bjkmummy

that's what I thinking sally - hubby wants to go in and say she needs x y and z - im not convinced at this stage as we still don't know what all her needs are so if we said we wanted 15 hours TA support and 2 hours specialist teaching that's likely what they may offer but they will have done no actual assessment of her so we are no further forward than we were 8 months ago. the reports we have had done have shown more needs - exactly what happened with her twin. LA are scared I guess to dig any deeper after how they got their fingers burnt with her brother when they made an attempt to dismiss our reports. what I also learnt is that this EP will test her areas of strength only - he told me he was just going to use our dyslexia action report but has told the class teacher he is doing cognitive tests - hes going to have a very limited time with her so not going to be a very full assessment at all. sounds like the teacher will also be there as well. with her twin we got 20 hours and we were so relieved he got a statement that we were happy - that was to last a matter of months as the placement fell apart and his support was upped to full time but by that point he become so upset that he was out of school so never got the benefit of those full time hours so I am cautious this time. its likely that the asd assessment on my daughter wont be done until august so probably after the time line of the statement but guess I can send the report in late or when the NIL appears........

I think that's where she maybe best bed - yes there is a possibility she may have asd - if she is given support etc then she will probably be okay - she has no behavourial issues as such and is compliant as school and if anything is too passive so has gone straight under the radar. dyslexia boarding school is approx. £22k per year whereas a more specialist one I looked at was about £85k to board. her twin brothers indie asd day school is £42k plus £28k transport. her elder brother is in a special school but I regard it more like a unit type school as its in a separate building from the main school and is secondary only with about 50 kids in the whole part of it. there are a mixture of sen kids in there including some children who can be challenging and I think she would find them very difficult to cope with especially with having a very demanding brother at home plus don't think the school has a real specialism in dyslexia but more general special needs. there are girls there and girls with asd who appear to be quite high functioning - some of them went to mainstream secondary but it failed so they moved to this school. the school is popular now and is over subscribed and techincially she is also out of county so would struggle to get a place and im not sure it would be right for her anyway. at the moment I need to focus I guess on getting the statement as a NIL is still a possibility which would bring another tribunal

well I went to the secondary school and I left it tears. senco was completely different this time - they have no unit so she would be in mainstream classes of the usual size and nothing they could /would do about that. they told me before they had specialist teachers but this time it was more about 'if' they have specialist teachers when she got there. any TA support would be shared and used for other children. she blanked most of my questions and wouldn't really answer them - I get the feeling that she realised who I was and we are 'that' family who go to tribunal and fight. she said last time about how well she got on with the sen team at the LA and dropped in this time how she was at a meeting with them all a few days before - im now in absolute limbo - the nearest school I can find is 150 miles away. a dyslexia specialist boarding school is approx. £22k a year. as it stands today I don't even have a statement - on Monday I come face to face with the LA EP and I know he will ask me what I think she needs and my mind is blank. I say she needs specialist teaching but have nothing to quantify how many hours etc, its accepted she needs a laptop so I guess will need to be taught how to touch type etc. I just know we are just going through the motions to them to give her the least amount of support possible

I know the answer to how many specialist teachers there are in my LA - 0 - not a single one and I have that in writing and that was submitted in my last hearing. we have no specialist teaching service whatsoever. the LA apparently (my daughters teacher told me this as the SEN officer was complaining to her in the waiting room at the tribunal) devolved all the money to the schools so they could employ them directly - all the secondaries here are academies. one academy has a TA specialist in dyslexia and the other one im going to see tomorrow have part time dyslexia teachers - they said she would get an hours worth of teaching a week. I will take your questions tomorrow and go and get my answers. my daughter also has a significant delay in her receptive language and working memory and also has difficulties in her expressive language as well. ive been offered another appointment privately by a highly regarded specialist in girls in London - she does accept private medical insurance so im off now to check if we would be covered on that which would be helpful if we are

