Just had a call from the LEA re tribunal

[JenRose]

telling me they want to send late evidence in and it includes photos of dd in nursery, some on her own and some playing with other children.

 

she said the record of acheivement shows how far she,s come and how well she,s doing

 

so i said thats fine cos we are taking a picture of her on the day anyway.

 

she started stuttering and said do i not want to see them first and i said ok then, so she said she will come round to the house today to show them to me,

 

so i said please dont make an unecessary journey you can email them to me or ill pick up a copy from nursery

 

she said the hotmail server isnt working, (it is cos ive just emailed someone)

 

i asked her did she have a date for the ed psych going in this week as dd wont be in tomoz as she has an appointment, she said she didnt know but would find out for me and phone me back.

 

she offered to "talk through" what goes on at the hearing and i said no thats fine this will be our 4th so we know what goes on thanks anyway, she said oh is it and i said yes we had 3 with ds he,s in x/xxxx school and she said yes i know.

 

now doesnt she also have to get permission from the other parents of the children in the photos to send them to sendist?

 

and why is she so bothered about me seeing the pictures anyway?. also we wont have time to respond to what the nursery are sending in as late evidence now cos it will pass the 5 working day timelimit which is tomorrow.

 

what are they up to?

 

the sen asessment manager is willing to make a housecall to show us photos?

 

curiouser and curiouser

[justamum]

did you give permission for your child to be photographed?

[JenRose]

yes a while ago so i dont understand why she,s asking permisson to send them as im sure we signed something a while back to say it was ok to use them for educational purposes.

 

the other thing is she,s sent them to me by email and at the bottom are a number of IEP,s.

 

now there were no IEP,s in their papers for the appeal and we,ve not been told about them or signed anything to say whether we agree or not, so suddenly cos they have a report from the independent psych who has carried out proper asessments of her IEP,s magically appear that we know nothing about.

 

not sure what i can do about those.

[pumpkinpie]

I thought ieps had to be signed and agreed with parent as per the sen COP, have you had any copy ieps from the nursery in the past or any meetings with them?

It sounds to me like the nursery are catching up on all the paperwork so they dont look bad at tribunal.

If this is the first time youve seen the ieps are they dated properly?

I would be tempted to speak to ipsea and check your rights regarding not accepting late evidence at the tribunal asap

[JenRose]

never seen the iep, it is wrong info in it as it says she is showing responsibility for her toileting needs.

 

she,s not yet toilet trained and we are waiting for the camhs psychiatrist/paediatrician to investigate if its down to just physical or emotional or both thats

stopping her from training.

 

also, the iep is not dated, it doesnt have our signature on it cos we,ve never seen it.

 

2 of the photos i find distressing.

 

theres one of her in front of a block of bricks, she,s filling her nappy and looks like she,s just been placed there. i definately dont want that to go as that is upsetting to see.

 

the other is of her at the top of a climbing frame, now she has hemiplegia and can be clumsy at times, she can climb well and she can run although she often falls, BUT there is noone with her,next to her and the writing says dd is at the top of the climbing frame shouting to staff to look at her climbing.

 

i find that quite frightening and dh has gone ballistic saying who,s looking after her and watching her.

 

so i dont want those 2 pictures sent, i dont see why they have to include pictures anyway.

[JenRose]

sorry just to add i just phoned sendist, they said if we object to any of the leas late evidence we have to do that on the day.

[pumpkinpie]

So they are only including 1 iep which youve never seen before or signed and has inaccurate information which you can prove by corres from your paed is wrong?

Is that right hun?

Thats easy just object at the tribunal. Makesure you can prove their rubbish excuse relating to the meeting they had whilst you were on holiday was stupid.

[pumpkinpie]

So they are only including 1 iep which youve never seen before or signed and has inaccurate information which you can prove by corres from your paed is wrong?

Is that right hun?

Thats easy just object at the tribunal. Makesure you can prove their rubbish excuse relating to the meeting they had whilst you were on holiday was stupid.

[JenRose]

yes thats correct, although paeds letter was dated last november so they could say that they have been training her since BUT we were assured in writing by the head of SEN that no toilet training would be done without our consent.

[aro]

I would say that they intend to state that the photo of her climbing represents how independent she is in her mobility and doesn't require support...which is c**p , my dd with cerebral palsy and ASD is capable of scrambling up on a set of drawers if motivated to get something out of her reach, but can't walk in a straight line without holding an adults hand and constantly tangles her feet and trips.

 

I would be fuming if I were presented with a photo of my dd in the same position. It would make me even more determined to prove how inappropriate her current placement was!

 

Good luck at tribunal!

