bjkmummy

my bundle came today from the tribunal - the venue and time is perfect for us in terms of childcare - last time it was another venue which we were concerned we would get again so I definitely want it to go ahead now as it means all the arrangements for the children we have made will work

its a refusal to assess. we are calling no witnesses. LA are only calling class teacher /senco. I know they asked her back in feb as she told me and she said she was happy to go for the LA. ive now had an email saying LA want to vary the appeal date as the teacher says she cant come due to SATs. the hearing is the week before the sats but she says she needs to be in school for sat preparation. its a tiny school with only 2 teacher - only 2 kids in year 6 are sitting the sats. the reality is that the teacher got cold feet. school ina different LA to my home LA and school just converted to an academy. She wrote a report last week which ive asked to be submitted as late evidence which shows that my daughter falling further behind. my case is ready to go and all is in order. we have 2 boys with ASD and just organising the childcare has been a nightmare. ive just emailed the LA back and said I don't agree to an adjournment and my reasons why. they say the teacher would be available after 19th may but its not likely that I would get another hearing date that quickly plus again trying to get things organised would be a huge headache and no doubt here would be another excuse further down the line. my question really is how likely are the tribunal to agree an adjournment with less than 3 weeks to go to the hearing? I really don't want it to be adjourned - I just now want it over with!

something similar happened to someone I knew so she lodged the appeal even though she was worried she had missed the deadline - the file was place before the judge who allowed the appeal to continue - a letter was also sent to the LA by the tribunal service stating that the tribunal were concerned that the LA had tried to prevent the parent from their right to appeal by their behaviour so I wouldn't panic yet but I would lodge the appeal, explain what happened etc - im sure it will be fine - you have to remember although this seems so personal to us, the tribunal service come across this all of the time and are well aware of what goes on with the LA

I do indeed have evidence of the previous incidences where they made her resit tests as it was in her school file which I got a couple of weeks ago. I have submitted it as evidence to the tribunal. I also got her to redo the spelling test at home a month after she had been made to do it several times at school to get to the 90% - she didn't get 90% when she did it at home as this is the whole pint - she's not retaining anything. Although it was interesting to watch her do the test as she was talking herself through some of the words and kept mentioning what she had been taught by the dyslexia teacher rather than what she was taught at home. I have asked this morning for her new levels and will see what they come back as. I have said that my daughter has told me one of the grades she got. The hearing is now 4 weeks away - she breaks up on Friday for 2 weeks so the. There will be one school week left u til the hearing so I'm against the clock now especially as her teacher doesn't work on Fridays and tends also not to be in on a Thursday - will see how helpful she is giving me the new levels. It was parents evening earlier this week but I couldn't go due to childcare so all the other parents will have been given the levels. I'm not sure what to expect - a sudden increase or as my daughter says a decline - will hopefully find out this evening

I will do that sally. Interestingly my daughter made a comment yesterday. I know all the kids are being tested in her class to see what level/0progress they have made - typically after the deadline for the final evidence deadline. On Friday she was given a reading test, I'm guessing it was comprehension as she was made to write her answers. Yesterday the teacher made her do it again as her score on the Friday was so poor. When she re did it she had this time a TA to scribe for her. The teacher told her her score would be a 2b. I'm disappointed the school keep doing this, make her resit tests if she doesn't score high enough to skew the figures, I think this is now the 3rd incident I know about - there other two i have proof they did it so placed it in the bundle for tribunal. The teacher is telling us nothing about this, we are finding it all out ourselves. If her level is 2b (she is now year 5) then this shows that she has gone down as she was last term a 2a/b. I have heard nothing from the LA since my evidence bundle of 300 pages went in last week, the LA have served nothing more.

