Kazzen161

There are some independent (free) education advocacy services around eg: KIDS - try googling. PP are supposed to be independent, but they are funded by the LA and trained by the LA. My friend did the training and said they left a lot out. She had already taken on the LA and won. Strangely, she never did get anyone referred to her while she was doing PP!

If he is not deregistered, it counts as a transfer and he will not be a priority. Do you have the backing of the LA that he needs to go to a different school, because that would help. Presuming there are Years 7-11 in the school that makes it 180 children per year. Round here the secondary class sizes are 25-28, so that makes about 6 classes per year - 20 children is almost one extra class. My sons' school said they would make an extra class, but instead they spread the children between the existing classes, which meant they had large class sizes throughout their secondary education. That impacted on the amount of help they got. If the school refuses you a place, it would be good to find out how many children there are in Year 8 and how many in each class. In my experience HTs set the ethos of the school - if a HT does not have a good attitude to SEN, then it can impact throughout the school. Have you considered starting him at a new school in Year 7? It can have some advantages, and it might get round the oversubscription argument.

callmejaded makes a valid point - if the Head gives the impression of not wanting your son in the school, and saying that he will not make allowances even if he has a Statement, it does not bode well for the future. We all agree that this should not be allowed, but we all have experience of Heads like this, and the fact that they can make things very difficult. However, going back to your question: I presume you deregistered your child in September, so he is not still on his past school's roll? I am not sure what priority a home-ed'd child has re: school places when returning to LA education. The LA might argue that he is getting a suitable education at home, so he is not as high a priority as a child who is in an unsuitable placement. You do not say what year your child is in, or how many children in total there are in that year (20 extra in a year of 60 children is different to 20 extra in a year of 120). There are limitations on class sizes in infant classes, and limitations on other classes due to size of classroom, etc. Do you know what the class size is for his Year? My sons' year was heavily oversubsribed and the school had to get permission from the Secretary of State to take the extra children. Generally school's can always find a reason to refuse admission if they wish - however, if you are asking for a mainstream place you may have the LA on your side and they can put a lot of pressure on a school to accept a child. There is little you can do until you hear back from the school. Good luck.

Not all teachers' assessments are correct - there are various pressures on them to inflate the levels, and there may be more opportunity for this if there were no SATs tests to check. I don't like SATs myself, but they did come in very handy in proving that my son was under-achieving and for getting him into a specialist placement. The LA can hardly argue with the results of SATs tests when the Government says they are accurate.

I agree with Chris, Play Therapy means somethign else. Social skills or playground skills could be provided in school.

But at least we then have a "recognised" assessment of how well our children are doing, which can be useful in getting extra help/particular school placements. If it weren't for SATS, how could we challenge the teacher's/LA's often inaccurate assessment of our child's progress?

The person at the SEN conference was explicit that ALL children should make 2 sub-levels of progress, and that there can be no excuse for a child with SEN not to make 2 sub-levels of progress (though the gaps between sub levels at P levels are smaller). Ofsted will be looking at SEN provision in much more detail in future, so it will be interesting to see what they find in schools.

I'm not sure of that answer (though the CofP says the statement should be reviewed at least annually), but whenever the review should be, the Yr 6 Review should be in October in order to allow time for the transition stuff (so in my son's case we had a review in July and then one in October).

If you look on the dfcs site it explains the levels. The average level for KS1 (at the end of Year 2) is 2 The average level for KS2 (at the end of Year 6) is 4 (some will get a level 3, some will get a level 5, most will get a level 4 and a few will be below level 3). KS1 is Years R-2 KS2 is Years 3-6 KS3 is Years 7-9 Each level is divided into a, b and c, so schools can show progress along the way from one level to another. So bid is saying as long the child gets a level 5 (a,b or c) at the end of Year 9, they would be seen as able enough to return to a mainstream school. It is not just about what levels the child is getting - it is about what level the child COULD get if he had the right help (as many of our children in mainstream under-achieve because their needs are not met).

She should ring Ipsea for advice. If the school are still taking the funding and he is still registered with them, then I would feel they should be sending work home and marking it, at the very least. The LA must have a contract with the school, which should cover this.

At Governor Training on SEN recently, they were very clear that all children should be making 2 sub levels of progress each year. A child with SEN may be starting from a lower level, but they said there is no excuse for that child not to make the two sub levels of progress. Is his progress/attainment in maths and science better than in English? If so, the school should take that as a sign that he has particular difficulties in literacy. My son has dyslexia - we always thought he probably had it (though his reading was fine, which threw some people), but even though he had excellent, specialist schooling, he was not diagnosed til he was 13, and then only because one of his teachers happenend to be qualified to do the testing herself. It may be worth considering getting him assessed for dyslexia yourself.

I think it helps to know what is out there. Once you have visited other schools (or heard about them from other parent's), you start to learn what is possible, and then you can make a better decision on what is the best option for your child. eg: independent schools often have their own OT/SaLT so children get those needs met much better than in mainstream schools. Specialist schools offer social, life and independence skills training.

The LA have to go with a parents preference unless it is not an efficient use of resources - in practice this means that they have to go with the cheapest way of meeting the child's needs (so generally in mainstream). However, the child's needs do have to be met (as described in their Statement). The LA do not have to provide more than is specified in the Statement - so they do not have to offer the BEST school, just one that can meet their needs.

Yes, you should - it is listed on the notifiable conditions list (but it is listed under psychiatric - developmental). Although my son did not have anything to tick on the actual application form, we sent a covering letter explaining how AS affects him in respect of driving, and filled in the separate "medical conditions" form. They contacted his GP (luckily one who knew him well) to get his opinion. See http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/medical/ataglance.aspx You also need to tell the insurers. Oaasis do a useful information leaflet on AS and driving.

