school insisting my autistic DS wear shorts

daisiegg

As for the questions about statements, this is something I have raised time and time again with my SENCO (particularly about a Y7 girl who is profoundly dyslexic). She tells me that the LEA are very reluctant to issue statements as it is so expensive, and a pupil's condition has to be pretty severe now to get a statement. She pushes and pushes to get statements for certain pupils but it just doesn't happen. We only have four in our school; one has fairly severe autism, another is Visually Impaired, another has cystic fibrosis and another has a degenerative bone condition....and this really limits the amount of LSA help that is available.

peachyprice

daska wrote: »

Statementing isn't just based on academic ability/achievement (or at least it isn't supposed to be). It's for children who need support to access part of the curriculum.

It shouldn't be, but in reality it is. Speaking from my own experience if a child can obtain grades at least at the national average and displays no obvious physical or mental disabilities that cause dispution it can be nigh on impossible to get a statement, no matter that without a statment that child will not reach his full potential and instead of scraping by at an average C he could have been straight A's. It's like we should have been grateful he was 'average'.

Thankfully other agencies were willing to offer far more help to my son than the LEA were, meaning he missed more school to attend appointments with OT, PT etc. But the LEA couldn't see the irony in that.

Bitsy_Beans

duchy wrote: »

Talk to your LEA -there should be a document somewhere detailing their criteria for when a statement is appropriate. (Usually it's fairly flexible but a lot of LEAs don't want to issue them) Honestly though having a statement is a good thing as it's a more formal setting out of a child's needs and schools are generally held more accountable with one. It's also a lot easier to get provision at a new school with a statement in place as they HAVE to follow it until the yearly review and then any reduction has to be justified and can't just be reduced based on the school's finances or the excuse "we don't do things that way".

I am aware that DS's potential future junior school (he's at a separate infants ATM) will continue any School Action Plus indeed at his final review the SENCO will be invited to join us so I can pin them down on what they will. Having read this thread my worry is either funding in future gets cut we will have no leg to stand on or that he will get to secondary school and thats it, game over. He has concentration issues, needs support to remain focused etc. I know secondary school is a way off at the moment and whilst things can change given how hard it can be to get a statement I suppose I want to know where I stand. Thanks for the suggestion of the LEA I will find out the criteria and take it from there. Even if I dont pursue a statement at this stage (and he is making progress from a point of view of his lessons but not in terms of his language understanding etc, cant explain more complicated emotions, just refers to sad, happy, angry). We have kinda been left to get on with it and I dont know who I can approach for some answers School are the only ones i have any dealings with.

daisiegg

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

I am aware that DS's potential future junior school (he's at a separate infants ATM) will continue any School Action Plus indeed at his final review the SENCO will be invited to join us so I can pin them down on what they will. Having read this thread my worry is either funding in future gets cut we will have no leg to stand on or that he will get to secondary school and thats it, game over. He has concentration issues, needs support to remain focused etc. I know secondary school is a way off at the moment and whilst things can change given how hard it can be to get a statement I suppose I want to know where I stand. Thanks for the suggestion of the LEA I will find out the criteria and take it from there. Even if I dont pursue a statement at this stage (and he is making progress from a point of view of his lessons but not in terms of his language understanding etc, cant explain more complicated emotions, just refers to sad, happy, angry). We have kinda been left to get on with it and I dont know who I can approach for some answers School are the only ones i have any dealings with.

I would push as far as you can to get him a statement if possible, because only then can yuo be sure that the school will be accountable for what they do for him.

Also, when the time comes, look VERY carefully at which secondary school you send him to. My school, for example, is in the top five non-selective schools in the country for GCSE results...but I would NEVER send my child there if s/he had any SEN. The provision is shockingly bad. Try to choose a school with as big an SEN department as possible, as there should be more provision and more awareness.

I feel like banging my head against a brick wall sometimes when parents say they sent their SEN kids to our school because academically it's so good...well, that may be so, but we practically don't HAVE an SEN department - so no matter how many A*s we get, if your child has SEN, they probably won't do as well here as they would somewhere that is perhaps lower down the league tables, but better for SEN!

daisiegg

(also, try and pursue a statement as early as possible. I don't know if it's true but my SENCO says it is virtually impossible to get a child a statement once they hit secondary school, if they don't already have one)

peachyprice

daisiegg wrote: »

(also, try and pursue a statement as early as possible. I don't know if it's true but my SENCO says it is virtually impossible to get a child a statement once they hit secondary school, if they don't already have one)

Yes, this does seem to be the case. Although they get sent along their SA/SA+ notes secondary schools seem to take the stance that the child has got this far without a statement, they don't really need one now.

peachyprice

daisiegg wrote: »

I would push as far as you can to get him a statement if possible, because only then can yuo be sure that the school will be accountable for what they do for him.

