LKS

Hi justjo <'> for you and your son. My ds is also 12 and in a mainstream secondary he has a statement for AS. I thought the whole point of LAs 'not issuing' so many statements is that support is supposed to be in school already The school sound as if they are doing absolutely diddly squat to try and help your son, and how confused and distressed he must be feeling. My ds is seen regularly by someone form the specialist autism teacher unit. Between us we did a very good pupil profle that ALL teachers and staff working with ds are supposed to have. We tried to keep it brief but it has his main problems what is likely to upset him and most importantly what they can do to help. I must admit though there are still some teachers that refuse to look at this and say they haven't got the time, but each year at open evening I have taken a copy and asked them to sign it while I am there I think that at the moment your son needs more help and support than that and this is the sort of thing that should have been put in place when he started. I wonder how exactly the school have been trying to get a statement for him since Oct. last year, it would be interesting to hear what stage they are at in the process. I agree with annie really try and get hold of IPSEA it can mean just waiting and waiting to get hold of them but they know exactly how to get through this rubbish from schools. Make sure you've got a big pad of paper handy Parent partnership can be very good especially at coming with you to meetings with schools as they can help to diffuse some very emotional meetings. Hopefully they will come with you for this meeting, if not it would be a very good idea if you have someone to support you and take notes. And if the school make you feel uncomfortable do not be drawn into meetings with them by yourself and try and get everything in writing. Good luck to you and your ds, it might be that this school is not the best place for him but for goodness sake they should at least try.

Karin <'> <'> <'>

Hi my dd takes lamotrogine (she is being taken down to a lower dose at the moment) and I have been giving her Morepa minis for about 10 months now. Her behaviour and her reading ability has really improved but I'm not sure what its down to, a decrease in the ant-epilepsy med or the morepa. I did check with her neurologist first who asuured me it was fine for her to take this supplement.

Do any of your children act like mini policemen. My dd 9 has a tremendous sense of fair play, she cannot stand what she perceives as injustice and always seems to be getting involved in other peoples squabbles. She came home from school very upset yesterday as she had been told off and sent to the back of the line for talking. She said her 'best' friend and another girl were pushing and punching each other behind her. She did not want them to get 'hurted' and told them to stop it and stop being mean. The teacher saw her talking and so sent her to the back of the line. DD tried to explain herself, which is very difficult due to her communication and speech difficulties but when she told the CT that her friends might get hurt the teacher said it was nothing to do with her and it doesn't matter I am going to let this one go as I can't be complaining about every b****y thing that happens at school but what a hard lesson for a little girl to learn, that you are not to concern yourself with everyone elses squabbles. I wonder how others deal with it

Cat and Bw exactly what sort of preparation was M given for this trip. Mum it is not as if you are not understanding of the teacher's predicament, more that you want better handling of potential 'situations' in the future I should think. Baddad if you are going to keep taking the middle of the road opinion now I shall have to make sure I send you several pairs of polyester slacks

My LA's not even on there what a surprise I recently attended a meeting about the redesignation of the boroughs special schools. The pupils they are now taking are 'far more complex and have more serious and challenging behaviour'. So that basically leaves mainstream for a lot of the children. The head of inclusion sat there and said how our schools are highly regarded and she will not have children going to out of borough schools when they can be provided for adequately in borough. She said if a parent is not happy with the school and the way their child is being taught then they should bring it up at annual review. I told her that actually I think it is the LA's responsibility to ensure that the teachers are receiving sufficient training and support and that the LA should be monitoring the teachers not the parents!! Julieann that is VERY interesting about the training. I hope if they are not willing to cough up they will be named and shamed.

Hi J's mum. My dd is in yr 5 and I have already started the rounds of checking out the schools as she has her transition review in March 2007 Even though my dd is quite behind accademically the local special school which has been redesignated seemed to cater for far more severe needs than hers. There are several mainstream secondary schools with units attached I think some members of the forum Have had some experience of the one that has an ASD unit attached. I have visited the one that has the language and communication unit, which although the unit was fine the rest of the school was Another local secondary with a very good SEN dept had 2000 pupils. So my options seem to be narrowing, beginning to panic now

col I'm very interested in the way our LEA interprets assessments I'm not sure how it works with dyslexia but thought you might be interested in how they have tried to interpret my dd's Salt results. dd is seen in school by SALT, it is written in to her statement. Salt decides to discharge dd even though some of her scores are still on the 1st percentile. No E.P. assessment done for nearly 3 years either. DD due for appt at hospital and has up to date and thorough cognitive ability tests and Salt tests. Local SALT refuses to recognise these as they do not match what she has been doing with dd Refuses to continue to see dd. LEA say they must take advicefrom her but MAY be willing to consider my 'independent' advice. In the end I had to get IPSEA involved as the LEA were trying to tell me it was up to me to sort out and negotiate with the SALT to ask her to reconsider her decision. She wanted to do another set of assessments this would have been the 3rd lot for dd in 6 months. Sorry Col I know this does not answer your problem really but I thought you might be interested in how the LEA have viewed assessments on my dd. Good luck

