Statement of Educational Needs - Help please

mercman1969

Hi folks,

Our daughter has just turned 9 and started year 5
She has a number of medical conditions which means she has some mild learning disabilitiy

We have been pressing school for at least 2 years now as we quickly realised the learning gap between her and her peers will grow larger, quickly as learning becomes quicker as she progresses through school

At our last get together we were informed that she has been assessed as 2A for Literacy, Numberacy & Scienece. 2A relates to average for a 7 year old so we stated our concerns and the fact that she is expected to be at level 4B at the start of senior school

The headmistresss, merely stated that she 'is unlikely to get there' and that they are providing for all her needs

All we really require is that she is happy at school, but feel she should be given every chance to recognise her full potential.

she has seen an educational physcologist on a number of occasions and 2 reports have been provided to school outlining how she learns and how best to teach her. This has been ignored to date

We are now thinking if she needs to be pulled out of mainstream education and into a more specialised school.

We would rather not as this would upset her greatly and may put her back even further

We are of the mind that she is at the point that she really needs statementing

My questions is

Is this correct
How do we go about it

System

Get as much evidence as possible on the support your daughter needs , its in school's best interest not to have her formally statmented as they would have to support her better and it would cost them money.
There a site called IPSEA it has loads of help you can also contact your local parent partnership [info on council website]

You can request a statement yourself there are template letters on the IPSEA site. My only comment would be that as someone who has done this in the past don't expect a special school to be much better in our case it was as bad as mainstream.

pmlindyloo

mercman1969 wrote: »

Hi folks,

Our daughter has just turned 9 and started year 5
She has a number of medical conditions which means she has some mild learning disabilitiy

We have been pressing school for at least 2 years now as we quickly realised the learning gap between her and her peers will grow larger, quickly as learning becomes quicker as she progresses through school

At our last get together we were informed that she has been assessed as 2A for Literacy, Numberacy & Scienece. 2A relates to average for a 7 year old so we stated our concerns and the fact that she is expected to be at level 4B at the start of senior school

The headmistresss, merely stated that she 'is unlikely to get there' and that they are providing for all her needs

All we really require is that she is happy at school, but feel she should be given every chance to recognise her full potential.

she has seen an educational physcologist on a number of occasions and 2 reports have been provided to school outlining how she learns and how best to teach her. This has been ignored to date

We are now thinking if she needs to be pulled out of mainstream education and into a more specialised school.

We would rather not as this would upset her greatly and may put her back even further

We are of the mind that she is at the point that she really needs statementing

My questions is

Is this correct
How do we go about it

Since she enjoys school then I wonder if some private tutoring might be the answer. Would this be possible, both financially and health wise (your daughter's)?

One to one teaching can be very effective especially if you use the teaching methods suggested by the Ed Psych.

I know that you probably feel the school should be helping more but being realistic in a large class one to one help cannot be given regularly. Even if she is getting one to one with a TA an hour a week with a qualified teacher could make all the difference.

Are you receiving DLA for your daughter or does she not meet the criteria?

lindsaygalaxy

Do the school provide any supported hours for her? Sadly with huge budget cuts (the ones they don't mention in the papers) schools can only get a very small amount of children to be ut forward for a statement (though it is no longer called that). It would not be beneficial for the school to not help her as much as they can as it would not help their data. Do you meet with the SEN co-ordinator? Does she have IEPS?

forever_skint

And don't expect to get her in a special school without a fight from the LA. They don't like to spend the extra money. My daughter was school refusing for 5 months before they agreed that mainstream was not the right place for her! She has had a 30 hour statement since year 4.

System

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Since she enjoys school then I wonder if some private tutoring might be the answer. Would this be possible, both financially and health wise (your daughter's)?

One to one teaching can be very effective especially if you use the teaching methods suggested by the Ed Psych.

I know that you probably feel the school should be helping more but being realistic in a large class one to one help cannot be given regularly. Even if she is getting one to one with a TA an hour a week with a qualified teacher could make all the difference.

Are you receiving DLA for your daughter or does she not meet the criteria?

Private tutoring wont give her the support she needs at school though.
A statement would make the school provide the support that is required, it is daunting but you can get the ball rolling yourself. Don't assume things things will get any better as she gets older in my experience they only get worse.

Savvy_Sue

IPSEA

However, one question is about what her options would be if you moved her now, or at the end of junior school: are there either schools or units within schools which might better meet her needs? If there are, you'll probably need a statement so now's the time to start finding out.

And what does the school's SENCO say? Any use?

emmi31

Hi
My little boy is 3 he has severe autism, global development delays , hypermobility and hypotonia he has a full Ehc plan which is the new statement for special needs and he goes to a special school he would never be able to attend mainstream.
Anyway to apply for the new Ehc plan you need to write to your local authority you should be able to find the address online you need to write a detailed letter explaining all of your child's conditions and needs you have to convince them that a Ehc plan is necessary. We had help with my sons specialist autism lady to do this.
Once they receive your letter they will set a date for the panel to meet and decide of the Ehc plan is best however they can also turn you down before it gets that far if they are going to panel then expect them to write to your child's current school and Drs to ask a few basic questions to help the panel decide if a plan is necessary.
If the panel decide that an Ehc plan is the best course of action they will then write properly to all Drs school etc they will all fill in their parts of the plan.
You will then go to a multi agency meeting to read through the plan and correct what needs correcting before it is finalised
At the meeting the council will make a statement at the end of the plan about your child's placement in school and care in my little ones case his special school is named but as your child is already at mainstream school you will need to prove that needs are not being met and cannot be met in mainstream school if the council disagree you will have to appeal I don't know about that as ours went through no problem.
The most important bit is getting them to agree to the Ehc plan that's the biggest hurdle first you will need someone at your child's current school to back you when asked about your child and their care needs.
Our gp wrote a statement to back my letter as well and I included clinic letters etc with my original application letter to back it up.
If the council do agree special school is best they will then write to te special school to ask if they can provide for your child's needs te school itself has to say yes they will study the plan and decide if there school can provide all care necessary and if your child need to be in special school.
Good luck with it
If you do need any help at any point feel free to message me on here out plan was finalised in July and he started special school in September