Also, when the time comes, look VERY carefully at which secondary school you send him to. My school, for example, is in the top five non-selective schools in the country for GCSE results...but I would NEVER send my child there if s/he had any SEN. The provision is shockingly bad. Try to choose a school with as big an SEN department as possible, as there should be more provision and more awareness.

I feel like banging my head against a brick wall sometimes when parents say they sent their SEN kids to our school because academically it's so good...well, that may be so, but we practically don't HAVE an SEN department - so no matter how many A*s we get, if your child has SEN, they probably won't do as well here as they would somewhere that is perhaps lower down the league tables, but better for SEN!

From this point of view, you need to be looking ahead at secondary schools NOW so that your chosen one can be written into the statement.

daska

peachyprice wrote: »

It shouldn't be, but in reality it is. Speaking from my own experience if a child can obtain grades at least at the national average and displays no obvious physical or mental disabilities that cause dispution it can be nigh on impossible to get a statement, no matter that without a statment that child will not reach his full potential and instead of scraping by at an average C he could have been straight A's. It's like we should have been grateful he was 'average'.

Thankfully other agencies were willing to offer far more help to my son than the LEA were, meaning he missed more school to attend appointments with OT, PT etc. But the LEA couldn't see the irony in that.

Absolutely agree with you, as I was trying to acknowledge in my post, when I said it isn't supposed to be solely about academic ability. But... with the right support it might be worth the fight to get it.

We're just entering the smiling nicely at the enemy while our forces gather over the other side of the hill phase because despite having a professional report that states that DS2 NEEDS a specific type of therapy in order to access any opportunity to learn, that has not made it into the statement. In fact the statement only goes as far as to say the the school might consider thinking about what changes they need to make to his surroundings - woolly or what?! (The situation here is dire, our local paediatric OT has no impact or suspended equipment at all and the LA limits ALL sensory resource to the special schools). All we're going to ask for is that the school is forced to consult the OT and put in place the measures she recommends - because we know the OT will look for any possible way to get the equipment (we already have or are prepared to find the money for) installed. They will probably quote the IOW v. whoever it was ruling where the judge said he couldn't believe that any child would need physical therapy to access education so it was unreasonable to put it in a statement, but we will fight tooth and nail because we've seen the impact on DS2 when he gets that therapy.

daska

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

We have kinda been left to get on with it and I dont know who I can approach for some answers School are the only ones i have any dealings with.

Have you tried speaking with your local Parent Partnership? Or IPSEA?

"Special Educational Needs - Getting Started With Statements" by Tania Tirraoro gives a simple, step by step, guide to the statementing process (with examples)

duchy

Ah the woolly statement !

By the end of year 8 I was at the end of my rope with my son's school. The provision was inadequate, inconsistent and the school had a huge bullying problem they were both unwilling and unable to address (bear in mind I worked in the same school so I saw a lot that parents don't often see).

I asked for an early annual review (their idea of early was a month later than it was supposed to be done in the first place) and I ended up in the stupid situation of having the review with my son's LSA, the acting SENCO (who was also my boss) and myself as a mother although I knew both the others from working with them daily.

I had attended enough reviews to know how they worked so instead of saying the lack of support needed addessing (his LSA had been seconded to assist organize the staff Christmas party for example -which meant 3 of her scheduled periods a week she sat in the staffroom making plans for it leaving my son without support -not to mention other instances) or the bullying issue etc I simply said the school was too big an enviroment for him to cope with -which was true he'd have been far better off in the attached but over-subscribed ASD unit or have even coped better if timetabled support had actually happened. I deliberately chose an issue the school couldn't change (ie the school is always going to be big ) rather than allow them to use examples where better support (always promised never delivered) would change things. His statememnt was changed -and I spoke to the LEA and they asked me where I'd like him to be educated instead. We discussed options and he ended up at a private fee paying school locally with an average class size of 10. It was like having a differant child-no more tears every morning -he started to make up the ground he had lost in the last year where he had emotionally frozen with stress (He's academically very able but the Aspie side of him takesover and he's literally paralised with stress and distress).
He left that school with 7 good GCSEs ranging from A to C. College has had it's difficult times and he's still a bit of a square peg in a round hole but we're getting there.

Anyway the point of this ramble is I don't believe I would have got him alternative placement without a statement -good GCSEs aren't the be all and end all but they have definitely given him more choices in post 16 education. He benefited not because the new school had good SEN (they had none) but because the enviroment was small so ALL children were treated as individuals and their individual needs (and quirks) were understood and met. High schools are too big for most kids with ASD -the teachers don't have the time (illustrated above the teacher who has only now spoken to her SENCO about a child with an ASD diagnosis halfway through the school year) to do anything more than teach, mark and fill out endless paperwork -there's little or no time for vocation or discovering what makes the kids in their classes tick.