since I responded back to the school saying I would prefer to wait to after the tribunal but send me the paperwork heard nothing more. today was the final evidence date -- I sent 300 pages including 5 professional reports - the LA have sent nothing! so if this goes to tribunal the LA don't have a single professional report to rely on - just the senco who today asked me what hypermobility was! a few weeks ago she admitted she had no idea what dyspraxia was but maintains she sees no issues with my daughter re hypermobility or dyspraxia when she doesn't even know what they are! so the waiting I guess goes on to see what the LA will do now they have my bundle - I have a feeling they may try and get an adjournment due to getting my reports which obviously I would oppose. its just odd they have sent nothing but then they could always have another card yet to play.

i will happily let the LA EP see her but this offer from the school is not to have her assessed and my LA havent asked to send their EP in - we only now have a couple of school weeks left before the actual hearing so would be unlikely the ep would even have come in to see her in the short time frame before tribunal anyway - in my reply to the school i was careful to word it so i wasnt saying no. the school havent mentioned anything since and havent given me the paperwork for the referral either. the problem i have is that her school is in a different LA to my home so the school EP is different to the one my LA would send in to assess her so if the school EP saw her and we won the assessment then a different EP would see her a few weeks later. if im officially asked for her to assessed by the LA EP then i will give permission

It's not my LA that want the EP to see her. My LA and school authority are different LA - the school have said the school will fund an EP to see her out of their budget but made it clear its not to help with statementing so I've said that's great but as she has had so many assessments, has 2 big hospital appointments coming up, Easter holidays and we are now so close to the hearing it can wait until after the tribunal as its only a few weeks wait and to be honest I want her to have a break from the constant assessments. If we win the refusal to assess it will be my LA EP that will go in not the school one so it would mean potentially 2 different EPs seeing her . School didn't say that she would be seen before tribunal anyway only that they would agree to her being referred now whereas before they wouldn't agree to it. In reality there are only 3 school weeks left now before the tribunal hearing and I don't want the added stress of this LA EP and what they may or may not write etc. if my LA come forward and say they want their EP to see then fair enough , will cross that bridge . Also by waiting until after the tribunal the 6 month limit lifts and the EP can have freedom to test her

final evidence deadline next week so busy getting all the evidence together - got copies of her school work, got her to hand write her views although LA insisted they were done a second time by PP. We have had the LA response to tribunal now - they are saying she is making progress but provided no evidence of it - she has slowly been going up the sub levels on the NC but her peers are doing more so the gap is actually widening but neither school nor LA picked up on that yet. school saying shes fine. LA say her needs can be met at school action - shes not even on school action plus. dyslexia teacher wrote a report and checked her levels - shes made no progress and thats with being in a class of 10 with TA support and the extra teaching. SALT report was shocking as well - on the 1st centile for some things, her working memory on the 2nd centile, OT report came in today - although she doesnt have dyspraxia she does have difficulties and scored 0.5 centile on one of the tests. OT picked up that she struggles in a noisy class room so needs to be in a small class, she needs help from a TA and she needs a sensory diet. small class and less noise is going to make mainstream secondary difficult i guess. the LA have been playing lots of games - we had over a 3 week period 4 little visits to our home from various LA officers on the pretext of hand delivering documents. its been pretty stressful and im sure that in the next few days as we had to the next deadline something is going to happen. school who have refused point blank to call in EP or specialist teaching service said to me 2 days ago that the SEN governor has agreed to fund the EP to see her - my guard is up and ive got a feeling the LA is behind it so ive said that in light of us being so close now taht it would be prudent to wait until after the tribunal as if they agree to assess than an EP would see her anyway and it would be a different EP to the one the school would call in plus im sure this EP report would be put straight into the hands of the LA - i cant get my own EP report as my last one is less than 6 months old. so now i wait and see what happens next - my evidence pile is huge - LA response was about 2 pages long with 7 appendix - i think im going to have about 100!!!!

Yes she is average ability - have that written into her dyslexia report.

