Need advice about writing to pead

[hedders]

Apart from sensory issues and concentration span of 2-3 min in self choosen activites from ot report, she had the Beery Test of visual-Motor Intergration done.

Outcome was score 78 Pecrcentile Rank 7 under average range indicating poor visual-spatial awareness.

 

Im sending a copy to her pead along with Autumn Targets for literacy and Numeracy where she was on all the bottom targets. this showed steps of targets max of 3 depending on their level

I have now recieved the Spring Targets for Literacy and Numeracy She is either on the lowest targets or on a title heading which worries me that in the last targets she may not of progressed through the steps onto the next stage of learning.

 

The school doesnt acknowledge any concerns as they dont identify children under the age of 7 and she is 6yr old. This is causing problems when the ot and pead who want to know if she has diffculties.

 

Can i put a letter in with this info saying to pead could she have more tests done in regards to the Beery Test.

On her 1is assessment with a different pead a yr ago she said my dd needed to be assessed by an Ed Psy, this was declined 4 times from my self by Senco and Headteacher and they told the pead the school had no concerns so the pead didnt investigate it further, however i have changed pead and hope that i have explained why the school says these things.

Should i include in the report that the 1st pead suggested Ed psy but i was refused many of times?

Or will the pead not be interested in these matters ? Part of the reason she is under pead is my concerns of ASD.

[Deedee]

Hedders have you tried using the letter from IPSEA requesting a statutory assessment of needs? They hung around on my boys ed phsyc assess for two years so I know how frustrating it can be <'>

[lisa]

Our school kept refusing to bring in the Ed Psych and as Deedee suggested, the only way we managed to get them in was to request statutory assessment. The LEA refused but at least things started to happen. Regular IEPs, social skills group, SALT and Ed Psych coming in, ASD outreach and actions were put in place as I put in appeal forms to tribunal and the LEA wanted to prove they were doing something. I was then able to gather evidence and managed on our second attempt to get a statement. If I hadn't put in the initial request we would have had nothing as school were totally in denial about her difficulties and wouldn't do anything.

 

Lisa

[hedders]

Hi i contacted IPSEA on Monday they advised me to apply for stat Assessmant without the support of the school.

Ive got the request form but not sure how to explain her sen can i put all the titles that come under complex needs e.g Sensory and Behaviour... do i need to explain also?

And reasons for the school to make their own provision?

Can i put something like they do not identify children with SEN under 7yr old and are unable to offer knowledge and support in identifying my dd indivdual needs, even through her IEP

At the bottom of the ot report says not to be used as part of the Educational Statement process

Does that mean i cant send a copy of this report with the request form, I have her 1st pead report also.

 

Need advice cant afford to mess this request form for stat assessment

I need to word it well as when they contact the school The Head will say "we have no concerns" meaning all children have diffculties under age of 7 which she seems to forget to say with professionals.

Do i mention my concerns of ASD

Thankyou sooooooo much xx

Edited January 25, 2007 by hedders

[lisa]

At the bottom of the ot report says not to be used as part of the Educational Statement process

 

I think this is absolutely disgraceful. Is this an NHS OT? I would contact them and ask why you can't submit this as evidence? If they then won't agree to you submitting it, I'd ask them to write you a report that you can submit. Basically what they're saying is, your child has difficulties but we don't want the LEA to force us legally to provide for them.

 

Also even though you can't submit the report without their permission there's nothing, as far as I know, stopping you from quoting her difficulties from the report yourself. The chances are the LEA will turn you down because the school aren't doing anything so if you do decide to go to tribunal you can use the report there. I don't think the tribunal would look kindly to reports saying 'not be be used for statutory assessment'.

 

In our borough, although I'm sure the criteria is probably illegal, to get a statement a child's needs have to be 'severe, complex and lifelong'. If you can find out your LEA's criteria it would help. I quoted a report that said my daughter's needs were 'complex', autism is a 'lifelong' condition, she will never grow out of it and according to assessments I had there was an 84% discrepancy between her cognitive ability and her attainment in maths, which I would say is pretty 'severe'.

 

Definitely say about the possibility of ASD and the OT difficulties. Give examples of difficulties in school. eg. the trouble you have getting your daughter (son?) there every morning, any situations where they've become confused, stressed, misunderstood things. Any academic difficulties? If she has IEP's, has she achieved the targets, send in copies.

 

Is this the inital request for assessment or have you already sent off a letter and received a form back from the LEA?

 

Lisa

[hedders]

This will be the inital request assessment, so i cant send a copy of the ot report?

Thought i might of been able to send ot report, as it wouldnt be used as a statment of education just showing her diffculties as why im requesting a stat assessment.

