‘To do’ items integrated – simply don’t check the ‘Done’ box       Tick the ‘Conf’ column and you won’t accidentally reveal sensitive information    Two new columns for recording a Score and putting a against the diary item to indicate that it is important in some way