school action and school action plus

sportmonkey666

And I forgot to mention he has an IEP and a Provision map???

bobbyoscar

sportmonkey666, I have just quickly read your last post and wanted to reply asap. Please don't beat yourself up about this, the fault does nor lie with you but with the School.

You are not expected to know the procedures to be followed, that is their job to communicate to you what is involved and to consult with you at every oportunity. From what you have just written, I'm assuming their next move will be to try for Statementing.

They should, as previously mentioned, have been holding termly meetings with you to discuss the best way forward for your son.

As to your next step, please contact Parent Partnership as soon as you can http://www.parentpartnership.org.uk/ they will listen to you and advise you on what to do next.

They have been very helpful whenever I have sent parents to them for advice.

sare_2

I'd be writing to the governing body. I'm an HLTA and found your story shocking, especially the behaviour of the head teacher.

daska

Go to parent partnership and let them help you with the appropriate letters to the school, governors etc. And as I read it, it's the school who has let him down, they should have chased up that report from the EP, they should have made sure you knew that you had the right to be present when the EP came to see him, they should have ensured that all the staff were kept informed.

BTW the fact they didn't do these things doesn't surprise me, my son's SENCo is useless and a new Head has resulted in the most appalling shambles and attrocious communication. It's taken them 8 weeks to forward the EP report, there are 3 letters since July unacknowledged and the Head won't even meet my eyes let alone speak with me. He'll be moving to a new school next September.

concerned43

I have been in your situation with my DS and I went straight to the Council's official complaint procedures. All hell broke loose and I had the head on the phone trying to 'smooth' things over.
The complaint was upheld and now whenever I have to communicate with the school , I am put through to the head straight away, I also have his teachers calling once a week to update me on his education/problems etc. If I were you I would make a complaint to the Council's education department and see what they come back with - there is very strict legislation surrounding the Council's duty to children with special needs.

bobbyoscar

As already mentioned I'm a SENCO and listening to all your stories really does appall me. These children are the most vulnerable in our society yet they appear to be treated with utter contempt.

It does explain however that when we have new children (SEN) in to my school the gratitude shown by parents to me for doing my job!

First thing to do, contact Parent Partnership (I've already given you the web address) they are independent and will provide you with all the help and advice and on Monday an official complaint to your LEA.

daska

bobbyoscar wrote: »

As already mentioned I'm a SENCO and listening to all your stories really does appall me. These children are the most vulnerable in our society yet they appear to be treated with utter contempt.

It does explain however that when we have new children (SEN) in to my school the gratitude shown by parents to me for doing my job!

First thing to do, contact Parent Partnership (I've already given you the web address) they are independent and will provide you with all the help and advice and on Monday an official complaint to your LEA.

I think some of the problem is that the job of SENCO doesn't always get placed on someone who wants it or has sufficient time or training. At DS2's school the SENCO is part-time and a class teacher, she's never available, she never communicates what's happening and her lack of knowledge is astounding (e.g. she told me and DS2's teachers that he was definitely getting a statement and were just working out the number of hours when in fact all they'd agreed to was to do the assessment.)

Zziggi

Bobbyoscar - are you absolutely sure parents have a legal right to be invited to meetings discussing a child's IEP? I thought parents did not have a legal right only that it was "good practice " to invite parents. Can you provide any up-to-date weblinks ?

PS. We're having just this problem as the school says we have no legal right. We only receive a copy of the plan.

bobbyoscar

Zziggi wrote: »

Bobbyoscar - are you absolutely sure parents have a legal right to be invited to meetings discussing a child's IEP? I thought parents did not have a legal right only that it was "good practice " to invite parents. Can you provide any up-to-date weblinks ?

PS. We're having just this problem as the school says we have no legal right. We only receive a copy of the plan.

Hi Zziggi, you should not just be receiving the IEP, you are entitled to an input into whatever is on it and for it to be amended if you so wish. i.e what you are being given is a 'fait accompli' and you are being excluded from the information sharing.

I'm sorry, I can't give you any reference to the legality of you being invited to the meeting. All my documentation is at school as we finished a week ago.

I have also been told by my LEA SEN Team that parents have a right to be invited to IEP meetings.

We underwent an Inspection a couple of months ago when I discussed this very subject with the Lead Inspector. He also told me that so many schools seemed to feel that it was 'good practice' but didn't realise that a parent had a right to be invited to IEP Review Meetings. <Surely, the school would want parents to work with them regarding the education of their child>

I hope this helps in some small way.

ps I would suggest you contact your LEA, SEN Dept and inform them that you are not being invited to your child's IEP Review meeting, despite requesting to be allowed to attend.

sportmonkey666

bobbyoscar it is so nice to know that there are people like you out there who really do care :A , I handed two seperate copies of a letter listing all of my concerns/issues in to the school on 14th December one addressed to the the Headmaster and one to SENCO(wouldn't want the letter to vanish like the GPs letter did) unfortunatly the school broke up for christmas on the 16th and does not reopen until 3rd Jan, I intend to give them one week after that to respond to my letter. I will definatly be contacting Parent Partnership on monday as you have suggested(have been looking on their website) and hopefully they can point me in the right direction I didn't think there was anyone out there who could help me and to be truthfull my partner hasn't really been much help until he got fed up of me moaning at him

Thank you again to everyone who has replied I am beginning to feel a little more positive than I did before and maybe now I will be able to get some sleep and stop crying.

I will update as soon as I can x