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lisa

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Hi Everyone,

 

Can anyone give some examples of the targets on their childrens IEP's that I could perhaps suggest to my youngest daughters teacher? Laura isn't diagnosed but we're pretty sure she is on the spectrum as she's showing many charactistics. We had parents evening tonight and I was hoping that she would have an IEP for us to look over but she admitted she didn't really know what targets to set. Laura is in Year 2, middle groups (she started reception in top groups and is gradually working her way down), she's an excellent reader, a daydreamer, she isn't very social and likes to spend time on her own, she doesn't call out in class and she rarely asks for help. She has just been put on School Action Plus because she has been referred to "outside agencies" and this will be her first IEP.

 

Lisa

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Hi everyone,

 

I'll have to search for Daniel's old IEP's (from primary school), as I hoard everything.

 

One point to bear in mind is that school can have MORE than one IEP on your child, which relates to your child's special educational needs, for example:

 

* an Asperger's Syndrome/Autism IEP - which would detail short term targets of a social skills programme.

 

* a language IEP - this would detail short term targets for any language programme in relation to a language disorder/delay - some of the language targets could be inter-linked with the AS IEP, as there are some AS children who have both AS and language problems.

 

* a literacy and general learning difficulties IEP - this would detail any areas of concern regarding the national curriculum subjects e.g. the english language ( comprehension, story writing, dictionary work - possibly any area in this subject where there are problems) and maths (mathematical reasoning, times tables, the ability to understand the value of money, multiplication and division - yet again, possibly any area in this subject where there are problems).

 

* a behavioural IEP for children who are behaviourally challenging in the school environment - what would the prescribed strategies be? How effective are the strategies? What are the other possible strategies etc?

 

Helen

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HI lisa,

i have just looked though a few of daniels old IEP's they are for a older child they range from year 4/5 and 6 so i am not sure if they wil be much help.

 

Daniels junor IEP where set out in 6 diffrent sections

 

1.Targets to be achieved this must have a realistic time table.

 

2.Acievment Criteria this is what the child and TEACHER is going to do to make sure this works.

 

3.possible resources/techniques e.g taking more time to explain things in clear instructions and using visual adds if needed.

 

4.Possible class strategies how the teacher can use the things she/he has in the class room to help the child. e.g where they sit, books ect.....

 

5.Ideas for support/assistant what the teacher can do to make sure your child understand

 

6. outcome where this has worked or not

 

the targets on Daniels IEP range from things like

 

1. To respond appropriately to individual instructions.

2.To demonstrate understanding of preositions of time and space

3. To answer inferntail questions about a text.

 

the ones he has now are

 

To use cues appropriately in a conversation e,g facial expressions.

then as you go along the 1 to 5 as above it says to do this these things must happen

so box 2 says Observed by subject teachers

3. activity clubs. In class discussions and groupwork

4 provide opportunities for roleplay/drama. give feed back/positive comments.

5 discuss emotions and facial expressions drawn from videos.

 

does any of this make sense????????? if not i can scan an IEP and email it to you for you to see

 

Karen xx

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Hello everyone,

 

I've found a few IEP's from primary school, but there is so much detail - I wouldn't be able to type everything, so I'll provide just one example.

 

An IEP should include:

* The child's name

* The child's date of birth

* Area/s of concern (language skills in Daniel's case)

* The class teacher's name

* The name of the support teacher (if applicable)

* The name of the SENCO who provides extra support (if applicable)

* The start date of the IEP

* The amount of support hours per week

* The year group

* A review date

* The date that support originally began

* The level at which the child is placed on the SEN register

 

Example:

 

Targets to be achieved - To show understanding of the text which he has read.

 

Achievement Criteria - Answers comprehension questions accurately.

 

Possible resources/techniques - Verbal questions. Daniel to formulate own questions based on text. 'Wolf Hill' and 'Ginn 360' scheme activity sheets

 

Possible class strategies - Ask relevant questions. Explain figures of speech.

 

Ideas for support/assistant - Set comprehension work e.g. worksheets to accompany reading books (During withdrawal with SENCO).

 

Outcome - Showed some improvement - ongoing, repeat target.

 

Just for you to know, some SENCOs are TOO busy during their daily routine to fill in IEP's and when they get an awkward parent who visit's school without any notice and demands to see their child's IEP, well of course the SENCO hasn't written in the child's IEP.

 

IEP's can be written up in less than 10 minutes - I've actually seen this happen.

