phasmid

Alwyas appeal! Basicaly, you have nothing to lose (except the time taken to fill the appeal forms in and, perhaps, attend an appeal hearing) and everything to gain. Over the years we have claimed for ourselves and aided various friends and relatives with their claims. Most have been turned down first time around. I would say at least 80% have been succesfull on appeal. The DSS will turn down most claims for DLA as a matter of routine (unless you are claiming under the 'special circumstances'). Mrs Phasmid has just guided 2 friends through the appeals process successfully - including one that went to a full blown tribunal hearing. They hope that most people will simply decide that the process of appeal will look so daunting that most people will not bother. You need to use the right 'buzzwords' in vogue with them at the time of claiming.

It might be from this: Special educational needs and disability: towards inclusive schools (2004) London. HMI The section:Features of Effective Practice on Page 23 is interesting It bullet-points items from Ofsted?s 2003 report, Special educational needs in the mainstream. You can get it via the details below, or download it as a pdf from the Ofsted site. Hope that helps. If it isn't from either of those mentioned above, I'd also like to know what report it is from as well please.

Mrs Phasmid chairs discipline appeals panels for our County Council. The following is taken from the law that she has to use when dealing with appeals. First of all lunchtime exclusions, the law states the following: Improving Behaviour and Attendance: Guidance on exclusion from schools and pupil referal units. (Oct 2004) Ref: DfES/ 0354/2004 Therefore Mrs Phasmid says that by asking you to take him out a tlunchtime the school are actually imposing an illegal exclusion. They have to either put in a proper lunchtime exclusion as under chapter 31 or they swallow it. You do not agree to it, they have to make alternative provision. Even if you agree to take him home this action is still illegal! The above is paraphrased from the same source. Now as for the transport arrangements you need to ask the LEA for a copy of the SEN SPECIFIC transport policy. They HAVE to have one (their is DfES guidance on this that we used to great effect a year ago, I can't find it off-hand, but it is out there). That will give you all the information you need for the transport arrangements they will have to put into place. I know they cover escorts in this document so the LEA document should also cover this. The headteacher is talking BS, huge smelly piles of it, about joint provision. It happens all the time. It is quite normal and the rules should be easily available to them. They are taking the pee! Where I work we have had at least two, possibly three pupils, who, to my CERTAIN knowledge have been jointly educated between us and the neighbouring special school. This is a common occurence and the issues of insurance of the pupils etc have long since been sorted. As have the issues regarding who has overall control of the provision provided. I know all the above takes some un-picking. If you need clarification about anything then PM me. HTH (apologies for any spelling mistooks, this took blooming ages to type!)

A lunch time exclusion, because that is what he is having by you taking him home at lunchtimes, is covered by the same rules as any other exclusion. Mrs Phasmid is the expert on this. I'll get her to have a look at your post when she gets up. As for joint/split educational provision, it is NOT that unusual. We did it for Phas Jr so he did not have to do PE with his class. We reintegrated him back into it over time and now he is a full participant.

An IEP 10 pages long is utterly ridiculous! What the hell do they think they are playing at? An IEP should be: SEN CoP Chapter 4 paprgraph 27 (p37) There is no way on earth that an IEP should run to more than two pages possibly, in very exceptional circumstances) three! Get onto them and ask for an urgent meeting to discuss this 'document'. You want to be consulted as above.

Just thought others may like to see this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4697057.stm

Send a copy of the letter to the chair of governors and, as a matter of courtesy, the head. But do not send it to anyome else at this stage. Follow the schools's complaints procedure to the letter. Do not try and skip a stage as this will only hamper things. If you recieve no joy from the CoG then you complain to the LEA. But they will not entertain a complaint if you have missed part of the schools complaint procedure. Tedious I know, but it is better to follow it then have to repeat it.

There are some of us out there! Tell her what you've just told us - I bet she'd be dead chuffed!

