UltraMum

LOL! That's me!

The playground gate is locked at our school - the parents queue up to get in at 3:30 - the caretaker pops out 2-3 minutes beforehand and unlocks it. However, there is a separate entrance to get to the school office, so it may not work for all schools.

What a foul -up! Why didn't the SENCo highlight this issue? They must have had this happen before with children with full statements! Start keeping your diary now so you can show them the evidence - you do know that you can ask for an amendment to the statement at any time? - only prob is both parties have to agree. You don't necessarily have to go through the whole assessment palaver again. It probably depends on the wording in the statement but if it says that he is entitled to full time support throughout the school day then I don't see how they can argue against a request to increase the hours to match the increased length of day. I agree with Waccoe - why not spread this over the week?

Could be autism, could be something else - whatever - you need to know - then you will have the ammunition to fight for the best provision that you can for her. Look on getting a diagnosis, a label as being the best way to move forward. The label unlock doors quicker than maybe this, maybe that (IMO). It won't change anything for you and your daughter but it will help you to decide on the next move.

Hope you get things sorted soon. ((((((Elaine))))))

Serves them right!

The same way that they make someone with no legs walk around the school and not use their wheelchair. I DON'T THINK!

Back to that report - a little statistic hidden away in Table 8.16 26% of children with ASD have been excluded from school on one or more occasions compared to 4% of children with no ASD. Scarily 15% have been excluded 3 or more times compared to 1% of the others with 'mental' health problems. I think the system is failing our children badly ...

This got me thinking - bear with me: The government is wanting to move away from statements and towards delegated funding for SEN to schools. There is no significant relationship between the socio-economic profile (as measured by the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals) of local authorities and the level of statements they maintain. TeacherNet So ... the average level of statements is fairly consistent and does not appear to be affected by social profiles. However, there is quite a strong link between an authority's socio-economic profile and the proportion of pupils with SEN overall (with and without statements). This confirms the link between SEN and deprivation, but points to the influence of local policy on statementing practice. TeacherNet So ... there is a demonstrable link between SEN (in general) and deprivation - so LEA's with a lower socio-economic profile will receive more cash and schools in more deprived areas will have more than those in less deprived areas. Autistic children ... were less likely to live in low income families: only 9 per cent compared with 20 per cent of other children lived in households with a gross weekly income of less than �200 per week. and Children with other types of disorder tended to live in poorer areas than other children but there was no such relationship for autistic children. From the research report (p190) referred to in the above article: "Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain, 2004" (You can download it from here) Almost all children with autistic spectrum disorder were reported to have special educational needs (97 per cent compared with 16 per cent of other children) and the majority of these had a written statement of their needs (84 per cent compared with 45 per cent). (as above - p191) so ... I'm thinking - there are 16% of children with an ASD, who have recognised SEN, (97% of all with ASD have SEN and 84% of those have a statement) who are probably on School Action and School Action Plus, most probably in mainstream. The funding for which comes from a formula which is based a link between SEN (in general) and deprivation. Yet these children are less likely to live in areas of deprivation .... am I right in thinking that there is a mismatch here and that it is the reason why we have to fight so hard to get statements for our children ... as there isn't enough cash to necessarily meet their needs in the area they attend school? I've been concerned about this for some time - we live in a relatively middle class area of Doncaster - my son's school has only 1% of pupils entitled to free school meals - yet, at our last Ofsted, 11% of children were registered SEN. Of those a quarter had a statement leaving about 9% on School Action and School Action Plus sharing that 1%! Sorry to have been so long about it! Someone tell me if I've got this wrong or made assumptions that don't hold up!

J is always worse at home when he's had a good day at school - and vice versa. The school don't often see the dire behaviour - think I might make a video to show them I'm not making it up! Can you plan an 'unanniversary' day - (was that Alice in Wonderland?) and celebrate then ...

