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LizK

Length of annual review

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DSs prev annual reviews have always been an hour long. The last two have not been long enough. They are held in the last hour of the school day so once the hour is up it is hometime with DH or I have to get the children, LSA has to leave to collect hers and the other teachers are bursting into the staffroom where it is held to make cups of tea. DH and I felt that the issues we wanted to discuss last time were not really deal with because we ran out of time.

 

DSs annual review is now approaching. He is in year 2 so the jump to juniors next year will be a bigger transition for him. The wording of his statement has not been updated since he started school 3 years ago. I understand that going through the statement wording is part of the Annual review process but it has never happened.

 

In view of all this DH and I have requested that the annual review start earlier so there is more time available if needed. The Head teacher has refused saying they cannot spare the staff any longer out of the classroom which I take it as meaning they don't want to pay for supply teachers to cover the classes for longer than an hour. DH and I are not impressed. The school has very few statemented pupils so it's hardly like they are doing reviews every two minutes and we feel that the allotted hour is not sufficient. His AO teacher agrees though the EP apparently thinks that an hour is sufficient and we should count ourselves lucky as we already had an informal meeting about DSs progress half way through the school year.

 

Are we being unreasonable in asking for a longer meeting? How long does your child's annual review meetings last?

 

Thanks

 

Liz x

 

 

 

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I don't see how you can put a time limit on it, it takes as long as it takes. At the next meeting when the allotted hour is up say something along the lines of "As we have run out of time I propose that we adjourn this meeting and resume it on --- at ---."

See what reaction you get.

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Hi.I think Ben's AR are usually at least one and a half hours maybe even two.It is not unusual to have about fifteen professionals there and several have always changed from the previous year.It takes about half an hour for everyone to introduce themselves and talk about how they think Ben is doing. :) Karen.

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In general they were about one hour long. I found that I took it as an opportunity to discuss his progress/lack of it and any problems, whereas schools tend to expect those things to have already been discussed, and the review is just seen as a review of the annual targets and the setting of new ones, and assessing if the placement is still correct.

 

I am not sure how you manage to get the Statement reworded. I did get "dyslexia" added in on the Annual Review Report, but the Statement was never rewritten.

 

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I think any meeting needs a timescale, especially when it is either during or at the end of the school day.

 

I know our own child's Statement is very, very important to each of us, but looking at the wider picture, the school also has to consider the rest of the children, which is why I think reviews often happen after school. Liz, you also say that the school should employ a supply teacher...but then looking at this from another angle and the cost of a supply teacher aside, other children in the class with ASD, for example, might find a supply teacher disruptive, etc. I think there has to be a balance to meet everyone's needs within a school community.

 

Bid :)

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I think any meeting needs a timescale, especially when it is either during or at the end of the school day.

 

I know our own child's Statement is very, very important to each of us, but looking at the wider picture, the school also has to consider the rest of the children, which is why I think reviews often happen after school. Liz, you also say that the school should employ a supply teacher...but then looking at this from another angle and the cost of a supply teacher aside, other children in the class with ASD, for example, might find a supply teacher disruptive, etc. I think there has to be a balance to meet everyone's needs within a school community.

 

Bid :)

 

No sorry, what I meant is that is what the school chooses to do prefering to hold the meetings during school hours. It is a regular supply teacher who covers for PPA time so not someone unfamiliiar with the class.

 

Lx

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I know where you are coming from as I have been in the situation where the school sets a period in order to avoid actually dealing with the difficult issues.

 

I think that if you have anything that needs to be said then you ned to say at the start - we need to talk about X,Y Z - if we don't get around to it today we'll need to have another meeting....

 

I don't know whether you have to sign off on the review - but I used to threaten to withold signature until I was happy.

 

We one had a review which went on for 5 hours over 4 meetings because of our concerns that the staff never actually implemented any of the previous plans unless they felt like it. We wanted it clear SMART and watertight - of course it all fell appart the first week .....