You mentioned something about a new head. Are they in post now, or starting in September? If they are starting in September I suggest writing to them over the holiday via the school, I am sure they will be in, with your original complaint to the last head. Ask them to indicate to you what they intend to do to avoid the problems you are currently having. If, however, this is the same head you have already complained to then it is time to write to the CoG. You may not get a response before the end of term though. They must follow up a complaint and write back to you. As for ranting, if it helps....go for it!

That is not cynical, it is very sensible. In the letter I would ask a question, anything will do as long as it requires a response. That way you will have a writen record indicating that he recieved your letter, even if he doesn't write back to acknowledge the phone conversation you can refer to your letter and a response to it. Well done for getting what you have out of him. Keep the pressure up if needs be.

You need to ask for copies of the schools SEN policy and Behaviour and Discipline policy (this covers, or should, bullying). Check the review dates on these, they should have been reviewed within the last yr.These are public documents and they cannot refuse to let you have them. They can make a small charge for them (5p a page is about the going rate). Once you have them read through and make sure they are being followed. If not complain, in writing, to the Head. If you are not happy with their response then you complain to the Chair of Governors. If they fail to satisfy you then (and only then) can you complain to the LEA. As ritalin is a controlled drug a school should keep a writen record of when this is administered and, to whom, by whom. The fact that they had more tablets then you believed they should have would indicate that not all doses have been given. Be sure to check that this isn't due to child being sent home before it should have been given at any time. You could ask for a copy of his administartion chart to check. Hope that helps a bit.

Let down...or was it a blessing in disguise. We don't really know, so you decide: Phas Jr was first seen by a paedatric (sp?) specialist at 3. No diagnosis was given to us, BUT, it went on his records! When we returned to the diagnostic process again some years later the earlier diagnosis was let slip. We were 'Gobsmacked' as you can imagine. However, looking at it from a different perspective this might have been a blessing in the long run. We didn't let his 'odd behaviours' take over. We did our best to deal with them as we went. For the most part we got it right. So would he be the person he is today had we been told he was Autistic at 3? Who knows?

I found myself using my first aid training the other night. Someone had already contacted Dad via the lads mobile with an 'ICE' contact. It made him a lot calmer while we waited for the ambulance. I was then assisted by an off-duty PC and an on-call fire officer.Mum was also able to get there (just as paramedic finished checking him over and getting him in the ambulance), both of whom were very pleased to find Dad already there. When the paramedics arrived Dad was able to give a complete medical history. Made their life so much easier. This alone has proved to me that this works! 4 numbers isn't greedy, it is sensible. My kids have a phone they can use on odd occasions (only phas Jr owns one). Now I know that in an emergency someone can get hold of us very quickly. It gives peace of mind if nothing else. The ICE numbers are; my work, my mobile, Mrs P's mobile and home, last resort number is gran. Have been told by the EAAT that you can also number them in order of preference (ie: ICE 1 Dad mobile, ICE 2 mum mobile and so on). Keep spreading this, it works. I have seen the proof of it with my own eyes!

Open it and you ought to see file in left hand corner. Left click it and scroll down to properties, click that then look for settings tab.

You need to check the settings on your e-mail program. First see what they should be (according to your ISP). Then check the settings on your computer. They should be the same. If not copy the ISP details into your e-mail program settings and see what happens. Who is your ISP?

Hi LKS, advice from Carol is spot on. They may not appreciate that your daughter finds thie start of the day stressful and has therefore developed the 'hanging back' as a way of dealing with it. So tell them! As you point out, this disapproval has come out of the blue. Any change they want to make to the start of day routine should not!! You need time to introduce the concept to her. Doing it this close to the end of term is pointless. It would be a major change for her. So, if it is going to happen, it MUST be (1) Agreed. (2) Gradual. (3) Left till next term. Don't let them try and say otherwise. Stick to your guns, and good luck.