as far as I am aware my area has never issued a NIL but then until me they had never been to tribunal over a refusal to assess! im concerned about the NIL due to something the LA wrote in their response to the appeal - that even if an assessment highlighted more issues then they still wouldn't issue a statement plus the tribunal judgement is only ordering an assessment - it cant say whether that assessment would lead to a statement. common sense and from what else was in the judgement in how much she is struggling you would think they would issue a statement but I wouldn't like to call it. ive decided to have a week of thinking about things before I rush in - im meeting the secondary school senco this week and the LA EP next week so I will get a good feel I think of what help is out there and where I need to be fighting for her. I doubt very much that the NHS would see her - she is very very passive and it will need a good expert in asd in girls to see her which is why I was planning to get her seen privately - also she has significant delay in SALT and the expert I was going to get her to see is also a specialist SALT as well as an expert in asd for girls so I would have all angles covered so to speak without battling for years. services here are very poor and her twin brother we battled for 5 years to get him dx and he is blatantly obvious so with my daughter I honestly think we will just go round and round in circles - my biggest fear is her mental health - she has two brother with asd, she has dyslexia and other learning difficulties so if there is a possiblility that she may have asd I would rather resolve it soon rather than later especially as the secondary school years are looming so I can get her the support. in an ideal world I would love for the NHS to see. she had a private OT report done which was so detailed - she then also did see the NHS OT and although they agreed with our report etc the report that came back from the NHS was absolutely dire as it had no meat on the bones. I hate getting indie reports as I feel that the NHS should be there but in these days of cash strapped services its just so hard now. even getting an appointment for her medical for her statement is going to be long winded and she is now on a waiting list as they have such a lack of paedatricains so the report is not going to be ready for the deadline

this is what ive been trying to decide bed - the timing of it - ive decided to try and get this assessment done now to feed into the statementing assessment and that should hopefully fend off them trying to issue a NIL and see what kind of statement comes back - if I have to appeal again then I will still need to get an indie EP report done as well. by getting this assessment done at least it will decide if ASD is an issue as well what help she needs in school with her other difficulties as well. my concern now is will the person be able to see her before the deadline - the LA have given me a deadline of mid july to give my views etc which is 6 weeks into the 10 week assessment process so even after ive submitted my views I would have a few weeks to get a further report in which I may need to do. the LA EP is coming in a week so at least he will go in first and then my expert will go in hopefully before the end of this term. winning this appeal has just opened up an even bigger can of worms and battle it seems

this teacher actually was told clearly by the tribunal judge when she attempted to say my daughter didn't meet the LA criteria for an assessment that the tribunal were not interested in 'policy' and the law only - the teacher even now cannot understand why the judge has said that as her LA training courses have made it clear that unless they meet the LA policy they wont be assessed. im arguing with someone who is currently the senco and her class teacher - she just doesn't get it. the salt report we have had done both state that she has expressive and receptive language delay - she was assessed for social communication at the SALT was looking more from a dyslexia view point rather than ASD. I have decided to go with a specialist SALt to assess her who can also do the disco - im doing the paperwork this weekend and sending all of her reports to her so hopefully she will be assessed properly asap - the person I am using is expensive but she is a specialist in asd in girls so at least I will know one way or another. got a letter from the NHS yesterday - I thought it was about the generic medical they have for statementing but letter seemed odd as it was asking for reports and wasn't an appointment - I phoned and queried it and they had sent me the GP letter by mistake - they also said there is a waiting list for an appointment as they have a lack of paeds so looks like the medical report wont meet the LA deadline so more delay I guess

im seriously considering taking her privately sally to be dx. the last few days have been hard as she has had an awful time at school = mainly to do with social issues at school - teacher has dealt with it but if shes struggling in a class of 12.... met with teacher yesterday and she says that the EP is looking at doing some cognitive tests with her. teacher still saying she doesn't understand how we will get a statement even after this assessment as she is still higher than a 1A which means she still doesn't meet the criteria for a statement. I think I need to just give up with the teacher as she just doesn't have a clue. in tribunal she assured the panel she would refer her to the specialist teaching service given the difficulties the SALt report highlighted - she phoned them , they didn't know what to suggest so that's all she is going to do! the OT report, she spoke to their LA EP and they've advised I go back to the NHS and ask for whatever it is she needs. and then to round it all off the teacher kept talking about when she had her chat twith the children she explained to them that my daughter was different to them so they need to deal with her differently - I give up........... hence why im looking at taking her to be assessed by margo sharp who has a lot of experience with girls. the EP is due in the next week so will speak to him but he is quite a sit on the fence person so don't think he would be someone who would support us - he gave evidence at her brothers tribunal. im also meeting the senco at the secondary next week so will ask all the questions I need to ask