What would happen if i do send it in.

The IEP doesnt show anything only has 2 targets for speech sounds and teddy keywords only have 1st copy they never did give me a 2nd copy. But IPSEA said there just going by the computer as they havent changed any stratagies or identified any of her individual needs.

 

What should i do?

Write to the pead?

[hedders]

I dont look at things properly it quotes

"This report is NOT intended to be used as part of the Educational Statment process"

 

Does this change things, advice about inital request Assessment how to word it

Edited January 26, 2007 by hedders

[Kathryn]

I dont look at things properly it quotes

"This report is NOT intended to be used as part of the Educational Statment process"

 

Does this change things, advice about inital request Assessment how to word it

 

Hi Hedders,

 

I woudn't worry too much about this. You can submit anything you want to, and you're sending the report in as evidence to convince the LEA to assess.

 

Don't worry too much about the wording of the request at this stage either, just briefly describe your child's difficulties at school - perhaps looking at some of your previous posts on this forum could help?

 

The LEA have 6 weeks to consider your request and during that time you can send more information - paed reports etc, and you can write more yourself in support if you feel you need to give more detail. So don't worry about messing up the request - (it's not an exam!) and it won't be your only chance to have your say. The sooner you get it sent off, the sooner you can get the process moving.

 

K x

[hedders]

Just had a phone call from the ed psy she hasnt assessed my dd but i have kept her informed over the last 6 months of diffculties with school any way she has advised me not to apply for Stat Ass as the lea will listen to the schools views and if they say they have no concerns and can meet my dd needs then i will get refused. Said LEA have usued up all their funding apart from very complex needs of children.

Brill back to square one again !!!!!!!

[darky]

Hi hedders. Take no notice of the ed pysc's opinion, when i first spoke to the ed pysc regarding my children she said similar and we had a big row.

 

A couple of weeks later i applied for statutory assessment for both my kids, and now the lea are issuing statements. The ed pysc came on board eventually.

 

Its very comon for teachers, heads, sencos, ed pysc's to come up with the rubbish that statements are not being issued due to lack of funding blah blah blah. Its a load of cobblers, whats more its illegal. The law has not changed regarding statements or the issues of them.

 

If you feel thats what your child needs then go for it. Do not let them put you off. It may be they are applying blanket policies and thats illegal also. Someone more experienced my be able to advise further on that.

[jomica]

Hi Hedders

I agree - don't take the advice of the Ed Psych. We put in a parental request for assessment before our youngest (now 9, HFA) started school and drove the process through using the information given to us by our paediatrician, SALT and clinical (NHS) psychologist. It was indisputable.

 

Have a look here:

 

http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/advice/booklets/Assessment.html

 

It contains advice about applying for statutory assessment. From memory, I think IPSEA also had some advice online too

 

http://www.ipsea.org.uk

 

 

 

Good luck

Edited January 26, 2007 by jomica

[JsMum]

Dont forget even if LEA refuse to assess, you can appeal, and it will go to a panel who will seek out all information on your childs development, if its prooved that your child does need an assessment to determin her difficulties in education then the panel will request the LEA do the assessment, if the LEA do the assessment and they refuse to statement you can appeal and then if the panel agree she will need extra support using a statement of special needs then this is what they will request the LEA do.

 

ed psychs, are funded by LEA so they will try to agree with the school as not to upset the apple cart, so to speak.

 

my advice is give as much as you know in as much detail as possible, photo coping everything that you send.

 

I wrote pages of the difficulties that J was having and explained what support I was requesting.

 

have a look at the school code of practice as well as that is LAW not like our LEAs blanket policies that actually breaking the LAW.

 

Once you go down this road it really starts to open up your brain of knowledge its amazing what LEAs are doing, saying and how they are cutting corners.

 

Good Luck and IPSEA is an excellent website so do visit that one too.

 

as a parent you have many rights and laws to ensure your child recieves the education that meets her needs.

 

If we parents where to listen to LEA and Ed psychs then many wouldnt of got a statement however parents that go ahead and asked for one as a parent and go throw the process how many children are then given one?

 

JsMum

Edited January 26, 2007 by JsMum

[hedders]

Im going to be very brave and ask the school for a copy of my dd foundation stage profile and see where she is.

 

Anyone else done this?

 

Do i have to request this in writing, theres something like this but cant remember and takes up to 2 weeks to get it?

Is there any way that the school can give dishonest scores? Dont trust them one bit

[darky]

well, whilst not meaning to cause alarm, this is my opinion only as its something i cannot "prove" but i BELIEVE in the case of my son, the school did fiddle figures. When he was in yr two he obtained level 2's in his SAT tests. I had my concerns. His ability did not appear to match his acheivement, especially in numeracy. I sought the advice of a private maths tutor who came to my house, assessed my son and gave him private tutoring. She said she felt he was 2yrs behind. She felt he had missed the basics and the class was moving on without him. Of course the school did not agree.