LKS, no apologies needed. Just wanted to point out that, although possible, the link governor is not an employee of the LEA by default. It can happen as a teacher-governor, or non-teaching staff governor can take on this role. In Mrs P's case she has taken this role on two governing bodies by virtue of over 10 yrs as a governor. Jomica is quite correct. As I said address the letter to the chair and cc it to the head, but it is not a good idea to send it to any other member of the governors or school staff, for the very reasons Jomica has given. I should have known better. It can be tedious, but you must follow the correct procedure for complaints. If you try and skip a level it will only slow things down as you wil hae to backtrack. The 26 weeks is an overall time limit from initial request to statement. They should still reply to the first request within 6 weeks (except in exceptional circumstances).

HAve a few ideas and things to say. First: did you recieve minutes of the IEP review meeting? You should have done! I would copy these (if you have them) with the section that shows the school agreeing to apply for statement duly highlighted. Whilst not a direct request to the LEA by yourselves it was to an official of the school and can therefore be taken as a request to the LEA via that route as you spoke to an LEA employee and made this request. Therefore a response was due from them 3 weeks ago as they have 6 weeks in which to respond to such a request. (see below) See sect 7.21 - 7.29. In particular look at 7.22 This I read in such a way to state the above that the school have recieved the request to the LEA on the LEA's behalf - it may be stretching the point, but go for it. Second: The letter should be addressed to the Chair Of Governors, you can CC it to others (such as SEN governor, head etc), but it should be sent to the Chair. Thirdly: The link governor DOESN'T work for the LEA (my wife is a link governor for two schools, sorry LKS she just growled at me!) they simply act as a go-between for dissemination (sp?) of information from LEA/DfES to the governing body. Also act as mentors for new governors in some schools. Apart from that letter is fine. But do stress you HAVE made a formal request to the LEA via the school for an assesment. HTH

This seems to be getting across to people. The posting I made on the TES forums has been kept at the top of the list. I think for our ASD kids who carry a mobile this could be invaluable. Spread the message to everybody you can think off.

Thanks for looking flutter. Not quite what I am after though. I want the actual pamphlet that she published her thoughts in.

Been searching for this since the day the news broke. I have been a regular visitor to the website mentioned in the BBC news report but, there's nothing on there about it. I'd like to be able to use it in my dissertation. Any ideas??

Since posting this I have heard of at least three other Ambulance service's who are taking this up. Also the police. It may not be a fool-proof way of contacting your next of kin in an emergency, but it's a starting point. I know I'd want my family to know asap if anything happened to me and I couldn't contact them myself.

My phone now has two 'ICE' contacts for Mrs Phasmid (home and her mobile). In light of Thursdays horrible, horrible events this makes sense: An ambulance service has launched a campaign to ensure next of kin are alerted quickly in cases of emergency. East Anglian Ambulance Service has started the national "In case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign. "All people have to do is store the word "ICE" in their mobile phone address books and put the next of kin's number against it," said a spokesman. "This is the person to be contacted quickly 'In Case of Emergency' by ambulance and hospital staff." Falklands hero Simon Weston is helping the ambulance service to publicise the idea across the UK. He said: "It's so simple that everyone should do it as soon as they hear our message."

I have been trying to find this since the news first broke. To be honest I am deperate for it. I want to use it for my dissertation. Please, where can I get hold of a copy?

What did the tribunal say about his reinsatement? They can say anything from; he starts back tomorrow to setting up a staged return. If they said nothing about how his return was to be managed I can't see why the school have been dragging their heels. If they did set a timetable, it ought to have been made available to you and, followed! As for staff attitude toward him on his return, there should be no 'attitude'. The school policy (as I understand it) was in the wrong. He was excluded for a very minor infringement. The rules and policy were as much to blame for this situation as anything. If, and it is pretty unlikely, there are any reprecussions - jump on them! As you say, fingers crossed he will have a happy return to school. Let's hope so. Good luck.