at the moment she is purely dyslexic with a few other bits thrown in - however its all kicked off at school and im going in for a meeting today - a close friend last night had the balls to say to me that she thinks my daughter is on the spectrum - hit me hard I have to say but it is what it is and now I have to move on and work out what I need to do. I am aware of someone who specialises in dx girls on the spectrum so have contacted them to see if they will assess her - this is turning into pandoras box - the more we scratch the more is coming out and im struggling to deal with it but deal with it I must. my OT reports makes recommendations for a statement and what she would need. the EP report was the dyslexia report so although it makes some recommendations it doesn't go far enough - if the LA issue a NIL or a water downed statement I will go and get an indie EP report then - just wanted to wait and see what card the LA play first

im going to take your advice above sally and meet with the secondary school hopefully in the next week or so and see what they say - I will ask them all the questions. the LA EP phoned yesterday - he is not going to do any assessments with her as he says that looking through her file he can see she has had lots of assessments recently (which is true) and he has asked if he can use the dyslexia action EP report which I have agreed to as that puts her on the 2nd centile across all core subjects. I am disappointed that the LA seem to be doing the bare minimum - the tribunal ruled that all of her needs need to be identified and yet the LA are just going to go on our reports - they are getting no SALT or OT and just the generic paed report. I have concerns that they will do the assessment purely because they have been ordered to do so and then come back and say her needs can still be met at school action plus. the EP report they are going to use is the same report they have had since December when the panel refused the assessment. also this report is now over 6 months old as it was written at the end of Oct. I suppose if they do issue a NIL and we head back to tribunal the LA will hardly again be able to argue that they have fully assessed all of her needs

no - her twin brother school is a specialist asd school. her elder brothers is an special school but a generic one - he has autism and some learning difficulties - hes still on P levels at age 12 some of the grounds we won on was that the panel recognised the need for specialist teaching that we are funding and that if we stopped paying for it then the school would need to buy it in and that they had concerns that her progress has been slow in such a small school of 24 children that they have concerns how this will be managed in a mainstream secondary school where she will not get the current level of support or small class sizes. they were also concerned that all of her needs are still to be identified. heard nothing from the LA yet which isn't surprising as we only got the decision on Friday -they have 4 weeks so will be interesting to see how long it takes. our dyslexia teacher wants to stop in sept as she is retiring. I don't know what to do about secondary - there is a school in county but across the other side which has 'access' to specialist teachers as in they will come in for part of the week, a classroom where the children are withdrawn from lessons and she would drop languages. nearest dyslexia specialist school is in Lichfield but too far to travel each day and is a day school only. there is an independent school in the next city which has a unit type placement for dyslexia and is crested accreditied but also concerned about sending her to an out of county school and isolating her socially and also the battle that any out of county school is going to be bring but I think used to fighting now!

and we won !! that's 2 tribunals that we have now won in 15 months - not out of the woods yet as ive got an awful feeling a NIL is coming our way but today the sun is shining and I am so so pleased. thank you all for holding my hand through this especially sally who as always is truly fabulous!!!

thing is sally the report I handed in which the teacher had wrote and explained the extra help she had been given in tests did admit that the TA helped her explaining what things mean!!!!! that would never happen in the SATs next year secondary placement - the LA admitted in the hearing and have also put in writing that they employ no specialist teachers whatsoever! not a single one but the individual academies themselves may have a specialist teacher I have from my last tribunal that NHS OT do nothing for sensory issues. I do have an indie OT report which does specify when the time comes what OT provision she will need once and if we get a statement as does the SALt report as well. Panel asked about the EP and why there was no LA EP report. LA said school could call them in if needed and the panel did press the LA and said but how does a child without a statement get access to the EP and the LA couldn't answer the question - I know its complicated as shes in an out of county school and LA tried then to pass it over to the school and the EP service. they were also forced to admit if she was assessed it would be the home EP that would see her - actually also that's where I got the LA person confused as I asked about specialist teaching and she admitted none in our LA but then she could always see the EP instead and that's when the panel were saying but how can she access the EP service if she isn't statemented or assessed - the LA rep didn't really come back and answer the question at all. the LA summed it up by just saying there was no evidence of a need for an assessment to be done and that was that! my heart and head say she should be assessed but again as we all know sometimes odd judgements are given so that's why I feel sick at the moment and even if we win, I will be back at tribunal I reckon by February so it will all start again.