We went down the parental referral route, unbacked by the school, and ended up at Tribunal. We lost the case as the school turned round and said that they had put 25 hours of support into the class three weeks prior to the hearing. We were so gobsmacked by this that we didn't think to clarify how much of this was for J. The tribunal gave the decision against us as they said that the school need time assess how this support would affect J. We wrote to the school when the report came out and it took three months for them to confirm in writing that the support was in place - it turned out that the support was a classroom assistant for the classroom in general and most of it consisted of withdrawal of small groups for booster lessons - in which J was not included as he was academically ok! Guess what I'm trying to say is: it's a tough route so arm yourself with as much evidence as possible - especially if the head is batting for the other side. We had a private Ed Psych report, SALT report and OT report done. (Thank the grandparents!) Stood us in good stead, despite the expense, as the NHS SALT said J had a 'slight' pragmatic disorder and the private SALT said 'severe' pragmatic disorder - the LEA used the NHS report for the statement and ignored the private one totally. More fool them - this enabled us to query the report with the NHS and so the clinical SALT manager re-assessed J (I think she was thinking litigation!) and concurred with the private SALT, whilst pointing out that the NHS did not have the resources to meet his needs. This confirmed our opinion that most reports from 'public' bodies are increasingly based on the resources available and not the actual needs.

Carole wrote: J had an IQ of 140+ when tested at age 6 - he coped with school work due to this until he got into Y3 - on this basis all his social needs were ignored - we were told off the record that he had to be behind by at least 2 years to access any help. LEA's fail the HFA/AS children (IMO) by letting them 'cope' until it starts to fall apart, as long as the academic standard is ok. I get fed up of hearing 'early intervention' from everywhere except LEAs. :angry: Kathryn wrote: Hear! Hear! My bugbear: Why do LEA's write the first proposed statement to include as little that they feel they can get away with? AND ignore the law realting to SEN unless it's shoved under their noses?

Oh my! It never rains ... Hope the appointments don't cause problems for the rest of the week.

Hi lisann and Tensing! Seems like we have a definite Yorkshire contingent! Hi Melba and OddFather!

I would ask the school to sort out the gate issue - obviously access is needed for emergency services and fire regs possibly mean that some gates may need to be opened for safety reasons if the children need to assemble away from the school but otherwise I can't see that the school shouldn't be able to address the problem.

((((((((((((LorryW))))))))))))

We asked for the LEA to finalise the statement three times before they did it - dragging it out by altering bits and bobs - assessment was applied for last November and the first draft was received at the beginning of April - it was finally finalised at the beginning of July - too late to get anything set up until this term ... Hope you get your LEA to get its finger out soon - have we got a symbol for putting a bomb up someone?

The homework post made me smile. We had a similar problem with a supply teacher last year - question sheet on gases ... final question: Can you name two more gases? J's answer? You guessed it - 'yes'! I tried explaining that what the question really meant was - Name two more gases but J refused to write anything but 'yes'. Things started to deteriorate so I ended up writing a note to the supply teacher about the phraseology of the question - his reply? "Well - it shows he's got a sense of humour." I nearly decked him then and there!

Just came across this: Running keeper for shoelaces - no need to tie bows! Pictures are clearer here It's not clear from the uk site how to buy them so I've sent them an email - will update when I receive a reply.

Good news - have a great holiday.

Might fight that battle after the IT assessment battle! We've got a meeting with the SALT next week and then J's IEP is going to be drawn up ... we've basically written the last three or four ourselves as the SENCo has been U/S. The SENCo is now on long term sick leave (since last May) - I do hope that our battle to get J statemented wasn't the final straw but I have a suspicion it may have been ... poor woman. Sorry to have hi-jacked the thread! I've made a note of the website re the watch. Thanks.

J's a bouncer too! He has a trampette in the conservatory but mostly uses the settee! Our garden slopes too much for a trampoline but he goes to trampolining lessons once a week. I did suggest that we had a large hole dug in the garden and put a trampoline in that but hubby wouldn't wear it!

Our consultant prescribes ours as well - excellent for J, although it doesn't work for all.

This would be ideal for J to use as a reminder for his Ritalin - he relies on the classmates at the moment - only they can't wear watches at primary Mind you - it would be good to get it sorted before he goes to secondary school.