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lisa

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About lisa

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    Ben Nevis

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    Eltham, London
  1. I've read a few times recently about schools not allowing the parents to see copies of test papers. I can't understand this attitude. You'd think the school would be grateful that the parents are showing an interest in the child's education and are prepared to spend the time going through the test with their child, helping them to see where they went wrong and how they could improve. Surely it's in the school's interest for the kids to get the best results possible. We had parents evening last night and my son's science teacher had even taken the time to do bar charts showing how well the child performed in the practice tests for each topic. It was really useful because it shows straight away his strengths and weaknesses, and what he needs to work on to improve. It seems to me that it boils down to an 'us and them' attitude some schools adopt. They are almost affronted and appear to take offense as if the parent is suggesting they're not doing their job and you're checking up on them. If you don't take an interest, it's bad parenting, if you do, it's interfering, overbearing parent. Damned if you do and damned if you don't!
  2. I've just wasted more money on Omega 3, this time the bassetts jelly sweet ones, bought 3 for 2 but the kids don't like them. I've tried loads but can't get my kids to take them. We've tried the berry burst things, the orange ones, the normal eye q ones. They all seem to leave an after taste. I'm sure they'd really benefit from taking them. My husband has quite bad dyslexia, he's been taking Efalex for years (same sort of thing as eye q) and it's really helped him. Any suggestions?
  3. lisa

    Equasum XL

    Hi, I was wondering if anyone else's children have been prescribed Equasum XL for ADD or ADHD? If so, did it work? How many mg? Did they have any side effects? My daughter started on a very low dose of 10mg on Wednesday but we haven't noticed any difference. She has ADD and her main problem is inattention, she mainly appears distracted internally (a dolly daydream) rather than disruptive. Any advice?
  4. Well Done!! How did you get him to learn them? Verbally, worksheets or another method? I'd be grateful for any tips.
  5. lisa

    parents evening.

    One of my favourite comments from my son's school report was 'J has his own agenda, and he sticks to it!!' It sums him up to a T, I couldn't have described him better myself.
  6. lisa

    LEA

    Personally I wouldn't withdraw the appeal until the LEA produced the statement. There's no way they need 8 weeks, 2 weeks is ample time. Tell the LEA you'll withdraw the appeal when you get a copy of the proposed change.
  7. I have two kids with Aspergers. Both have statements, one with 13 hours and one with 10 hours. Our LEA have decided to bring in this stupid new system of delegating funding directly to schools and are starting by targeting all kids with statements of 20 hours or less. I know I'd have a good case to fight it if they tried to take my kids hours away but we've already been through two tribunals already and the thought of having another, well, I can't describe. Things are finally going well for both kids. I don't think I could go back to the hell it was before they got their support, which, although no one seems to know for definite, it seems the LEA are proposing. They've held a meeting saying it was a mistake to statement so many children and that these kids should never have been given statements. I know all the law surrounding it and what I'd have to do if they tried to change the statements but at the moment I feel like I've had enough and I just want to leave!!! If their statements were transferred to another borough who don't delegate the majority of their sen budget to schools then they'd stay the same and they'd still get their 1:1 support and I wouldn't have to go through all the stress and uncertainty. Are there any good LEA's out there for AS kids??
  8. Unfortunately the school are under no obligation to have a class TA if they don't want to. I agree that they're probably thinking they'll use Ben's support for the whole class. We've had trouble with this in the past where they've put my son in the lower ability group so they can make use of his LSA when in reality he should have been in a much higher group. I have twins who were in the same class so it was a bit easier to challenge the grouping, ds was getting higher NC grades than his twin sister but she was in a higher group!! It carried on in secondary but again, in the end they had to put him in top set because it became a bit ridiculous, even a few of his teachers spoke out and stated outright on his end of year report that he was in the wrong class for his ability! On parents day I was chatting with one of his friends mums and found out my son was achieving higher levels than her son who was a whole 4 sets above my son!!!!! It all comes down to money!
  9. Karen, Brilliant news! It makes such a difference to have a good SENCO. Things finally are starting to work out for both my two. My daughter's primary had a new SENCO last year and the difference is amazing. Everyone seems to be working to together, things are being done properly, all the kids with statements had a transition book with photos of their new teacher, LSA and classroom. We've been given the weekly timetable and curriculum timetable for the whole year so we know exactly what the kids are going to be doing topic wise and what trips they're going on when! She also has a brilliant teacher and new LSA this year, so far, it's still early days but it looks like she could be in for a good year. My 13 year old son has finally made it to top group in his secondary school. This is a boy who was in all bottom groups in year 5 and level 2 of the national curriculum. He's predicted to get level 7s at the end of this year (year 9)! He's happy, settled at school, has some good friends and doing very well academically. It just goes to show what the right support and a bit of understanding can do. After battling the LEA for so long (5 years!!!!) to get to this stage, I can honestly say, it has most definitely been worth every letter, meeting, tribunal and tear I've shed to see them both so happy and I know I would never have been able to do it without the support and advice from this site.
  10. We went in October last year and had no trouble getting a pass. The only annoying thing was that we stayed for 3 days and had to go to guest relations every day to get a new pass. Why they couldn't do like Disney and write a pass for the duration of your stay, I don't know! Had a really good time though and would definitely like to go again when the water park is open. We arrived the day after it closed for the winter.
  11. lisa