 

Helen

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Hi all,

 

I forgot to say that in some schools, care assistants who are allocated to a child on a one-to-one basis are often required to write up the child's IEP, as they go along.

 

I was asked to do this at one stage and I refused - my reason being that I considered it to be the SENCO's job.

 

Helen

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Hi Helen/Karen,

 

Thanks for all your advice and for looking at your old primary IEPs for me, I'm still at a bit of a loss though.

 

The problem with Laura is, the teacher isn't sure what sort of thing to put in her IEP and I can understand the problem. Laura doesn't really have behaviour issues like Jack did (my son, who has AS). She puts her hand up and doesn't call out in class, she seems fine lining up apart from she likes to be the last one or the first one. She's not disruptive and she's working at middle group level. Her main problems are daydreaming and the social side of school. She works at her own pace, which is often slow and she's hard to motivate. She's not interested in interacting and prefers to be alone. She tends not to ask for help and then gets upset. How can you put these problems into workable targets? You can hardly have a target saying "don't daydream". She doesn't have any 1:1 support, although she does sometimes work with a support assistant in a small group.

 

The teacher is going to talk it over with the SENCO to see what they can come up with. She really wants a place for Laura in the Social Skills group but the SENCO says there's no place available. This would give her a better basis for IEP targets. Laura has her first speech and language appointment soon and I'm hoping if they recommend the social skills group the school will find a place for her. It also would give me more leverage to demand a place. At the moment, although I'm positive that Laura is on the autistic spectrum, it's still early days and I don't want to rock the boat too much. I've done a lot of feet stamping in school lately so until the professionals confirm my suspicions (which I'm sure they will) I think I need to take a step back.

 

I'm sure Laura's teacher wouldn't take offence if I was able to come up with some targets for her.

 

Lisa

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The problem with Laura is, the teacher isn't sure what sort of thing to put in her IEP and I can understand the problem.� Laura doesn't really have behaviour issues like Jack did (my son, who has AS).� She puts her hand up and doesn't call out in class, she seems fine lining up apart from she likes to be the last one or the first one.� She's not disruptive and she's working at middle group level.� Her main problems are daydreaming and the social side of school.� She works at her own pace, which is often slow and she's hard to motivate.� She's not interested in interacting and prefers to be alone.� She tends not to ask for help and then gets upset.��

 

The teacher is going to talk it over with the SENCO to see what they can come up with.�� She really wants a place for Laura in the Social Skills group but the SENCO says there's no place available.�

Lisa,

 

It isn't up to you to provide the targets for your daughter, this is a matter for the SENCO, however, your involvement is important in drawing up the plan and the senco ought to ask you if you have certain targets of your own in mind, for them to be considered and possibly included on the IEP.

 

The teacher must be involved in liaising with the SENCO, but ultimate responsibility must lie with the SENCO. That is her job, she oversees provision for SEN children - simple as that. Sometimes the headteacher is the SENCO. The SENCO gets paid a higher salary because of the qualifications needed to address children's SEN issues.

 

If your daughter has problems keeping on task because of her daydreaming, you should make a diary of this need, as she could require support in this area after the diagnosis, you could then refer to it, when need be.

 

She could also need a social skills programme possibly delivered individually and in a small group setting by using approaches that are recommended for pupils with AS. Such a programme could also promote the development of thinking skills, whilst supporting successful social interacton with her peers. Approaches could include social stories.

 

She may need a language and literacy programme, this could mean learning how to plan a story, to show understanding of the text which she has read, to be aware of whether a piece of story writing is complete, to discuss and write about the plot in a story or play, to include some complex sentences in written work, to use alternative words for commonly used words e.g. 'nice/said/ thing', to place a set of decimal fractions in order according to size, to multiply and divide a number by 10/100/1000 (don't forget, the English language is used in mathematical reasoning and problem solving too), to include some complex sentences in written work, to keep school books and equipment tidy and organised, to scan a text for key words in order to locate a specific piece of information, to skim-read a text in order to obtain information, to write a story with a clear introduction and a logical conclusion, to put things away properly.

 

You state that your daughter tends not to ask for help and then gets upset - perhaps your daughter may not KNOW how to ask for help. Some children with language problems don't know how to ask or even what to ask, so then they'd rather not bother. After all, we do things without thinking about them most of the time, but some children HAVE to be taught these skills, as these skills haven't come naturally to them.

 

If there isn't a place for your daughter to go in the social skills group, this could be because of funding.