There are several issues here - a summary is fine IF the summary is accurate and IF the teachers actually read it and implement it. Why not ask for a copy of the summary that is given to the teachers, and then you will be able to judge how good it is? If it is OK, then you need to find out why the teachers are not following it. I wrote a A4 sheet about R, when he started secondary (but he didn't have a statement) for each teacher, customised for each subject, and that did seem to work. His IEP did have a brief summary of his needs, but I don't think that had the same impact. It also surprised me that communication is so poor. The year 8 english teacher did not know that R missed most of the year 7 lessons. The time out stuff needs to be resolved, so both he and the teachers are clear how it works. I made a time-out card that had instructions for the teacher on the reverse.

re: the Maths: you could try any strategies that are for dyscalculia (the book: The Dyscalculia Toolkit is quite good). I have been a TA for several children who can follow methods, but cannot understand the oneness of one or that two is twice as much as one, etc. We use Cuisennaire, Diennes blocks, Numicon or real objects - all visual representations. What strategies is the TA using to help him in class? We often use our fingers to work out number bonds to 10 (eg: fold two fingers down, how many are left?). If your child can learn the two times table, they can work the rest out from that (ie: write out their own times table chart at the beginning of Maths tests: 1x+2x = 3x, 2x + 2x = 4x, etc).

It is a newish thing (and the first section on dyslexia was very difficult to navigate, which may have put some people off). I don't think it is compulsory yet, but it is recommended and as Ofsted is becoming a lot tighter on SEN provision, hopefully things will improve. As a TA, we were given about an hour to look at the dyslexia one, so we didn't get far. The teachers got longer, but it does take quite some time to work through it. It is recommended that it is used for inset or twilight training. It is intended to be used by staff already working in schools. It is also intended that it will be part of the training/development of other professionals (eg: new teachers, SaLT, SENCo, outreach teachers) so there will be consistency across schools/counties/professions. As a Governor, we were told that it would be available to parents, and that parents would expect schools to be using it, and to be using the guidance for their child.

In light of the above, if you get no joy though the advocacy, it is time to write to your MP. They will require an explanation of the "error" from the LA, which should stir them into action.

The IDP (Inclusion Development Programme) has just been introduced by the dcsf and is supposed to be used for teachers/TAs CPD (continuous professional development). The IDP is seen as the minimum that any teacher should know about ASD. see: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/165037

I looked at several resource bases when looking for a school for T. I would imagine your child would need a Statement, and also that the places will go very quickly (there are only 8 places for the 7 years). Different resource bases work in different ways (eg: in the social skills/SaLT/independence skills they provide; in how much time the child is expected to spend in the mainstream part; in how much TA support they get; in how much support they get at break times), so you need to ask lots of questions.

Some counties do devolve the money for some SENs to their schools. Thus, technically, schools already have the money for these children/statements. However, the way the money is devolved usually depends on propensity for SEN (how many children with SEN the school is likely to have, based on things like free school meals, deprivation in the area, etc) not on the actual number of children with SEN that the school has. Hence schools in a relatively well-off area will get a smaller amount of the funding, even if they have a good reputation for SEN and have more than average. Our County devolves the money for high incidence Statements (eg: ADHD, AS, behavioural issues - the most common SEN) to the schools, but gives extra money to the school for low incidence statements (eg: ASD/Autism, blindness, deafness). Some counties devolve the money for the first X hours of support to the school. So the LA will only pay for the extra hours over that. Whatever the case, Heads should not be discussing funding with parents and putting pressure on them/making them feel guilty. They should discuss any funding issues with the LA - it is not our problem.

I think there are some things that are not acceptable. Being violent to or saying horrible things about her sister are not acceptable. If other people think it is funny, they are rewarding her for doing it and making it acceptable. Perhaps you should forewarn everyone that they must not accept it, they must state that it is not acceptable. If I were you I would clearly state that it is not acceptable and "punish" her when she is violent/horrible to her (eg: withdraw your attention from her and give it to her sister, or send her to her room/stairs). Get her to apologise to her sister if at all possible. At the same time, make sure you do things with just the two of them (especially things that she likes doing). Give lots of praise for things that she can do to help her sister during this time. Overdo the praise anytime she is even vaguely nice to her sister. (Have you ever seen Supernanny on TV? She often deals with situations like this). You also need to make sure her sister does not do things that wind her up. That is not acceptable either. You can't make her LIKE her sister (though there are things you can do to help), but you can make sure she knows what behaviour is unacceptable. You will probably find that her eldest sister makes allowances for her; that she makes allowances for her younger brother (as he is so young and a boy), but because she is closer in age, she clashes most with that sister. I have three boys - two are twins and two have AS, so we have had a lot of "it's not fair". I always say they get rewards for the things that they find hard - so it is not the same for each of them.

Breaking up with a gf/bf is difficult for many people, including NTs. Did you know there is a social skills group for adults with ASD. run by Surrey NAS, called Aspire? I noticed that their meeting on 29th Oct is "keeping friends and dating" and on 12th Nov "Ending relationships". The meetings are in Godalming. Email bettina.stott@nas.org.uk for more information.

In most schools, if a child's 1:1 TA was ill, they would redeploy a (non 1:1) TA from another class to cover. The statemented children should have priority in these situations.

There is "full" and "full". You may find that the LA can persuade the school to take another child. In certain cases a Tribunal can force a LA school to take a child even if it is technically "full". If the school IS full and mainstream cannot meet his needs, then the LA will have to look at independent schools (mainstream or specialist). Is there not someone in the forces who is responsible for helping families with this sort of thing?