    school hols

    5th September is a Wednesday.
  12. I agree. Once your daughter is settled in the school, you're in a very strong position. If they do try to move her in Sept 08 you'd be able to appeal to tribunal, the LEA would have to continue to pay for her to attend her current school until the tribunal panel made a decision. The LEA probably wouldn't even challenge it if you did submit appeal papers because they'd know they wouldn't stand a chance at tribunal of changing the school on her statement just to save them a bit of money and to the detriment of your daughter. Go for it, hopefully the LEA would have forgotten by next year anyway, they're too busy trying to stop anyone else getting statements!
  13. lisa

    MELATONIN

    My two have been taking it for about 18 months and it makes a huge difference. I found it quite difficult getting to sleep too, probably years of the kids being unsettled broke my sleep routine, so when we were last in USA I bought myself some Melatonin in the health food shop. It works brilliant, I highly recommend it!!!!
  14. lisa

    schoolwork

    Here's a link for free KS3 practice SATS papers (also KS1 and KS2). http://www.satspapers.co.uk Spartacus is a good website for information, no worksheets but very interesting stuff on lots of subjects. We regularly use it for homework and projects. Perhaps you could do a project on something your son's interested in. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ Does your son's school subscribe to SAM Learning? Most schools in our area have signed up, some encourage the kids to use it more than others, my son's school expect them to clock up a certain number of hours per term which they can monitor at school but we weren't even aware my daughter's school subscribed. She didn't even know her login, we found out by accident on the school website and had to ask what her login was. It's very good for online revision. You can get a report telling you how many hours they've spent on the site and what work they've been doing, how well they did etc. Not sure if you can get a free trial, I think the website is:- www.samlearning.co.uk When we had trouble getting my son to school a while back I made him watch the school programs that were on most mornings. We also watched selected programs on the History Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet which was a bit of a hardship, NOT!!!! I think he learns far more from tv and books on stuff that interests him (rainforest, volcanoes, sharks, tornadoes, that sort of thing) than he ever does in school sitting in a classroom all day. I think he just switches off. Typical AS, his attitude is, if it's not something that interests him, whats the point and why should he have to learn it??
  15. lisa

    Can the LEA do this?

    I got a new statement through today and the LEA have changed everything I'd requested. Tried to make the excuse it was done from an earlier statement but when I pointed out that they'd taken out provision that was in the original proposed statement and every other subsequent statement final or proposed they said they didn't know how it'd gotten taken out. Glad it's all sorted though.
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