I don't know about the asd sally and its something I keep thinking long and hard about. the panel were very interested to know about her brothers and an eyebrow was defiantely raised when they learnt it was her twin brother in the asd indie school. her report by the OT do mention rigid thinking and the salt report also has red flags but her social use of language wasn't tested as we had salt done mainly from the perspective of dyslexia so maybe if the journey continues we could look at that as well. she is now coming onto the NHS OT radar and she is going back to see them in a months time. she has had a triage appointment and nothing was raised then as such but I guess as more reports come in we will see. the judge started by saying 'had all her needs been identified' the LA when they did the refusal did it on the basis of dyslexia only - since then they have lots more report which have identified more needs and the judge listed her needs now which the LA accepted were her current needs - and tahts where I get confused I guess. the LA accept all of her new needs so we could argue they have all now been identified post refusal but the LA have never reconsidered the case with the new dx on the table. the judge also made comment that she is about to see the NHS OT so there could be more things coming. then moved onto the provision in place now - and the school gushed about all of the help she gets which was news to us. they made it sound like the whole schools timetable revolved around her. that she was getting so much help from the TA who is assigned full time to another statemented child plus this TA helps 2 other children on the sen register as well so the teacher admitted they were using another childs statementing TA hours for other children. then it was progress - and that's where the teacher said she had made 6 points progress in 3 months - I did argue that as I had got the report in as late evidence which clearly showed that she had gone backwards then teacher made her redo the test with a TA who was able to write and explain the questions to her so was an artificial increase. the teacher admitted that she had done this and tried to argue she was allowed to as she could have help in the SATs next year., I argued that yes that's correct but only if that's her normal way of working which it isn't plus all the other reports show how behind she is using standardised testing. in her reading without help she scored a 2b - in the hearing teacher was arguing she was a 3b. I googled the judge and shes been a judge for nearly 20 years so hopefully knows her stuff. my heart and head both say they should assess but theres always that doubt as you just don't know which way it will go.

After all of that the teacher came so not sure what all the problems were over the last 3 weeks unless it was just to unsettle me Judge opened it by saying it was a well ordered bundle and they were going to ask questions where they felt the gaps were. They started by saying that the first part was to show that all of her needs had been identified. The LA case was alway its just dyslexia and no evidence of anything else. They were forced to admit by the judge that her needs were much more than this and accepted the list that the judge reeled of at them. Then they went through what school had in place and then it was about progress. As usual come away feeling shell socked not knowing how its gone as panel,poker faced. Class teacher gave most of the evidence and just gushed about her amazing progress and all the help in place. The teachers report showing where she had got my daughter to re do tests and the TA scribing for her went in as late evidence and I was able to point out that her scores were so much Higher because of this. The panel did question the teacher about this . The LA accepted they have no specialist teachers in our county when she comes back here for secondary. The school have agreed now to call in the specialist teaching service in their LA which to date they had refused so felt like the school were throwing provision at her. I just felt that after all my hard work on my bundle the hearing itself just focused on the teachers evidence. I'm worrying just how much my written evidence will go towards the decision. The panel were very focused on the salt report and its very low scores plus they asked if school were now going to refer her to a NHs salt. They also picked up that although we had an indie OT report that there was still the NHs OT to go and were concerned that more needs would be identified there as well. The LA said very little. I referred to the code saying about significantly delayed etc and allow her reports say she has significant delay. The school started to quote their LA policy and why they couldn't support the assessment and the judge stopped her and made it clear it was the code of practice only that they were concerned about. Class teacher also said that she didn't feel the specialist teacher was having a huge impact on her and it was the schools efforts alone helping her. Secondary was mentioned quite a bit by the panel as she is year 5 and that she is. It going to get this level of small class sizes of 12 in a secondary school. It was done in under 2 hours - glad its over but today i feel awful and definately have post tribunal blues as i can't read the tribunal and also I guess I don't want to as I can't bear the thought we may lose but guess that's a natural reaction. I felt exactly like this last time and we got a good result then but nothing is ever guaranteed.

the class teacher has announced to the class today that she will not be in school all day tomorrow so sounds like she is attending the hearing after all. after protesting so loudly she couldn't attend the LA have obviously persuaded her to attend - given the hearing is only a morning hearing and how adamant she was about not being out of school is also quite perplexing that she is now going to be out of school all day. of course ive only heard this via my daughter - no doubt the LA are keeping this quiet to surprise us with tomorrow - pretty rubbish really given how they have faffed around for 3 weeks protesting no way the teacher could attend!