Will get my bum into gear over secondary - at the moment as I've hit the brick wall just to even get a statement it feels like a mountain to get over without even thinking about winning that and then to fight for the actual statement and then finally onto schools. I don't see how I'm going to get over the first hurdle but you are right I need to get on and get school placement sorted

The dyslexia action report states she is of average ability.school just keep bleating that she is now making progress, no one has even raised the question of secondary as school and LA don't seem to think there are any issues and she will i guess be just fine. It's not been discussed at all. The LA are sticking to the fact that she is slowly creeping up the sublevels on the NC levels. LA state school can call in the EP if they want, school state they absolutely won't do that due to this 6 years behind business. My own LA written criteria states that at age 10 she had to be nearly 4 years behind, she missed this criteria by 2 months. The school said in sept her reading age was 6 years 6 months but then the LA refer to school saying in nov is was age 8 years? But I asked for the paperwork sent to the LA and nowhere in the paperwork does it mention this new level. My EP report puts her at 6 and half. I think the age 8 results is for a different reading test which made it easier for her to guess the words. I'm just stuck with everyone telling me everything's fine and refusing to do anything. There is the argument also that she is in a class of 10 with 2 staff so the ratio very high and she should be making rapid progress but that's simply not happening. I don't know if my LA may try and get the EP to see her before tribunal. She is having specialist teaching which I am paying for - an hour a week. The teacher is starting form the beginning as she didn't even know her vowels. Specialist teacher is happy she is making progress but is telling me that secondary is going to over whelm her as she will simply find the reading alone too much too handle. I am going to get the dyslexia teacher to write a report. She also feels she has dyspraxia as well so we will know about that in 2 weeks as our favourite OT is going in to see her . Class teacher said no concerns re dyspraxia but admitted she had no idea what it was!

The meetiNg was not minuted although I have come home and wrote everything down so it was fresh in my mind and dh was with me. I can show she is not making progress / she started year 2 about 2 NC behind her peers, now in year 5 she is about 5 point behind so the gap is growing and in the last year she has had a lot of intervention. My headache also is that the school is a different LA to to my home so school are quoting there LA policy and the teacher is clearly stating school will not call the EP in as EP will not assess her as she is not 6 years behind, my la officer is sticking to their criteria which states that at her current age she should needs to be below 6 yrs 4 months - the school put her at 6 years 6 months. I only of course have the schools word that this is the LA policy however I am cautious that if I kick up a stink that the EP hasn't seen her then it could be argued that the school haven't done enough and I could lose the appeal. No EP has ever seen her , all we have is the dyslexia action report. School are making noises that she is making progress but have provided no evidence of anything yet. They made her stay in over playtime to re do a piece of work and then told her this would mean she could go up but in the meeting the teacher backtracked and said she couldn't really mark her up as only once piece of work so that improvement has to be seen across the board. The teacher accepts that her handwriting is all over the place and is not consistent at all. She currently at age 10 yrs 6 months and yr 5 is at NC 2a. I have looked at the rose report but i need to actually print it out and of through it. The la due to respond by Thursday, they will say I guess she is making progress but again they only have the teachers word for it. My daughters views which I got her to handwrite were more or less unreadable but what you could read was heartbreaking plus she also drew quite a harrowing picture.