Liz my dd 9 has much the same problem and we have already worked our way through most of the strategies suggested by the SaLT. Does your son have access to and like computers. We once got this software called earobics from Hihttp://www.donjohnston.co.uk/catalog/earobics.htm . dd enjoyed it for quite a while but eventually became bored It had a series of games to improve your memory and got more complicated as you completed each level. Might be worth having a look. The sounds used were very American which was a bit confusing for dd at the time. The Don Johnston site has some good things on it.

colour

Oxgirl poor j <'> My ds 12 has suffered from migraines in the past, but thankfully they have settled down at the moment. He sounds very like your j. If he was at home then we would recognise the signs and be able to give him his meds immediately. If he didn't get his meds then it would lead to a full blown attack and he would be so sick and would then sleep for anything up to 4 hours. His school were a bit dismissive of his headaches in the past and would usually tell him to have a drink of water. A couple of things changed this, one after telling a teacher that he didn't feel well and being told to sit down he proceeded to throw up all over the place. Not nice for anyone I know but I was able to explain that this is what is likely to happen if action isn't taken. Then his consultant did a sort of plan for him (don't know what its called) but it lists all steps for staff to take if he starts to feel unwell. I have also had to do a bit of work with ds to try and make him more aware of how he feels which is quite difficult. So far touch wood this has worked. If he starts to get one of his headaches he goes straight to medical and has his meds. They monitor him and if he is not improving I go get him. But really you only have to take one look at him, he is grey. I do feel sorry for your son because it is an awful thing to suffer from and you really need the understanding of the school and if, as others have said they have so far ignored you get the G.P. or consultant inolved. I hope they settle down for J in the future too.

good luck Hedders <'> It only takes one person with a bit od understanding to get the ball rolling

Hi PSA hope today was O.K. for Luke. Is there anyway you could get an e-mail address for his form tutor or the senco. I have only recently managed to get form tutors but as she checks her e-mails frequently I can let her know if ds is having a bad start to the day. Crikey didn't realise having a big head means you might be gay there are several of my friends who might need to know this I shall think of you traipsing the streets tonight I'm not keen on Halloween either

Good news Hope it continues going well

fair

Phas Well done <'> I feel very jealous already of the parents that are going to have you in their school. I hope its everything you dreamed of. Please don't forget about all of us though

Jenrose <'> to for you and your hubby. Really hope you manage to sort something out.

<'> Bullet wonderful

Hi PSA is it today that Luke starts? Just wanted to wish him much happiness in his new school and good luck to you both. Will be thinking about you and I'll be very interested to see how he gets on <'>

Hi Fiorelli glad to hear Louis is doing well I promised myself I would have a rest from all things educational this week but I just can't help myself We are the same as Sonia here. In both my ds's and my dd's cases they actually had a bit written in the statement that said a review would take place after 6 months of the statement being issued. The LEA told me this was to make sure that everything was going o.k. We still had an annual review within the first year. I'm sure they will recognise that Louis is making progress because of the support he is now getting. There is a bit that concerns me in the COP that Nellie quoted, reasons for ceasing to maintain statement. � can the child's future needs be met from the schools resources? My ds has a high incidence (common condition ) statement. He receives 15 hours of L.S.A. support per week. Now we all know that for these particular statements the funding has already been devolved to schools, so technically the childs needs are being met from the schools resources. Will this be a reason in the future for L As to cease to maintain these particular statements which is what they have wanted to do in our borough anyway for many years now.

PSA. Absolutely brilliant

Salt is in the statement part 3 There was a message on my phone when I got in today from borough Salt. She is going in after half term to do her own assessments on dd to see if she can sort out the discrepancy between how GOSH found dd is performing and how she believes dd is performing. For sake what a waste of time. Why is she so concerned with trying to prove the GOSH assessments wrong. This is turning into a farce

Yes you are right Karen. LA sent letter saying they were going to maintain existing statement, SaLT says it is up to her whether this continues. I expected the LA to come down firmly on my side and confirm this but they have as usual twisted out of it slightly. At the moment the Salt has gone into see dd but as she understands it this can stop at any time. I think I will get on to IPSEA just to see what they say. Pumpkin pie there is a shortage of Salts here. The children in our local special primary school had been without speech and language therapy for nearly a year!!

Aww smiley. Must have been lovely to see. (sorry I don't think any clowns are funny )

Hello Mel