julieann

Does anyone know how far my duties as Learning Support Assistant extend? The mum of my pupil who had the three day work experience in school with me. Who wanted her daughter to have a proper work experience with the general public the same as the NT pupils at the school. Sent a letter into the careers teacher yesterday stating that she has found a one day placement at her local library for her daughter and will be picking Mrs xxxxx (me) up on that day to take her to the library. Myself and the school knew nothing about it until we received the letter. My pupils mum has told the library that her daughter will be fully supported by someone from the school for the whole day. I only support xxxx in the afternoon on the date her mum has given. I give whole class support to years 7 + 8 in the mornings. Does anyone know of an LSA that has gone on a pupil's work experience with them in mainstream?

Sent to new topic Does anyone know how far my duties as Learning Support Assistant extend?

Update on Y10 work experience: My pupil started her 3 day work experience in different areas around the school. We went in the school kitchens. I had already arranged with the staff that my pupil would be allowed to put out the drinks and serve the cakes at breaktime on condition she wore clean trainers as the floor might be slippery. I had given her a timetable of our 3 days work experience and she started by saying she really didn't want to serve the cakes. I said that was fine she didn't have to. The drinks trolley was at the back of the kitchens so we started taking assorted bottles and cartons out of their plastic wrapping and putting them into small plastic crates for lunchtime. I gave instructions like put two purple bottles in each crate. My pupil wasn't able to follow this instruction and kept putting all the purple bottles in the same crate. I looked towards the serving hatches as they went up at the front of the kitchen/ dining area and when I looked back my pupil was crouched as low as you can get on the floor. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was hiding because she didn't want the other girls to see her as they might talk about her. I managed to pursuade her to stand up and once she realised that the other pupils were too busy buying their food to look at her she seemed to be ok. Then she started asking why the pupils weren't looking at her. Was it because they didn't like her etc. I tried her again with the drinks in the crate but she wasn't able to put two of each bottle and carton in the crates. In the afternoon we were stamping the school name on new text books and my pupil said that she really liked doing that. So thats positive. I am hoping that by observing these 3 days I will be able to come up with something that my pupil could do in a 1 day out of school placement in 3 weeks time.

Hi Diane Your area sounds great. I'm not aware of anything like that in my area. The problem is that her mum doesn't want her daughter to go to a work experience for people with various difficulties. She wants her daughter to go to a placement and be treated the same as the NT pupils at the school.

Thank-you to everyone who responded to my request for advice. Mandapanda Having got to know with my pupil and her mum over the last 4 years I feel that I could be to blame for part of the problem. Over the last 4 years my pupils mum has tended to use me as a babysitter. Looking after her daughter out of lessons when she isn't well and mum doesn't want her at home because she is working. Staying with her daughter when mum is late picking up at the end of school day due to work committments. I think mum knows her daughters limitations in the workplace but expects whoever gives her a placement to more or less babysit her. Baddad Her obsession is usually computer based. At the moment it is anything to do with Chris Brown . She has had to have time off school because she is so stressed about the fact he could be going to jail. Kathryn If the work experience is set up through the school then they are responsible. I know the careers organiser phones every day to all the work placements to make sure the pupil turns up and to ask if there are any problems. The employer also has to fill out a report on the pupil which is sent to the school. If the parent organises the placement they are responsible. After a chat with our careers organiser the latest update is that my pupils mum is going to see if she can get a one day work experience at a music shop were my pupil has flute lessons. It's still on the high street but at least they know her and their doors will be closed. Incidently I asked my pupil what the specialist school had said she must do when they were on work experience and she said they told her to stay at home This is actually unlawful exclusion.

Good ideas Baddad but her mum wants her to do her work experience in a shop or office in the town. Her mum has suggested that she will ask the man who runs the smoothie bar in the town if he will take her. It is on the high Street which is a busy main road with heavy traffic and the double doors are often propped open.

Links working fine Joanne. Very interesting report. I might print it off and leave it in the staffroom

Apologies for triple posting. My computer has been playing up and I thought it hadn't posted. If someone can remove other two postings much appreciated.

Has anyone's child had a work experience placement in yr 10? I support a yr 10 pupil who dual places at a specialist school. She has 3 days at specialist school and 2 days at secondary mainstream. We have just found out that the specialist school pupils in her year are on work experience next week and she started too late to get a placement. They have asked us at mainstream school to have her all week. I have arranged 3 days of different fun activities within the school so that she isn't doing lessons. Helping in reprographics, helping with drinks and cakes at breaktime in canteen, baking choc chip cookies, sewing bookmark, helping in library, stamping new text books. Her mum is happy with this but says that when we at mainstream school have our work experience in 4 weeks time she wants her daughter to have a proper work experience placement out of school for the 2 days that she isn't at her specialist school. I have been with my pupil for 4 years and she still has a mental age of around 10yrs although she has matured physically (14yrs) She has lots of positive qualities and abilities but isn't able to follow basic instructions without constant prompting and encouragement. Has no sense of time or urgency, will wander off with anyone who speaks nicely to her, does not understand money values, isn't allowed to go shopping on her own, has no road sense, will only use a computer to look at rap singers, will run about flapping and pacing when given unstructured time. The school felt that my pupils risk accessment would be to high for an employer to be willing to take her on a work experience placement. Also she doesn't like going to new places or meeting people she doesn't know. I think mum also thinks I will be able to go with her which is out of the question.

