julieann
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Does anyone know how far my duties as Learning Support Assistant extend?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I found this report quite interesting, and I wondered how many people can relate to it.I hope the link works I havn't done it before!
http://www.treehouse.org.uk/files/treehous...eport_FINAL.pdf
Joanne
Links working fine Joanne. Very interesting report. I might print it off and leave it in the staffroom
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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.
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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.
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I recieved a reply from senco today as i asked for an explantion and sent him her previous attainment levels from yr2 as they are the same this yr for him to explain.Its says in his letter
Thankyou for your letter, as with all schools we use national curriculum level descriptors to level children's work.
i trust this answers your concern
Oh! well I'm pleased thats been clarified. We're all quite relieved
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hello againOn thursday we got the results of the screening test. B received a quotient at risk score of 2:1 which states she is strongly at risk. B is 9yrs and 10 mths she has the reading skill of someone younger than 6.5!!! The main problem for us is the school are now saying that because she has been educated in the language of Gaelic this has a bearing on the results but she has been doing English for a year and a half now and she has or should have learn't the concept of reading that it is a group of phonetic sounds which when put together make a word. HAlf of the test isn't about literacy any way, they test balance, backwards digit reciting, bead threading and semantic and vocabulary fluency. Now we await the next meeting.
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
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Hi bjkmummy,
We never saw our sons report. We were shown it at our sons assessment because for some reason the school had filled in the opposite of what we had put. If we put down a behaviour at school as never they put always. They wanted him to get a diagnosis of ADHD which didn't happen. Instead I received a report from the education welfare officer stating that sons inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour in school was in fact due to the their attitude towards him and failure to acknowledge his specific needs not as they stated so often his attitude towards them.
This was in 2003 but it seems to me that things haven't changed that much unless your prepared to go the extra mile and challenge everything the LA throws at you. Which I know can be both mentally and physically exhausting.
Julieann
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Hello everyoneHope to find out if other parents kids have more than one difficulty. My daughter was dx in dec 2008 with Aspergers, we recently had our first multi-disciplinary meeting were it was brought to our attention that there were some difficulties with spelling. The Learning Support Teacher asked if she could do a dyslexic screening test. Does anyone else have an Aspergers child with similar problems. I haven't heard of this before as I always thought they were kids who had no cognitive difficulties and am now concerned that another diagnosis could be added or maybe the Asperger dx might not be correct!!
Feel worried about all of this
Look forward to your replies
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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Divided!portions
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illusionmagician
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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
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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
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"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
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Thanx for the info. I thought if my lad was going to be getting 1-1 it would be with someone qualified not just some mum from down the road if that makes sense.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
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Nellie, hel - lo!
<'> Sorry to sound a grouch. I come up against some of the worst examples of LA negligence, deception and incompetence, so my perception is possibly skewed. And in my own LA not much has changed - there is still no specialist provision of any kind for children with AS/HFA. I hope you're right though
.For those who do end up in a statementing battle, ther could be better times ahead. Tthe tribunal system has changed and I believe, as does IPSEA, that most of the changes will benefit parents. It will be impossible for LA's to hold out until the day before the tribunal, to withhold evidence and generally avoid seeking a constructive way forward early on in an appeal situation. The common practice of LA legal teams only looking at the papers a few days before the hearing will have to end. The first cases are starting their process through the new system. It will be interesting to see what happens.
K x
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
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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.
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"It's a sad fact, but this is not an unusual occurrence. It's boils down to budget (or lack of!). Really angers me that we hear a lot about inclusion, yet the support these kiddies receive falls well short of what they should actually get."
Sadly cmuir,
I have to agree with you this practise goes on in lots of schools. I support a yr 10 statemented secondary pupil who has 10 hours weekly support. Who realistically needs 20+ hours support and of those paltry 10 hrs I spend 3hrs per week giving whole class support in the lowest ability Yr 7 + Yr 8 classes
Julieann
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Having some success with junior school at the mo with support from her class teacher but not the senco.
RE: gold self esteem programme on weekly basis for social skills.
I would think it is a programme that the school has devised themselves. I am LSA in secondary and our programme is called SkI which stands for skills for interaction. We used recognised books from the talkabout series which have printable worksheets and cover building self esteem, relationships and social communication skills. Parents,carers or teachers can use them if you have access to a photocopier. I have one of the series " talkabout relationships" which I used with my son A/S several years ago.
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if its a No, could Delegated SEN money be abused again then, wont some schools just use the SEN money to polish up their gold acalades and say what a wonderful school they are yet not provide SEN support to jimmy* in year 4 who cant read and understand.JsMum
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.
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Hi guys.I have enrolled the kids onto a programme called Education city (. com) Its fantastic for the younger two, but the eldest (16) is a little embarrassed to use it, as it only goes up to age 11-12 and even though he is still working at this level snd i believe the subjects would benefit him. He is not so keen to try it. so does any one know of another site for home education which is along the similar lines of education city but that little bit older looking??
Thanks guys (n Gals)
Shaz
Meus Universitas.
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
Does anyone know how far my duties as LSA go?
in Education
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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?