Emmet Murphy

Just to be clear - you absolutely 100% should have been informed of this.

In some situations bruising absolutely would be of interest to school staff but to suggest that all bruises on every child should be recorded as a matter or course is not realistic. Following up safe-guarding issues usually includes a phone call to social services - if schools called them over every bruise then they would never be off the phone. I'm pretty sure most parents would be less than impressed also. I don't know about the arrangements in the OP's school but in a lot of special schools there is little face-to-face contact between home and school which results in inevitable communication difficulties. These difficulties apply both ways - home to school as well as vice versa. It isn't anyone's fault but it is the norm (in my experience anyway). I once had a child whose behaviour suddenly deteriorated quite rapidly. We called home and it transpired they were having their bathroom done and had been going next door to wash! I know I have on occasions forgotten to put stuff in the home-school book. Nobody does it deliberately but the lack of face-to-face contact definitely puts parents (and school staff to some extent) at a disadvantage over those who meet every day.

Every situation is different so it is difficult to offer a black/white opinion on this issue. I would though ask you what your children are learning educationally from this work? What effect is the whole experience having on you and your well-being? What effect is the whole experience having on your relationships with your children? Do not assume that the amount of work a child (especially ASD / SEN children) does is directly proportional to how much they learn - your statement "it obviously needs to be done" sits a bit uncomfortably with me. Are your children really benefitting from it?

How can school staff record an incident which happened outside of school? Going from what you have written it doesn't really sound to me like anything is being covered up. It does sound like some mistakes have been made but there is a colossal gulf between that and deliberately 'seeting a child up to fail'. Is there any proof that staff knew about the headbanging? It does sound as though things might need to be changed (it is too early in the year to make any firm judgements) but your best chance of achieving that is by being positive with school staff and trying to work with them. No school is perfect and staff will make mistakes and get stuff wrong now and again (we are humans after all!) But after 10+ years of working with a range of SEN pupils in different schools, I have never come across anyone who did not want to help the pupils progress and achieve their potential. By the way, I'm not saying never complain - there is definitely a time and a place for that.

That's great - thank you!

Hello - I am making this enquiry on behalf of a friend who has a young child with ASD. She currently lives in Manchester and is considering a move to Cornwall as she has been offered a good job there. Looking on Cornwall's website I can only find SLD / PMLD SEN provision. Are there any schools with ASD units or more MLD schools in Cornwall? Thanks in advance!

The quality of any educational setting depends mainly on the staff working there and - to a lesser extent - how well they are resourced. I would suggest that you visit the prospective placement several times and try to spend some time in the class your child would be going into.

Speaking as a teacher who works in SEN, I would not base too much on what you hear; I have worked in excellent schools which have had really bad reputations and schools with great reputations that were really quite poor. Visit them all and insist on sitting in on a whole lesson in the class where your child would be placed. I regularly have prospective parents sit in for anything up to 60 minutes; it will give you an accurate flavour of whether or not that placement is right for your child.

I heard someone at a conference a few years back talk about imagination. ASD children do not lack imagination - it was never intended that people should interpret it that way. They have an impairment in imagination which can manifest itself in lots of different ways - one of which is finding it difficult to differentiate between what is real and what is not real. Someone alluded to it already but it sounds like your child believes he really is a dinosaur. Unfortunately there are no quick and easy answers to this - some children do 'grow out' of this, but not all (I vaguely recall Donna Williams (I think) writing in one of her books how she put on different accents and became different people during her time at college).

Ok - well your first goal needs to be to get him back to School Action Plus as I think it's unlikely he'd go straight from School Action to statemented. Keep a journal of anything which in your opinion shows he is struggling and not accessing the curriculum; if he complains about school or becomes reluctant to go, if his behaviour changes at home, if his teacher says anything negative to you etc etc - record and date it all as it will serve as evidence should you need it in the future. In the meantime, I'd strongly suggest you make an appointment to see the Head and the SENCO and talk about his report with them.

Hi Marion, I am a teacher who works with ASD pupils at a Primary Special School. I really feel for you and believe that this is certainly not down to you at all! These processes do unfortunately take a long time but as others have suggested you should not give up because things do change and if there is evidence that your child is being adversely affected at school by his disabilities then the school is obligated to take some measures to support him. Is he on School action or School Action plus at the moment? If so, what does he currently receive support-wise? I would suggest you make an appointment to see the Head and the SENCO together and go through the report with them - highlight those areas and ask them how you and the school can help your son overcome those difficulties the school have identified. He may need extra support from the SENCO or perhaps even some 1:1 time with a Teaching Assistant. It is really frustrating but if you can try to remain positive and make it clear that you want to work with the school, and not fight against them, to get the best for your son then hopefully you shouldn't have too many problems. Emmet

I think that's the crux of it - a lot of the time children are introduced to 'Feelings' they are effectively being taught vocabulary they do not understand; they then go away and start using this vocabulary incorrectly and consequently confusion reigns! Personally, I believe that Feelings should only be taught in real situations - ie when a child is happy, upset, scared etc. Looking at a person's face in a book or on a computer screen tells you nothing about how they are feeling. It needs to be in real situations: I remember several years ago, I was working in class of Year 5 / Year 6 ASDs pupils; one boy was going to go to another boy's house for dinner that night for the first time. All afternoon, he was complaining he was hungry. I was confused by that because he'd ate his lunch as he normally did. It was my Teaching Assistant who figured out what was happening: she told him "You're not hungry, you are worried".

I'm a teacher of cfhildren with ASDs myself ... in my experience most teachers care and want to know and understand the pupils they work with!