Having trouble with sons school...

Charliestwins

Hi all,

A bit about my son
My son is 13 and goes to a main stream school, he has Cerebral Palsy ( left hemi) he goes to a main stream school. He walk with the use of a splint or electronic muscle stimulator. He also wears an arm splint at home too. His balance isnt great as you can imagine and easily falls over. With only full use one one arm and hand he struggles with stairs or anything that requires 2 hands. His left arm mimics what his right does.

We have had MANY meetings with the school about poor communication between staff about his needs and what he can and cant do.

My problem

His school have been hopeless with helping him with his needs. From day 1 i have had to fight to make his life easier at school. here are some examples of whats happened over the last 18m since he started secondary :

>He was locked in the changing room as he took longer to get changed, it took an hour before he could get someones attention. - took months before i got an apology

>He worked with knives etc in woodwork for 8m without any assistance, ket being told off for poor/late work - at parents eve we had to inform teacher about his disability !!!

>One teacher refused to let him out of class to go to a hospital app even tho he had a letter to confirm, which then resulted in us missing the appointment.

> He was beaten up at school, yet the school refused to phone the police i had to do it when we got home. The school did very little to help my son settle back into school and one teacher even tried to make him pair up with the bully as she hadn't read her email to keep them apart.

> It took me 12m to get a card to allow him to leave class a few mins early so he dont get knocked about by other kids trying to get to his next lesson. Even with this sometimes he isnt allowed out.

> Teachers often ask him if he has hurt his foot / hand yet they should be aware already.


This is just to name a few, but what makes me REALLY angry is he is allowed to use the main entrance to the school ( suppose to walk round to the back entrance) if its unsafe for him to do the long walk - snow, ice etc. Yet on Mon when i dropped him off the receptionist tried to refuse him entrance ( i had drove off) and he had to argue with her to get entrance and tell her about his CP ( which she should know GRRR) now if he had to of walked all the way round he would of fell over a million times which surly would of been an health and safety risk ??

Should he of had a risk assessment done ? if so should i have been given a copy of it ?

He has even burnt his had on the oven before now as he was made to work on his own because the teacher didnt know.

I have had many conversations with the school senco with many promises that all the teachers have been informed ( emailed) about my son and his needs yet clearly they havent read them !! ive had a meeting with the head where she said he would ersonally make sure all teachers / staff were informed. I have even been to his head of year.

Who should i be contacting now as i am really losing it now with the school

Many thanks

snoopytweety

Hi,

I used to (it's been a long time - so sorry if I am out of date) work for a local education authority, and in situations like this people would normally try to sort it out with the school first - which has quite clearly not worked for you. The next level would then normally be to go straight to the Director for Education for your Authority. I know this seems like a big step up, but quite frankly if a school head teacher, plus SENCO, plus teachers cannot sort this out and have your son's education experience turned into something positive, then I would say this is your only option!!! Good luck.

leighannwatson

I'm sorry I've no advice to give you but just wanted to say what an awful school it sounds. The teachers sound like a right bunch of muppets, I'm guessing your son won't be the only disabled child in school, surley they must have a policy in place for children with needs. How aboutcontact the local education authority to put in a complaint about the treatment.

Many years ago the secondry school that I went to catered for children with disabilities, infact a couple of my mates had spina bifida and my bezzie mate had CF. My son who's 4 is in mainstream primary with a statement of needs as he has speech and language problems (in other words his language is still at lot of babble.) The school has a special unit attached for speech disorders and they are really fantastic.

I'd certainly put

longhotbath

Hi Charliestwins - This is shocking and disgusting.

write a letter today to the head of the school, the senco and the form teacher, about how you feel, and inform them that you are sending a copy to the head of the lea, with the points that you have mentioned here - they are acting 'in loco parentis' and they are failing in that duty by not keeping him safe at school. The are also discriminating against him because of his disability re the speed of his changing and being locked in the changing rooms.

I would also send a copy to his paed - they could give weight to the extra support that your son needs.

Does your son have a statement? If so what does it say in part 3?. If he doesnt - why not, and perhaps its about time to start the statement process off.

Indie_Kid

Why did they not check that everyone was out of the changing room before locking it? We always used to get moaned at because of the time we took getting changed - and that included a girl with CP who used a wheelchair. (we were given 5 minutes)

Charliestwins

Thanks everyone, ive just got off the hone to someone in our Education Authority, she is going to ring my sons school and set up a meeting with the senco and head of year to see if they can set up a care plan which we all have a say on and then go from there. Im just waiting for her to ring me back now.

Thanks Snoopytweety, I will look up who the director of ed is for our area. It will worth having to hand if the school fail again ( which im sure they will )


Thanks leighannwatson, their is only one other child in the whole school with the same condition as my son but other with with different disabilities, your right they should have a policy in place.

Thanks longhotbath, I hadnt even thought about getting his paed involved i will add your list of names to to write to. He doesnt have a statement of needs, whenever his case came u we were told his wasnt disablied enought to warrent one ? and now we are told he is too old ?

Thanks sh1305, that was my point excatly ! apparently it was an over sight of the teacher at the time :eek: disgusting isnt it !

thanks again i will let you know how i get on

Indie_Kid

Hope you get the outcome you / your son need. Is he statemented? This should make them do something.

Pennylane

This is dreadful. Very bad lack of communication in the school. I hope the meeting is successful.

Make sure that each and every one of your son's teachers is given a copy of the care plan. Between now and your meeting, list all the important points which YOU know affect your son and make sure they are included. You will also need to ensure that copies are available for support staff and supply staff.

I would also insist that there is a tear-off section at the bottom of the plan for each teacher to sign to say they have read it. Otherwise you will get them saying they have not been told about this.

That SENCO doesn't sound like she's doing her job at all well.:mad:

longhotbath

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/EducationAndTraining/Schools/DG_10013035

Is a link from the direct gov site - there is an interesting paragraph on increased access to the curriculum!

There is no upper age limit on a statement of sen ! - if your son needs more help at school to access the curriculum than other children of his age then they should assess him. You can ask for that - not just the lea, or the school. The lea then have a legal duty to assess your son - they may decide that he doesnt need additional help, but may put some pressure on the school to support him better. At the very least an assessment by an OT and an ed psyc will help identify where your son is having difficulty.
if you google IPSEA, they have a proforma letter to send to the head of the lea.

The lea WILL try to make it difficult - they, like us, have budgets to balance, and statements can be expensive, but it sounds as though the school are just ignorant and thoughtless, and a strongly worded letter, with medical support, and a bit of a kick up the 'bum' may go a long way!

please pm me if I can help in any way.

LHB

kdmercury

if your son has a statement,they should be sticking to it and i bet they aint,also call a review with all teachers etc and get a plan and agreement drawn up and if they dont stick to it you have the proof on paper,we had same problem with my son who has a statement and on parents meeting his teacher called in another teacher with her because we had so many concerns(which means to me thsi teacher was not experienced enough for my son) and this teacher has only started school 2 weeks previously and they wrote down all the concerns we had and all was on paper at the previous review meeting,so they was in the wrong and couldn't argue

Indie_Kid

longhotbath wrote: »

The lea WILL try to make it difficult - they, like us, have budgets to balance, and statements can be expensive, but it sounds as though the school are just ignorant and thoughtless, and a strongly worded letter, with medical support, and a bit of a kick up the 'bum' may go a long way!

Yeah, a lot of it does boil down to money. When I was at college, they said "we don't have the money to buy you two widescreen monitors", (because I can't read the standard size ones they provide, and was in two different rooms over the week) yet could somehow afford £900 for a piece of software for me that didn't work.:rolleyes: