phasmid

Hi MotherEve, letter is brilliant. I would suggest one minor change from this: To this One of the targets agreed at Jonathan's Annual review was for him to "continue with his Speech and Language Programme" (Target 4). All the professionals in attendence at the meeting, including the your own Educational Psychologist, strongly supported this target. We fail to understand how, therefore, that the LEA can construe as reasonable that the LEA appears to be ignoring the advice of its own Educational Psychologist by withdrawing the provision to meet this target. Please could you identify for us in what way you consider Js needs have materially changed so that Speech and Language Therapy provision is no longer required. We fail to understand how the LEA has judged J's needs have altered.

Flat out busy tonight with parents evening, if you can bear with me I'll comment later or poddibly in the morning. In the meantime I'm sure others will chip in with suggestions for you.

Thanks everyone. It has been worth all the hard work after all! For those of you wanting to know what I studied it was a modular course and the way it was set up I could pick and choose the module each semester to suit my long term aim of working in SEN so I studied all sorts from child development, pyschology, speech and language, SEN and a fair few other bits thrown in. I can't stop grining right now!

I passed! I got a 2.2. So now I am officaly Phasmid B.A. (Hons). A huge big thank you to all of you who helped by filling in my research questionnaire last year, and a bigger one to those on here who cajoled me along when it got tough.

Hi jlp, Mrs P got the pm ok. She has put some recipes on up on the 'off topic' forum.

They ARE NOT maintianing the statement though. They have altered it from the moment they have removed the SALT provision specified in last years review. That IS a change. Challenge it. On this occasion I beleive IPSEA may be wrong.

WHat do I think? What a patronising G-I-T! Thats the first thing I think. As for a reply here is my suggestion. Dear Mr >>>>, Bearing in mind the nature of my concerns may I express my disappointment that it has taken so long to illicit a response from yourself. As to the 'ephemeral' nature of e-mails as a means of communication I believed this was the easiest way to contact the school, and namely yourself, when my requests for a telephone conversation with you went unanswered, repeatedly. Would I not be correct in the belief that any communication from me to the school would have to be kept on record for future reference regardless of their means of delivery? Hardly ephemeral. As to the professional standing and qualifications of Mrs>>>> these were never, at any time, under question. I am sure that she is indeed a very well qualified member of your teaching staff even if she appears, as you yourself put it: ' a little brusque'. I do feel that such a manner would not have been of benefit to my daughter, especially when she was without support from any of the very few peers in he yeargroup with whom she has any type of social contact. I was somewhat surprised to read that: We did work with *** concerning whom she felt she would like to be with next year on 2 occasions. on the first neither of these 2 girls was mentioned (mmm thats strange as they are the only 2 that daughter socialises with outside school) We did realise that she might not have understood what was required. On the 2nd occasion while indeed she did mention these 2 she also mentioned others that had shown kindness to her and offered her support in class. Assigning children to classes was undertaken whilst I was on the yr 6 residential trip, and were rewritten 5 times before a final arrangement was agreed. This seems to contradict you stating at at the annual review for daughter that you were 'unable to discuss classes as they had not been finalised' this was after you had returned from said trip. I am sure this comment will have been recorded in the meetings minutes. If you realised that she may not have understood the nature of the request about friends in her new class on the first occasion how, may I ask, can you be certain that she understood it on the second? Surely it would have been prudent to have contacted me at this point to get some parental input on the situation would it not? You further state in your e-mail that: At no time did the teachers feel that the assignments were unfair, Rather that we were trying to build on ***'s confidence and extend her range of friendships, rather than her become dependent on a very restricted grouping that might well inhibit her social and emotional development and not bring her in contact with others who might be able to offer support. Due to the nature of my daughters disability she needs to be allowed to build on the foundations of the limited friendship group she already has. It serves her no purpose whatsoever to take this group away. In fact it has already caused her a great deal of, what now seems to be unnecessary, upset. Upset that, in my opinion, could very easily have been avoided had there been some communication between the school and myself over this before the classes were finalised. Perhaps this is something the school could take on board for the future when dealing with other children on the autistic spectrum. "Notwithstanding my and my staff's professional judgements, and our belief that ***'s progress academically, socially and emotionally will not be as effective if placed in another class, since it has obviously upset you and caused you distress I will consider moving *** to Mrs. *****'s class (where her friends are) This will slightly disadvantage the class, since it is both in a very small room and will increase the pupil numbers to over 30. I trust this meets with your wishes." Mr >>>>, you appear to have completely missed the point of my concern. The 'professional judgement' of you and your staff was never under any question. What was under question was the emotional distress and upset the decision to separate my daughter from her friends had caused HER. You acknowledge the fact yourself (above) that >>>> may not have fully understood what was happening when she was spoken to about classmates - despite this you chose to separate her anyway. When, as any parent in similar circumstances would do, I have requested that this matter be addressed I did not expect to be left feeling somewhat patronised by your response. There should be no need for the class to be any larger than it currently is expected to be. All you need to do is find someone who would like to change classes with her, thus both classes stay the same size. If however this is not possible would it not make sense to give the largest class the biggest classroom? Your actions in CC'ing what I expected to be a reasonably private correspondence between ourselves to the teaching staff has no obvious purpose that I can see apart form embarasing me and this I find totaly unacceptable. Do you CC all your communication with parents to staff? Change the terms in the following paragraph to suit so it reads: I was not asking for the earth...You seem very reluctant to acknowledge my daughters disability...and so on. I have always strived to keep effective lines of communication between myself and the school open. Had this been recipraocated perhaps this situation would never have a risen in the first instance. Yours Feel free to use, ignore, edit etc as you wish the above. Phas

Ask them for an explanation! Why have they bothered to employ or consult experts in ASDs as a part of the statement review procedure if they are simply going to ignore what said experts advise? Depending on the answer either, thank them for the continuation of the SALT or, tell them you are appealing the statement provision in light of the experts recommended course of action. If you don't get through to IPSEA first time....keep trying until you do!

What an arogant, ignorant prat (I've saved the profanity filter a fair bit of work there!!). If he had a tape recorder.... Would he! Two can play at that one if you get my drift. I'm sure the powers that be would love to hear his antics!

I agree with Oracle's view 100%.YOU not being unreasonable at all. The school however appear to be making no effort to take into account your daughters problems...none at all! That simply isn't good enough. She has a statement of SEN which clearly indicates she has a scoio-communication problem therfore they must take this into account when planning anything to do with her - including friendship groups in whichever class she is going into. THEY HAVEN'T DONE THIS!!! Your not asking for the earth, you are simply asking that your daughters problems in making (and keeping) friends are acknowledged and taken into account when placing her in her new class. At this stage changing her class ought to be a very straightforward exercise. I would ask myself why they appear to be so reluctant to do this - then I'd ask them the same question, in writing. Stating VERY clearly that in your opinion the failure to acknowledge your correspondance on this matter leaves you to draw the only conclusion you can: They are refusing to accept her disability as a disability and address the needs she has as a result of it. Placing her in a class where she has got established friendships will make a significant difference to her. By isolating her from these friends, except at breaktimes, she is left feeling very vulnerable and scared. The effect this will have on her in September is already begining to show itself now and she has, as a direct result of this, already shown in the last few days a complete reluctance to attend. Therefore unless this situation is addressed forthwith they are likely to see your daughter become at best a school refuser and at worst school phobic. If they wish to continue to ignore your request for this to be sorted out before that happens you require from them a written explanation of their reasons for doing so. Also make it very clear that by attempting to contact them now to resolve this you are wanting to work with them to ensure your daughter has an easy a transition from one year to the next as is possible - pour on the charm - point out you appreciate how difficult it must be to arrange classes so that everybody has at least 1 friend in their new class. Despite this, and their apparent attempt to do so in your daughters case, your daughter has been left with the few friends she has got in another class and she NEEDS this support. At the end of the day you are asking them to make a reasonable adjustment to class lists in light of your daughters DX. Remember that!! You ARE NOT being unreasonable, difficult, or a pain in the rear. All you want is for your daughter to be as happy and settled as she can be in her new class. You have to look out for her - thats what being a parent is all about. Stick to your guns. CC the letter/e-mail to the head, CoG, Director of inclusion (or equivelant in your LA) and the head of pupil and parent services and the director of childrens services - why not stick your MP on the list too while your at it. Do not let school do this, and if they insist they are going to anyway get that explanation!!!

Will keep my fingers well and truly crossed for Com...he's been mucked about too much aleady. They owe it to him to get this right.

I've always wondered about snails, which incidently I adore, who, why and when had them for the first time. Frogs legs too.

Yes, PWS does spring to mind.

