tomsmum

I had a meeting with the teacher and I am now more concerned than ever. For a start we were time limited as she was late and school was due to start in 15 minutes. She then proceeded to talk at me for 10 minutes without pausing for breath. I was trying to build bridges and not alinate her as I am concious that I will have to send my son into her class everyday. She has described the class and the problems she has. Apparently there are around 10 children whose behaviour is unacceptable and she says she needs another 2 weeks of zero tolerence and rewarding others to in her words "break them and make them comply". She has not been able to implement the measures in my son's IEP as she does not have time or in the case of an area to withdraw the space in the classroom. She also said that she had a number of children who were not able to access the curriculum due to learning difficulties and if she had to allocate resources to them or my son she would have to chose them. I did say well surely this would then prevent my son from accessing the curriculum. I asked her if she was saying that they needed additional resources for my son should they not consider applying for a statement she said that this would be a lot of effort on their part which they would not see any reward for as it would be put in place for secondary school (he is in YR6). On a more positive side she said his behaviour had been better for the last two days. Needless to say I am not happy with this and as suggested in the previous post I have contacted parent partnership and they are arranging a meeting with the school ASAP and I will be requesting a stautory assessment myself if the school do not. Thanks for the support I am sure that I will be back looking for more advice and hopefully in time I will be able to offer support to others. Dawn

We have had such a bumpy ride with the school yrs 3 and 4 were good year 4 in particular where he had a very good newly qualified teacher and that year got a head teachers award for good behaviour and achieved very well academically. Last year was ok after a rocky start and lots of input from outside agency. 9 days into a new term and everything is undone. My heart is telling me to remove him but I will meet with them on Thursday and see if there is a way forward. It seems that each teacher is a law unto themselves rather than learning from their colleagues experience about what works and following the IEP they all have their own views on how to deal with children with AS. I would like to see if they treated kids with more visible disabilities in the same way.

I can really relate to your story. Last year Tom took to running out of class the teacher said that if this happened Tom would go straight to HT . So surprise surprise it carried on happening cue time sat in the headteachers office have a nice chat. They really don't get it do they? Thanks for the support. Dawn

Thanks for all the responses I have finally been given an appointment to see the teacher on Thursday of this week. This week has not improved for him. He has been in trouble for calling his teacher an 'idiot'. This was following an incident where he lost his temper and after calming him-self down successfully some kids in the class were making fun of him he (as he has been told to do) reported this to the teacher who responded with "I am not surprised that they laughed at you I nearly laughed myself". After he called the teacher an idiot the headteacher was called who told him he was acting in such an infantile manner that he was going to call the head teacher of his previous infant school and have him sent back. This is the school that treated him so badly that he is still having counselling to help him cope with it. At the end of last term after a rough time around christmas things were settled and he had started to show some of his true potential. It seems that every time this happens the school either thinks they have cured him or they just forget everything and have to start again. It just seems so difficult to get the health professionals and schools to work together for his best interests. It really helps to get advice and support from people on here who understand what it is like as sometimes I think I sound like a cracked record to family and friends.

Thanks very much for the quick responses my immediate reaction was that this approach was wrong but wanted some other opinions before I went into school. He does not have a statement and does not have specific support in class. He does have some time during the week in a social skills group and a couple of sessions before school each week to discuss what is happening in class and the school that week with a chance to express any concerns he has. After a major deterioration in his behaviour at school last December which resulted in him becoming very distressed and starting to self harm there are now several professionals involved CAHM's, Team Around School, SALT, OT and reassessment by Pead's for ADHD and ODD. However, trying to get a consensus of opinions from these professionals is proving virtually impossible and trying to get the school to then act on any of the recommendations is difficult to say the least. The school are reluctant to go for a statement as he is not struggling academically quite the opposite in fact. I realise we could request a statutory assessment but feel that without the schools support this would be problematic. We try to maintain a good relationship with the school. Your advice is much appreciated.

I have lurked and read the boards on this site for some time. I want some views on my son's new teachers approach to dealing with his outbursts which he has regularly in class. He is 10 years old and diagnosed with AS. He frequently becomes frustrated in class for many reasons eg others teasing, not being able to deal with noise and disruption from other children, not getting the teachers undivided attention to impart some knowledge that he feels is important to share with the teacher. He has always struggled to contain his temper but has progressed and the outbursts usually consist of making loud aggressive noises and or rolling around the floor in the middle of the room hence drawing more attention to himself. He has just started year 6 with a teacher new to the school. He has told me that she is picking on him and when I asked why he thought this he has explained that when he has an outburst she is automatically giving other children in the class house points for ignoring him. I can't decide what I think about this previously he has had an area in the room that he is able to retreat to but this has not been implemented by the teacher and she has told him that she believes he is attention seeking. I don't disagree with her completely but i think there is more to it than that and that this method could add additional stress and hence start the cycle of deteriorating behaviour we have seen before. I would be grateful for others views on this before I speak to the teacher as I say I can see some logic to this approach but I am not sure that in the long term it will be beneficial to him. Thanks for any views you have.