 

A x

Edited May 12, 2008 by aro

[JenRose]

they.ve never accepted that she has hemiplegia because "but she can walk,run and climb" as can many children with the same condition.

 

the fact that she wears piedro boots, sees a physiotherapist and a written dx from her paed doesnt matter to them.

 

the nursery is all one level, no steps so yes she must look like she can manage very well, but if she walks on an uneven surface of has to climb up steps then you can see the difference, she also gets tired very quickly and sits down which they probably havent realised.

 

she only has 2 months left at this nursery then she starts primary school, they said in their appeal papers that they understand that we are anxious about how she will cope at primary school but that they want to monitor her first.

 

well its not good enough.

 

plus the fact that she,s been spending from 9am to 3.20pm in education instead of daycare in the mornings.

[JenRose]

its getting curiouser.

 

yesterday i told the lea that i didnt want any photos of dd included in their late evidence.

 

this morning i got a copy of their late evidence that they are sending to the tribunal.

 

also a letter dated for today which says

 

Dear Mr and Mrs JEnrose

 

We are writing to confirm that we have sent late evidence to the sendist tribunal hearing scheduled for 20may.

 

blah de blah.

 

now, surely they should send me a copy of the letter they have sent to sendist giving their reasons why its gone in so late, cos i had to and sendist told

me that i had to send the lea a copy of it as well.

 

so have they sent the late evidence or not?

 

then 20mins ago i get an email from the SEN Asessment Manager, to her colleague talking about "arranging visits" and when did the papers go.

 

so she,s either sent it to me on purpose trying to psych me out or she,s made a mistake.

 

strange

[pumpkinpie]

You take care at your meeting and get them told

[JenRose]

i phoned the sen manager yesterday and asked on who,s authority were pictures of my daughter sent to her department.

 

she said

 

"I ASKED FOR THEM TO BE SENT, YOU ASKED FOR THIS TRIBUNAL AND WE ARE ALLOWED TO SEND IN LATE EVIDENCE"

 

quite arrogantly, so i said yes but you didnt ask us for our permission for photos that we have not seen to be sent to yourself, thats quite serious dont you think, this is a breach of confidentiality.

 

she started spluttering and she was getting angry on the phone, so i said well i dont want to argue with you about them, we will save it for the hearing

on tuesday,

she said oh the panel wont want to know about permission for photos that will get in the way of the hearing,

so i said well we are bringing it up anyway.

 

then i asked her who carried out a speech and language asessment on dd last week, she said she didnt know and to check with nursery.

so i said well we havent been asked or given permission for any asessments to be carried out and suddenly one just turns up in your late evidence,

with no supporting evidence to say where the scores came from.

 

she told me to ask the nursery, so i have, ive emailed the headteacher and asked her for a copy of the test and also a copy of our written consent allowing photos of our daughter to be sent to the lea.

 

so we shall see what happens in a bit.

[pumpkinpie]

I bet that made her day hun

[JenRose]

oh guess what.

 

headteacher was locked away in her office this afternoon, so i stood outside it, she saw me but ignored me.

 

so i went in to her secretary and asked her had she left any paperwork for me to look at as per my email of yesterday and she said she would check.

 

she came back and said unfortunately the headteacher hasnt had a chance to look at any emails today, she,s been so busy, she apologised, so i said ok and went.

 

so about 10 mins after that i emailed the exec director of the council and attached the photos, the report and the iep that we knew nothing about and asked him to explain.

 

i told him we find the schools/SEN managers actions very serious and we intend on taking this matter further if a full satisfactory explanation is not given.

 

i said to him, i dont need to remind you im sure that my daughter has hemiplegia which is a form of cerebral palsy and at times is very unsteady on her legs and this can cause her to stumble, why she is standing at the top of a climbing frame with no adult near to her shouting for attention (as per the notes accompanying the picture) is both irresponsible and is putting her safety at risk.

 

so he,s replied back and said he,s noted the contents and a member of his staff is looking into it.

[aro]

Good for you! Hope this has the desired effect on the Head!

 

A x

[Kathryn]

Jen Rose,

 

You've been working very hard in the last few days!

 

Be careful though that you don't say too much and give the LA and the school a chance to cover their tracks before the hearing. If you do need to communicate with them it's probably best to do it in writing.

 

K x

[Flora]

Jen

 

I agree with Kathryn.

 

You've done loads now. It's less than a week until your tribunal so the best thing you could do now is prepare your case but don't make any more overtures of contact towards anybody at the nursery or LEA. You now need to put all of your energy into going through your evidence and cross referencing it to close any gaps. Think about what the LEA may produce or any arguments they may raise against your evidence, then think about what evidence you can use to deflect them.

 

Flora