Meeting with school

[Tez]

I have asked for a meeting with my son's school to discuss ways of overcoming his present problems. The school have agreed to a meeting on 9th May. They have asked Connexions to send an advisor along to the meeting.

 

I understand that Connexions are normally available to children aged 13 - 19 and are there to smooth the transition to adulthood and work or further education. My son is 13 and just choosing his options for GCSE. He is academically very able but we are not so concerned about his academic progress we are more concerned with adaptations to the environment that will enable him to cope. Are Connexions able to assist with this or are school seeing this as a way on gaining advice on his options and suitable career paths for him? If this is the case their idea of the meeting is very different from ours.

Edited April 28, 2005 by Tez

[nellie]

Tez,

 

I've had no personal experience of Connexions, but have heard good and bad reports about them.

 

I believe Connexions is a relatively new organisation. They took over the roll of the careers officers. Like all things, it depends on who you get. Try to find out if you can get someone with some understanding of SEN and ASD.

 

Hopefully someone will come along in a minute with further help.

 

http://www.connexions-direct.com/index.cfm?pid=177

 

Nellie xx

[Minxygal]

It sounds to me like the school would get better advice about the issues that concern you from an EP rather than Connexions. I would say that your interpretation of their role is about right and speaking from our own experiences the advice they have offered has often been unrealistic to say the least and has centred around work experience and post school opportunities.

The thing is they are not in direct contact with the school and again from my experience they often don't have a very realistic picture of the childs needs before they meet with them and this of course causes problems.

 

I honestly can't see what Connexions would be able to offer school in the way of advice and think you might be right in the conclusions you have drawn. Would it be possible for you to invite your school EP to attend the meeting as well?

Edited April 28, 2005 by Minxygal

[bid]

We were very lucky with Connexions.

 

His ordinary Connexions Advisor at his mainstream school first told me about Special FE Colleges for AS, which I didn't even know existed. She also put me in contact with the Special Needs Connexions Advisor.

 

The SN Connexions woman was just brilliant! He was out of school and she visited us at home, and then wrote an excellent report about the meeting. I included this in our evidence for the Stat Ass.

 

She also knew the LEA Out of County Placement Officer professionally, who asked for Auriel's paperwork even before we had the Stat Ass. They talked between themselves and came up with the placement that my son now attends. This is a special residential school for AS, which has an associated FE Special College for AS.

 

I honestly don't know what we would have done without our SN Connexions Advisor.

 

Bid

[oracle]

Some parents I know have had a very bad experience with Connexions and some have had the opposite and sing their praises. No help to you I know. But appears to be every bit as much a postcode lottery as finding a good school is.

 

 

As with all services ask if there is someone within the service who has specific knowledge and training for ASD? Because how can they help is they have no understanding of the condition? I have spoken to several advisors from Connexsion about David and not one of them had even heard of AS! So how can you trust someone to help you when they have never even heard of the condition?

 

Carole

Edited April 28, 2005 by carole

[Kazzen161]

I agree - if you get the Connexions person attached to the school, her expertese may be in teenage pregnancies or drugs issues. If she is a SEN Connexions Advisor she may be of some help - they should cover all aspects of the child's welfare. SEN children can access their service up until they are 25.

 

I would ring the school and ask them whether she has any experience of SEN, and what they hope she can offer to the meeting.

 

Sounds like Autism Outreach would be of more help to you.

 

Karen

[Kathryn]

Just to echo Bid, (as usual ) our connexions advisor has been a great help, from the minute I phoned up in October and said "help!", to advocating for my daughter at a multi agency meeting in February, and I'm going to phone her tomorrow to talk about specialist colleges, we have had many such conversations already. In fact I think she was the single biggest influence in getting us the statutory assessment, as she was known and respected by the head of SEN at the LEA, she was listened to in a way that we hadn't been.

 

The connexions worker attached to the school has also liased with us, but the one I usually speak to deals particularly with special needs and has worked with other teenagers on the spectrum, which was apparent when she came to our house she was able to relate well to my daughter - no easy task! She has a good understanding of the difficulties my daughter faces. The school advisor, whilst very helpful, did not have quite the same experience, so it is essential that you deal with the SEN specialist on the connexions team, there will be one. I think in our area s/he is called the accessibility advisor.

 

Maybe Bid and I are just lucky but I found Connexions a lot easier and pleasanter and more efficient to deal with than the LEA - they actually listened to me and they seem to care about the children they are working with.

[Tez]

Thanks for all the replies. I now have some idea of what Connexions role might be and it is reassuring to know that they can make a positive input.