well had the meeting - it was basically just for the LA to assure us that no statement was needed as school were already doing everything they can - school opened the meeting by saying that they wont call the EPin as she is not 6 years behind as per school/la policy. they also stated that they wont call the EP in now and they wont call in the specialist teaching service either! the school refuse to tell me what the SEN budget is as the school is so small - I have looked it up online and its about 5k a year so I can kind of understand why school wont spend a single penny on her. LA refuse to assess her as she doesn't meet the 'criteria' at age 10 she has to be at age 6 yrs 4 months and she was 6 year and 6 months! the case that was to panel was messed up so much - information from me and the school wasn't even put to panel as the LA decided to put it to panel before the deadline for everyone to get their information in. they then took it to a second panel of less members when they finally got the info but I assume they made the same decision as we got the refusal letter. Ive asked for everything that went to panel and know I have had time to go through it so much stuff is missing - the panel notes refer to information that I have no idea where the LA got it from. the meeting was a bit of a farce - just for the LA to tick the box I guess. we said nothing and just stated that an assessment was needed to understand her needs fully - the sen officer wouldn't listen, school just sat on the fence - they accepted that she was make progress but also conceded that this was probably due to the specialist dyslexia teacher who they had nothing but praise for. they admitted that they had got her to do her work again and it would have scored her higher but they need to see that work o=more and once and school wrote that her handwriting is inconsistent. 2/3 targets in the iep haven't been met - the target that was met was for a target normally given to a reception/yr 1 kid - shes yr 5. school stated she is significantly behind with her peers - however LA just picked up on school saying she is making progress so they are happy - I can show that since year 2 she is falling further behind her peers - keot this bit quiet as they are too dumb topick this up - they are just looking at her slow creep up in NC levels without thinking that her peers are making even more progress so for her the gap is widening. she is due to see an independent SALT next week and OT the following week. LA know we are getting OT done - we have had a referral for the NHS OT but we are getting nowhere with it so far. I handed my daughters views over at the meeting - she had wrote them herself at home so you can barely read them but what she has wrote is very powerful. I have scribed a second copy which I will send to tribunal later. so now on to Thursday and the LA have to respond - later at the end of the school day class teacher came out and spoke to her quickly - she confirmed that the LA have asked her to be a witness at the tribunal so I can guess we know where this is going.

dh went into school today and asked why this had happened. the teacher told him it was for her IEP targets. her work that day was copied as she has a meeting with the sen officer. later I got a phone call from the sen officer inviting me to a meeting on weds for 90 mins - the sen officer, head and senco will be at the meeting. I guess it is to convince us that the school will do more and no statement still needed, then at 5pm the head of SEN appeared at my front door! she came to hand deliver a bundle of documents I had requested. in there were notes from my daughters school file where the school state at age 10 she is academically age 6.5 yrs also talks about them advising me to get my daughter seen privately for dyslexia. also got the sen panel minutes. the panel went ahead with my notes that I had sent in so they were then sent to another panel where I guess the decision was the same, theres no minutes from this second panel. on the panel paperwork there is an odd note which makes me think that the paperwork from school wasn't even put before the panel. my friend looked at the school file notes and she is convinced that a lot of the file notes are recent additions rather than being wrote at the time things had happened. so off for the meeting on weds I go - wiil sit and listen - keep my mouth closed and see what they say - I still want her to be assessed and will continue to tribunal no matter what they promise - the school will convert to an academy in april plus the school in a different LA so my sen officer really has no power over the school.

yes I have looked at crested - there is an independent school in the next city which has been accredited but is not totally dyslexic specific. the 'games' have started. my daughter came home from school the other day and explained how she has been kept in at lunchtime play to rewrite a paragraph which was 5 - 7 lines in her 'bestest neatest ' handwriting - she also missed the next lesson as well to do it. when she had done it the teacher said to her how fantastic it was, how it meant she had gone up to a 3b which the teacher hadn't expected her to achieve this year. all of her work was that day was copied as the teacher had a meeting with someone at 4pm - no idea who and of course none of this has been mentioned to me by the school. the school have agreed for the OT to see her next month - OT going to be looking at her handwriting and dyspraxia. I don't think the school have realised she is an independent OT yet - she is our favourite OT! the school said they would refer her to the NHS OT but I found out no referral was ever done so sorted it but not heard anything from the NHS OT yet. school must be wondering now how an OT is seeing her when they didn't do the referral and they think I think they did! so they must realise also that I now know they haven't done it until the OT is psychic. I hate these games, I hate the tone of the heads voice when she left a message on the phone yesterday , its just horrible. now got the SEN officer trying to take her views. asked for her to send the form through and will get my daughter to do it over half term but silence from them now but that's there problem really. I will get her to do her views anyway which I can always submit in my evidence