You can ask to see the governing body minutes which (at least annualy) will include the financial breakdown of income and expenditure. The school will be given a set amount of money based firstly on the number of pupils on the roll on a set date. From this will come the general running costs; wages, utility bills, books, pencils, that sort of thing. On top of that they will be allocated a sum of money for SEN purposes - this they are allowed to spend as they see fit, as long as it is for SEN purposes. There may then be a sum of money given to the school that will be 'ring-fenced', in other words it can only be spent on certain things - wheelchair ramps, or building repairs etc. Then the school might have income from trust funds (as the school I used to be a governor at has). Normally the capital here gets left untouched and the school get to spend the interest which may be left to accumalate until such time as it is enough for a 'project' the school have. they then , usualy, have to apply to the trustees of the fund who will yay or nay the spend. Some trust funds place very specific restrictions on what can and cannot be done with this money, others don't. The next source of income is usualy from the PTA, if the school has one. How this money is used varies widely between schools. Some PTAs just hand it over, others ask the school for a wish list and buy what they can from it. One head I worked with refused to allow the PTA to buy books and paper, for example, as these were the things the school should supply, another I know of insisted the PTA bought whatever he asked for including the basics. HTH

An IEP can be introduced at any time. Once they have decided to do so yu are supposed to be consulted about the targets in it. There should be three or four really, no more. They should be short term and they should also be achievable targets as well - that, is very important! No point setting targets that are unrealisitc. Once they have been drawn up they ought to send you a copy for comments and suggested changes. Only sign it when your happy with it. Once in place they need to be reviewed at least termly as otherwise they just languish in a file somewhere and are a waste of time. HTH

Yup! Only cos like me you can't be 'there' for everyone but we don't half get close to doing it via here...So, can I be a pain with you Oracle?

How did the sw visit go? Or when you wrote that did you mean tomorrow rather than today?

Don't bother with the phone...e-mail the request in. This will hopefully prompt an e-mail response which you can then print off and refer back to. Meanwhile you can get on with life!

Absolutely! If I were you I would use that line as the basis of a letter (yes I know, another one!). But don't complain. Not this time. Simply tell them them how upset and let down your dd feels over this. Explain how isolated she aleady is and how this will simply increase that feeling... Tell them straight you are not bothering to complain about this as you know from their track record that they are not going to listen to what you have to say so why should you waste your time? Make it very clear that you have lost all faith in them now. If they cannot do this one simple thing to help your daughter be happy then you are simply left with the conclusion that your child is not welcome there. Pour it out on their heads. Then, garnish it and CC it to everyone from the CoG to the Director of Education and anyone you can think of. What a ###### way to treat a child!

I agree with your pediatrician, this should not have happened. Will they back up what they have sid to you by writng you a letter to this effect? It would add huge weight to your argument against what happened. You are supposed to be consulted about any change and a risk assessment should also be undertaken (You'll find this in that document). Just deviating from her normal route could be more than enough to upset her never mind sticking a new person in the taxi unannounced! The letter is a very good idea as this does make the phone call referable. Make sure you put in EVERYTHING you have told us, as close to word-for-word as you can get it, noting the time and date of the call. You can then go on to make an official complaint in the same letter. It will make it impossible to hide the call part away somewhere out of sight. Don't forget to get hold of a copy of your LEAs SEN specific transport policy and go through it carefully.

Well done Luke

A statement brings seperate issue's, if not funding. The provision laid out in a statement is a minimum the school/LEA should provide by way of support. The funding to achieve this can be sent to the school in different forms these days but generally it is not pinned to the child and their statement. It goes into a pot for the school to use to support SEN across the whole school as they see fit. However they must still provide the support laid out in a statement - regardless of the funding. How they achieve it is not your problem or concern, it's theirs. You only need concern yourself with the provision being put into place. They get the funds and they decide how best to use it. This means situations such as we have discussed occuring a lot. But, that said, if you take social skills as an example they cannot be gained working 1-1 - group work IS the best way to do this.

Sorry, but on the issue of risk assessment for transport to/from school purposes she is right - it isn't her job. That is down to the transport people at your LEA. They may seek her thoughts/opinion on it but they are the ones who will write the assessment. However the rest of what she had to say after that was bang out of order. Was this meeting minuted by anybody - do you have a 3rd party witness to this to substantiate this as it could be grounds for complaint.

Vioer - Honestly would be my advice. Obviously it would have to be an age appropriate response but you mustn't mislead him - it'll come back to haunt you in the end if you try! I read somewhere that this is a form of reassurance that the word always have the same meaning. Also he could be just using it to try and practice his verbal questioning skills 'If I ask xxxxx do I always get y response?' Have I phrased it correctly - not that he would see it quite like that.

The same happens in many schools I'm afraid and you're right it does seem unfair on the teacher whose class gets overloaded as it were. The ideal scenario would of course see a trained TA in every class (a position we are in in my school) and 1-1 TAs as needed (again, we are lucky to be in this position where I work). But, as ever, it comes down to money and who losses out, as someone/thing always seems to, if this were to be implemented.