Yes you are right Sally, it's easy to start over thinking thing. I've got the order now. It states that the la could proceed on the papers alone or they could get the teacher do put her evidence in writing or give evidence via telephone. These are things I suggested so they've taken that from my letter of opposition. We finally got the order by email in Friday afternoon and thenla have until tues to oppose it. It also means they only have now tues to decide what they will do and get the teacher to write a report - I still have the teacher report which will try and get in as Kate evidence on the day. The Senco/teacher has used every trick to try and show she's made progress but contradicts herself all the time plus I have he indie reports to show also how far behind she is. I have a feeling that something will happen on Tuesday , it might be I think the la trying to call the EP as a witness who has never met my daughter. I guess the Senco could still turn up and give evidence but as our school is put of county my LA have no real power over her or the school.

at the last meeting i had with the LA and school the LA seemed more than happy with everything the school have in place for her and have commited this in writing - i know there is a risk on the day that they will try and argue the school could do more butnot sure what more the school can do without an assessment as the school really dont get what her true needs are. the school is tiny with only 20 kids in the school - theres 10 in a class so teaching ratio is 1:5 but despite this she is falling further behind - i can argue that shes already getting a very high level of support and this is making no real difference to her. its hard isnt it trying to pre empt what they will say. the LA case is that her needs can be met at school action plus. there is no LA EP report but we have an EP, SALT, OT and specialist dyslexia teaching reports plus in a lot of areas ie spelling maths etc she is on the 2nd centile but has an average IQ - at year 5 (plus shes a sept baby ) she is on levels 2B where she has stuck for a long time despite the high staff ratio and everything school have in place and the hour of specialist teaching we are paying for. she is now about 3 - 4 years behind academically. LA criteria is that she should be below a 1A to be eligible for an assessment

That's it bed and I won't. I still think that there's a sting in the tail coming - don't know what but my guard is up. I havent seen the actual order yet. Hopefully it will come tomorrow, will be interesting to see what it actually says. They didn't allow my late evidence of a report by the Senco as after the deadline but say I can ask on the day do I will do that. Always knew it would be gamble getting it in. That application has sat in th tribunal office for 2 weeks which hasn't helped but even if its not admitted I still have plenty of evidence

Phoned again today and the LA application to postpone has been refused so tribunal will go ahead next week

phoned them today and its still not been passed to a judge but they are well aware of it and still a case of just wait and see...... 9 days to go

phoned them this afternoon - they have the application from the LA and my response and now its just a waiting game for the judge to see it - they advised me to phone back on Monday so got a long weekend of waiting ahead of me - the LA have done a good job of making me worry about it all!!! it certainly was a good tactic they have used. going to try and keep busy over the weekend and just continue to keep everything crossed they don't agree it. thought about it earlier and its not just me the LA are messing around, the file will now be with the panel members, the venue is booked and there is now just over a week to go so it would cause so much disruption to everyone by adjourning it

I responded yesterday so now I just have to wait and see what they say - its now in the hands of the tribunal to decide. the LA argument is very weak just says she cant attend as she needs to be in school - doesn't even state that she is needed really for the hearing or how her attendance is going to support/help the LA case. the LA stated in their case progression that they would be happy for the case to be heard on the papers alone which is quite astonishing given they don't have a single professional report and we have EP, OT , SALT and dyslexia specialist teaching reports. it will depend I guess on how the tribunal judge feels - theres nothing more I can do now but its very unfair that now with less than 2 weeks to go we are left in total limbo not knowing if it will or wont go ahead plus we have the carers all on standby as well who have arranged themselves time off work and as their shifts have already been covered (they are prison officers) its really going to be disruptive to cancel it but ultimately nothing more I can do now but wait and hope the tribunal rule as quickly as possibly

well today - 2 weeks today to tribunal -I got the letter form the LA with the official request to vary the hearing date - they handwritten the form and sent it to me 2nd class - not even 1st class! ive spoken briefly to the tribunal and they said that they would not agree an adjournment until they had heard from me first. the LA application makes no mention that they have contacted me and I have objected to it. im just worried not what my already prepared child care arrangement for the 2 boys will be enough reason for the tribunal to continue = the reality is im guessing the LA are buying for more time and I can expect some fun and games if it is adjourned

the LA havent offically made the request yet - they have just emailed me to see what my views on it would be. i have emailed them back and said i wouldnt be able to agree to an adjournment and my reasons for this. i know we are meant to try and sort it out first but this is something i would never agree to - im expecting them to make the application on tuesday - thats if they are going to make it. they have now copied the EP in which is interesting as the EP has never seen my daughter so why they are doing that im not really sure. at the tribunal over my son last year they called him and he hadnt seen my son for a year which the tribunal immeadiately picked up on so he didnt actually say anything as nothing he could say and this time he would have even less to say......