I m appealing a refusal to assess at this stage so got a long battle ahead of me as even if I win the refusal to assess then I may still not get the statement so this could gone on for years! Not sure re placement yet, that will evolve as the journey continues and we get more reports. I can show that since year 2 where her sats were average she has fallen further behind and is not making the adequate progress even though the school put an intensive package in for her which failed to help her. She was upset yesterday as class teacher keeps making her read out loud to her classmates which she hats. Now got her to write a book with her feelings in so I can see how she's coping and what's going on, for the last week she has cried every day at school - is that normal? I'm thinking long term a dyslexia school would be best but there are none in this area at all so would mean residential and that's another battle.

well the tribunal date is here - beginning of may so very quick - 3 month turnaround which is quick as there will be a judge and one panel member rather than two. had the sen officer on the phone already wanting to get her views for the tribunal - it is a year ago tomorrow when I was last at tribunal so deffo have a feeling of deja vue tonight.

my LA statementing criteria is not published online anywhere but I have managed to get it by other means. it states that she should have 2 IEPS and at age 10 she should have a reading age of 6year and 4 months. the dyslexia action report put her at 6 yrs and 8 months. the older she gets the wider the gap the LA expect her to be so at age 7 she would only have to had been at an age 5 for reading so only 2 years behind whilst now at age 10 she needs to be nearly 4 years behind! the criteria was written in 2007 and so there is absolutely no mention of the rose report and to be honest I do not think my LA have ever even heard of it! im sure this LA has no dyslexia qualified teachers - I think the LA she is in school in does so I may need to do letters to both LA. how much weight does the rose report hold at tribunal?

I have concerns that she has dyspraxia - we have had a nHS referral go in but nothing yet so have booked our favourite provate OT that we have both used before sally to go and see her in school and then do a full assessment of her. what I am now also finding quite concerning is that at age 10 the asd flag is slowly starting to be raised about her. ive never seen it before and would always argue that she has had no issues but after talking to someone the other day and they started to ask me lots of questions, it was like a lightbulb had been switched on, she is twin to the boy we went to tribunal last year. I think if I publicly raised any concerns about her re asd that I would be laughed at so its something I think that will have to be a slow burn for now and as we start to get assessments see if they do then flag anything up. one question I do have - we are going to get an OT report re the dyspraxia but someone mentioned that this may not be the best idea as at tribunal it could go against us as in effect we are doing the assessment by getting the report done - its not an argument that I agree with but just wondered if you had heard such an argument before?

im guessing that the average kid should be well up into the 3s as at year 6 they should be levels 4s I don't have in writing the conversation with the class teacher and since I mentioned iwas applying fo a statement all I now hear is what good progress she is making which Im not sure how as the school have put her spelling age at 7 years so a good 3 years behind. I do have her levels in her dyslexia action report which put her reading age at 6 years plus on lots of areas she is only on the 2nd centile. I spoke to the indep EP who I used for my son yesterday and I read her the levels given in the dyslexia reprt and she was shocked the LA had refused to assess her - she cant assess her until the end of april due to the 6 months thing between reports. I have an OT coming to asses her for dyspraxia - my appeal is lodged and I will see what happens - they may concede yet and yes I will find out about the delegated funding- on my list of things to - the support is listed in the refusual, the LA accept she has SEN but her needs can be met at school action plus. the LA are trying to say she has made progress - in the last term she was a 2a/b - this term she is a 2a so they feel that is good progress even though for the proceeding 2 years she has been stuck at a 2b so her peers have widened the gap away from her.

well got the refusual to assess letter today - the LA say that her needs can be made at school action plus - that shes made progress - her NC levels have barely moved and now in year 5 she is levels 2a. dont know what to say really - ive already posted the appeal to sendist this afternoon - phonecalls made re getting OT and EP reports - im in shock really and upset especially with the school. the letter even says she has SEN - it states she doesnt meet the criteria for stat assessment. so 2nd tribunal in 2 years awaits me