 

18 months later, with my son having booster lessons in school, i STILL felt he was not gaining any ground in maths OR literacy. So i sought the advice and assessment of an independant dyslexia specialist. There was so much that came out of that assessment, i was relieved, i was not barmy!! She dx with moderate to severe dyslexia.

 

i pulled him out of that school and he went to another. At the end of yr 4 he was assessed through optional SAT's and low and behold he managed a level 2 in literacy and level 1b in numeracy, some 2 yrs after his original SAT tests. Now either he has gone backwards, not made any progress or the figures were fiddled. I shall let you decide what you think.

[Kathryn]

Im going to be very brave and ask the school for a copy of my dd foundation stage profile and see where she is.

 

Anyone else done this?

 

Do i have to request this in writing, theres something like this but cant remember and takes up to 2 weeks to get it?

 

Hi hedders,

 

Write to the chair of governors (ask the school secretary for the contact details) with a copy to the head. They have to provide the information within 15 days.

 

I requested my daughter's SEN file this way and when it was ready, I sat and looked at it in reception, just to see what was in it. The school office then copied the bits I wanted. (Some schools may charge for copying).

 

K x

[UltraMum]

Said LEA have usued up all their funding apart from very complex needs of children.

 

Tosh - sorry Mr Jones - I know you need a plaster cast but we can't give you one till April as we've run out of money - can you imagine the NHS saying this - OK well perhaps not the best example but you get my drift

 

The assessment process should look at the child's needs - not at the resources available to meet those needs - one of the problems where the gatekeeper is also the provider - don't forget the Ed Psych works for the LEA as well

[UltraMum]

Im going to be very brave and ask the school for a copy of my dd foundation stage profile and see where she is.

 

It should have been discussed with you and you are perfectly entitled to see it and have a copy if you wish.

 

We assessed our son against the Early Learning Goals that children are supposed to have acheived at the end of the Foundation Stage and presented evidence to the Tribunal that he hadn't achieved many of them - this was in Year 3!!!!

 

Handy link for the goals is http://www.underfives.co.uk/elg.html

 

You can read the DFES doc re the Foundation Stage here http://www.qca.org.uk/downloads/5824_handbook_web.pdf

 

You can find the curriculum guidance, including the goals, here: http://www.qca.org.uk/downloads/5585_cg_foundation_stage.pdf

Edited January 30, 2007 by UltraMum

[hedders]

It should have been discussed with you and you are perfectly entitled to see it and have a copy if you wish.

 

We assessed our son against the Early Learning Goals that children are supposed to have acheived at the end of the Foundation Stage and presented evidence to the Tribunal that he hadn't achieved many of them - this was in Year 3!!!!

 

Handy link for the goals is http://www.underfives.co.uk/elg.html

 

You can read the DFES doc re the Foundation Stage here http://www.qca.org.uk/downloads/5824_handbook_web.pdf

 

You can find the curriculum guidance, including the goals, here: http://www.qca.org.uk/downloads/5585_cg_foundation_stage.pdf

[hedders]

Thanks for that just looked up the foundation profile for reception age.

I havent yet asked for her copy, im trying to plan out what i need to do, but i do believe that from the annual report even though it doesnt give scores it would be based on the foundation profile.

 

At the end july i recieved her copy and sent a copy to her pead who spoke to me and said well that annual report is really good she cant have asd as it says she shares and interacts well.

What i wasnt aware of then was all the parents recieved the same draft copy the only decription altered was Literacy and Numeracy for reception yr.

I have just recieved an ot report on dd who was assessed in september and october and what clearly states is diffculty with concentration 2-3 min! due to stimualtions

Coordination diffculties! esp with writing, cutting and eating and poor visual awareness.

She hasnt progressed with literacy and numeracy as she is still learning the 1st 8 keywords from beginning of reception yr this is on her IEP and has had it for a yr.

 

My guessing is that they dont look for sen or monitor children at that age?

I have sent all this info to new pead and said i want to apply for stat assessment but need a copy of her recent assessment a few weeks ago to add to my case.

No wonder the SENCO was angry in September when i asked what progress my dd has made and how is she being monitored her response was she has no concentration diffculties in fact we feel she doesnt need an IEP!!! clearly she wrong, and hasnt followed the correct proceedures

 

What will happen if my dd does have SID,LD and ASD and the school mislead the SALT and other PEAD and they discharged her last yr because they simply havent got a clue??