Oh! well I'm pleased thats been clarified. We're all quite relieved

Hi mac4, They seem to want to use any excuse to take the responsibility for the childs difficulties with learning away from them. They tried to blame my son's difficulties on him being home educated. It even appeared on his final diagnosis report of A/S. We put in a complaint and had the report re-written and received an apology. My son had been out of school for 2 weeks because he had broken both his wrists. Julieann

Hi Mac4, YES! Dyslexia and autism are common co-morbidities, they aren't as common as autism/bipolar, or autism/ADD/HD though. "Autism rarely stands alone". I remember using this quote for my ASD certificate course but have been unable to find its source. julieann

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Hi bjkmummy, I am some what confused here. I work in secondary school so perhaps it's different there. My yr10 pupil A/S who had been statemented for 9 years had her statement finished in September 2008 because the school said she no longer needed it. She did really well in her SATS achieving level 7 in Maths and Science and level 6 in English. As a result of this she has been allowed to do three sciences. I had been her LSA 7 1/2 hrs weekly since yr 7. She had totally refused to write at primary school. Was withdrawn and very sullen. Over the last three years this young lady has come on in leaps and bounds. She has a small group of friends, she has a great sense of humour. The school with no understanding of ASD deemed that she didn't need anymore support because she will get good league table results for the school. She has been put on SA+ since September 2008 which for her means, no support at all, no class support, no social skills support and no chance to talk over minor problems before they become major ones. She has become very unhappy again, isn't doing very well in her higher Maths class and feels "that she has been abandoned by the education system". Her mother has been told that she has grown out of her difficulties. I reported this to senior management over my Senco's head and was threatened with further reduction in my working hours if I continued to interfered. So I am rather suprised to learn that there is a possibility that the school recieve an allowance for this child that still needs support in organisational skills and coping with everyday school issues. I was told that only a pupil with a statement could have 1:1 support. Julieann

Hi Dee, I have found that the biggest problem in school is that on the whole if the teacher/LSA does not understand autism then they see behaviour that would be classed as rude from a N/T child. As a parent of son A/S(19) and LSA to yr 10 pupil with A/S I find that schools without understanding of ASD's tend to expect all children to behave neurotypically and when they don't they are not seen as being autistic they are seen as being rude I was of the understanding that an ASD is a developmental disability and therefore your child does not have the mental ability to make the social decision to be rude. Obviously this does not mean they can do and say what they want as they have to live in a neurotypical world. When your child has an incident that the school sees as unacceptable or rude they should be doing a trigger report : Looking at what happened prior to the behaviour to establish what caused it. Not planning what punishment to give. If the childs behaviour is caused by their developmental disability then punishing them for it is surely disability discrimination. The teacher/LSA should be explaining to your child that they understand why they behaved the way they did and that the behaviour is not acceptable in school. They should not be angry with the child or talking of punishing them. They should also be aware that children with ASD's DO NOT LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES and if put in a similar situation the child will behave exactly the same again. We have a pupil at our school who was showing very obvious signs of A/S in yr 7. The school chose to ignore it and the pupil is know in yr 11. She is angry, unhappy, confused, self harming and rarely in classes as she is so unmanagable. Ironically once teachers started refusing to have her in class the school agreed to have her accessed and she know has a diagnosis of ASD and several mental health issues which I feel could have been avoided. Julieann

"As for the SENCO being off sick and nothing getting done, some one should stand in for her and do the job". Hi Chris, Slightly off topic but I couldn't help noticing your comment "As for SENCO etc." I work as TA in a secondary school with 1,085 pupils on role and our SENCO is having a back operation in two weeks time. She has informed us she will be off for at least 8 weeks. There is no one to replace her and we four TA's have been told we will just have to manage as best we can. Julieann

Hi Bikemad, Sadly having a teaching assistant with knowledge of SEN is seen as a bonus not a requirement. In our secondary school we have just employed a T/A who has never worked in a classroom or had any experience of special needs. Although the job spec was for a person with extensive experience of supporting in KS1, KS2, KS3 +KS4 and HLTA status the school were only willing to pay H2 for this position which is a lower hourly rate than supermarket cashiers. The young lady does however have a university degree in philosophy and has taken the job as she hopes one day to do teacher training. In the meantime she was sent to another secondary school for a day to get her T/A training as the school can't afford to send her on a proper training course. Julieann

Hi Kathryn, From one grouch to another who shares your skewed perception and your LA. I am becoming increasingly concerned that since September, parents of pupils with AS/HFA are being persuaded that the school can give their children a much better deal with SA+ than the LA can with statementing. The parents are being shown a CAF form and told that it is a legal document which will get their children instant help when needed. One pupils parent was visited at home and told that if she agreed to let her daughter finish her statement and go on SA+ the school would help the family get rehoused with the local council This is very worrying, what ever will they do next. Julieann

I have looked at a school called Hailey Hall. in Hertford. Not sure if anyone knows anything about this school or could suggest any others in herts. I have considered talking to the advisory teacher - do you think she would have any suggestions as she brought up attending a smaller school, maybe she had somewhere in mind? Any more advice on this would be gratefully appreciated. thanks Josie Hi Josie, If you type in schoolsnet.com and enter your postcode and miles from school you want to search you get up all the schools including smaller state special schools. Hailey Hall school is near Hoddesdon.

In the words of kathryn - yes is the short answer. Our school cut out 15 hrs of learning support work and cancelled the very sucessful paired reading scheme to send our unqualified senco on a �2,000 course from the delegated SEN money so that she can save the school money in the long term by diagnosing pupils with dyslexia.

Hi Pingu, Probably doesn't help if your son has seen age 11 - 12 but secondary EBD / AS use Education City from yr 7 - yr 11 11-19yrs. it's also used in some secondary mainstream schools. When I did my dyslexia course I wrote a piece on how annoying age guides are on books which my son refused to use at 13yrs when the books had 7-8yrs on the front cover. I used to put sticky labels over age guide until son got wise to it. The age 11-12 is only a guide. I've had a browse on the internet and can't find anything on a similar line to Education City. Julieann