no - not thought seriously yet about school but I have checked out thoroughly the local provision already and know that its not going to work. 1st school said with a statement wont take her and without a statement will throw her to the wolves and may still not accept her if she doesn't reach level 3. 2nd school further away so risk her not even getting a place - usual mainstream secondary size, do have dyslexia teachers albeit part time and she would get an hour a week. they would let her drop French and use that time to do other stuff to help her catch up etc. after 1st school sounded fab but not sure if its enough really given how dire her dyslexia reports was. in next city is a crested independent day school which is a normal school with a dyslexia unit. what concerns me there is that she would have to sit an entrance exam for secondary and she is not academically the best so not sure how that would work - my next plan is to now visit this school on the next open day, then it would have to be specialist dyslexia boarding school as no local day specialist school - there is maple hayes but its a day school and so too far to travel every day. we are starting to see signs of anxiety - she has phonological difficulties and I feel she also struggle to process language and it takes her longer so now she just sits on the sidelines and watches rather than being in the middle of everything

in relation to her IEP it is shockingly bad - it runs from dec - march so is for a period of 4 months so seems like a long time - a friend told me that the LA expect IEPs to be done 3 times a year so I guess that makes sense. I showed her IEP to a dysleixia specialist who then complained to the head of SEN in the LA which my daughters school is in about how poor it was. she did it on the basis my daughter wouldn't be identified but lo and behold within 24 hours the head of SEN knew it was my daughter and he has phoned her school up and is going into school to discuss it with them! as you can imagine the school are not happy with me. at this stage I really couldn't care as they are trying to say the right things but then are doing nothing and remember this head of sen guy will be the one who stands by the 6 years behind policy. shes in a tiny school and since she was dx the head teacher has not spoken a word to me and outright ignores me, none of the other parents speak to me, there are 3 girls in her class and they now all blank her as well cue a very sad and lonely girl coming home each night. my relationship with the school so dire that I don't think they would listen to me even if I spoke to them about it. her dyslexia teacher says she will need a statement and will write a report when needed. each term she is writing a report so that is really good evidence as well. the problem with my daughter is that she is just so nice and compliant - every report I have ever had about her states this so she has flown straight under the radar. I will now mid January whether they will assess so not too long to wait - already have my OT ready to see her, now just trying to source an excellent dyslexia EP in case I will need them. her current school since the day I told them I had applied for the statement now keeping saying she is fine and is making good progress! that concerns me as they now need to write a report. what I have learnt through the boys that the levels that teachers give are never correct. her twin who at SATS in KS1 was a level 3 now in year 5 is struggling on level 2s, her elder brother also in a special school was put al level 2 in year 6, now in year 8 hes on P scales! looking at her levels she hasn't moved in 2 years and at year 5 is still on level 2s

Okay an update - she was assessed by dyslexia action and she was on the 2nd centile for reading spelling and writing - she's on the 5th centile to think for working memory/short term memory so the report was pretty dire. However as it was done by dyslexia action it's recommendations were a bit wooly. Recommends specialist teaching but not how much etc. The dyslexia teacher I am paying for has done about 7 sessions with her, she is struggling to retain what she is learning - she also has huge phonological problems so is struggling to hear sounds etc. At parents evening dh demanded an IEP - the one that came is poor very poor. After speaking to both local secondary schools its clear she needs a statement. The first secondary made it clear with a statement they would refuse her if it had specialist teaching on it as they can t provide it. 2nd school did have dyslexia teachers but seems a bit scratchy about what she would actually get plus the school will be hard to get in without a statement as we are out of catchment. I applied for the statement against the schools advice as they are still bleating about the 6 years behind rubbish - the dyslexia action report puts her behind between 3 - 4 years. She is out of county so my LA has no such policy. My LA also have no specialist teachers that they employ. Received a letter from the LA today saying they've received my request and they are now going to get a report from school and if they decide to assess they will call in the EP. My concern now reading above is that yes it's clear she needs specialist teaching but I don't have it in writing how much she needs. I'm guessing I'm going to need an independent EP report to do this? Her dyslexia teacher will write a report for her and she agrees also she needs to statemented. I'm trying to get her seen by an OT re dyspraxia but at the moment the GP is refusing to even refer her saying school should do it, school don't know how to so were contacting school nurse and since then its all gone quiet.