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DH says that a Statement Review shouldn't be held in the staffroom because of confidentiality.

 

On the other hand, he stresses that the Statement Review is to review progress against the objectives set in the Statement and an hour should be sufficient.

 

He teaches in a special school and they allow 45 minutes for a Review (obviously sometimes they go over a bit). He says anything else outside the actual content of the Statement that needs to be discussed should be scheduled for another meeting.

 

HTH

 

Bid :)

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Ours have always been an hour long.When your parental evidence comes through from school , think its the AR2 form , I,d list down everything your concerned about for next year/transition.Then it will be brought up during the review and you,ll have chance to discuss it.

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DH says that a Statement Review shouldn't be held in the staffroom because of confidentiality.

 

On the other hand, he stresses that the Statement Review is to review progress against the objectives set in the Statement and an hour should be sufficient.

 

He teaches in a special school and they allow 45 minutes for a Review (obviously sometimes they go over a bit). He says anything else outside the actual content of the Statement that needs to be discussed should be scheduled for another meeting.

 

HTH

 

Bid :)

 

Interesting because the last two annual reviews have not really looked at the content of the statement at all and more been a discussion about how DS is 'getting on'. It is because of this that the wording of his statement is three years out of date. Though maybe in a special school it is easier if professionals are on site more often (is that how it works LOL!) The professionals involved with DS don't meet to discuss him aside from this meeting so tends to get sidetracked. Also as it falls at the end of the year planning about next year inevitably gets discussed. Maybe we should push for them to discuss the statement first and if other issues are raised to reschedule a separate meeting

 

Thanks :)

 

Lx

 

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Thanks everyone. I think Chris has hit the nail on the head that it should take as long as it needs to and we just feel that given the restrictions upon the timing of the meeting *should* it need to be longer then it won't happen. It's not going to be changed though so will have to try to ensure the most is made of the time.

 

Lx

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Interesting because the last two annual reviews have not really looked at the content of the statement at all and more been a discussion about how DS is 'getting on'. It is because of this that the wording of his statement is three years out of date. Though maybe in a special school it is easier if professionals are on site more often (is that how it works LOL!) The professionals involved with DS don't meet to discuss him aside from this meeting so tends to get sidetracked. Also as it falls at the end of the year planning about next year inevitably gets discussed. Maybe we should push for them to discuss the statement first and if other issues are raised to reschedule a separate meeting

 

Thanks :)

 

Lx

 

Our sons final statement was only agreed in February, so we haven't had an annual review yet. But as your concerns are also about what is actually discussed at this review, and my understanding is that the annual review does look at the provision in the statement and whether that is still applicable, would it be worth involving the Parent Partnership to come along to the annual review? I know parents have differing opinions on the effectiveness of the parent partnership. But if you discuss it all with the PP prior to the AR, so that you and PP know what you want to discuss, and the PP can advise you on all those questions. Then at the meeting get the PP to take notes of what is said and agreed, and they can also challenge anything said by school or other professionals if necessary. But I would discuss the statement and your questions with the PP beforehand so you are more clear about what you want at the meeting. So I think alot will be down to planning beforehand. Otherwise the meeting can just drift along with none of the issues you want to raise being covered at all.

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DH says that a Statement Review shouldn't be held in the staffroom because of confidentiality.

 

On the other hand, he stresses that the Statement Review is to review progress against the objectives set in the Statement and an hour should be sufficient.

 

He teaches in a special school and they allow 45 minutes for a Review (obviously sometimes they go over a bit). He says anything else outside the actual content of the Statement that needs to be discussed should be scheduled for another meeting.

 

HTH

 

Bid :)

 

When I was teaching in a special school we also held meetings in a different room and were alloted 45 mins, but some ran over a bit.

 

Again I think that if there is something that you want to discuss which is not covered then you should reschedule another meeting..

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