 

The above examples were included in Daniel's IEP's. I hope I've given you something to ponder over.

 

Good luck,

 

Helen

Edited by Helen

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Hi Everyone

 

Just in case you do not already have this information...

 

As well as the Code of Practice, the SEN Toolkit gives information on IEP's.

 

See SEN Toolkit - Section 5 - Managing Individual Education Plans. This can be downloaded on PDF.

 

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/s...istant/toolkit/

 

Unfortunately this will not help in deciding what to put in a plan, but may help understand how it is done.

 

Nellie.

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Hiya,

 

Has anyone ever attempted to 'suggest' targets for an IEP to the SENCo and class teacher involved in creating one? Particularly where the school has difficulty identifying needs. If so, how did you go about it? Were your suggestions considered? Did they reel back in horror at your cheek in trying to help them with their job!!? :D

 

Kindest regards,

 

Elefan

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Hi Elefan,

I have total input into Daniel's IEP's the SENCO and myself and his dad if he turns up!! decide what we think are the most important things to be targeted that term. The between us we al decide what goes on Daniel's IEP.

 

So if you ave concerns that you think could be covered in the IEP i would say and request that htey are considered :)

 

Karen xx

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Hi Elefan

 

COP 5:53 IEP's should be reviewed at least twice a year. Ideally they should be reviewed termly, or possibly more frequently for some children. At least one review in the year could coincide with a routine Parents' Evening, although schools should recognise that some parents' will prefer a private meeting. Reviews need not be unduly formal, but parents' views on the child's progress should be sought and they should be consulted as part of the review process. Wherever possible, the child should also take part in the review process and be involved in setting the targets. If the child is not involved in the review, their ascertainable views should be considered in any discussion.

 

COP 2:2 states that parents hold key information and have a critical role to play in their children's education.

 

Nellie

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IEP's for children who are at risk of disaffection or exclusion.

 

 

If your child is at serious risk of disaffection or exclusion the IEP should include pastoral support. see COP 5:52

 

Nellie.

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SENCO Handbook

 

Secondary advice: Writing Individual Education Plans

 

I am concerned about one paragraph in the link below that mentions ?Senco suggestions for SEN pupils without IEPs' (the operative word being ?suggestions?). If a child doesn't have an IEP then how can the child's performance/ability be monitored?

 

I searched in the COP and found:

 

At School Action: 5:50 Individual Education Plans - "Strategies employed to enable the child to progress should be recorded within an individual Education Plan".

 

At School Action Plus: 5:55 External support services, both those provided by the LEA and by outside agencies, will usually see the child, in school if that is appropriate and practicable, so that they can advise teachers on new IEPs with fresh targets...�

 

5:59 The resulting new IEP for the child should set out fresh strategies for supporting the child's progress..."

 

For statemented children: 8:116 Maintenance of a Statement - "... Teachers should use both the normal curriculum and pastoral monitoring arrangements for all pupils as well writing IEPs, as appropriate..."

 

The COP is merely a guideline for schools and LEAs ? the COP isn?t always adhered to; some schools do not have regard for the COP. In those circumstances, when would a school deem it appropriate to issue an IEP - at what stage?

 

The school has to account to the LEA in its choice of resources, where funding for a statemented child is concerned.

 

I believe that the school has to apply for additional funding to meet the needs of SEN children on the stage School Action+, the school has to explain to the LEA its reasons for additional funding.

 

I'm not sure, but I think SEN children on the stage School Action are supposedly to have their needs met via the Age Weighed Pupil Unit Value formula funding (if the title still exists). This is when the LEA gives the school a certain amount of money for each child?s placement within the school - a small percentage of that money is taken and then pooled to form the school's SEN budget.

 

I don?t know if this SEN money has to be made accountable to the LEA, I don?t think it has to be - a school can use this money in any way it chooses, e.g. providing specialist ICT programmes for a group of SEN pupils with similar difficulties, providing 1-2-1 support for 6 pupils with similar needs, providing SEN work/reference books etc.

 

I guess the easiest stage for the school, in trying to manipulate the funding, would be at stage School Action.

 

This is just a hypothetical scenario: The child has SEN at stage School Action - no IEP issued, the child doesn't receive SEN support - parents not informed - parents none the wiser and don't cause the school any grief.

 

Why hasn?t this child been given the support that he/she is entitled to receive?

 

What would be a possible reason for the school not issuing an IEP to a child on stage School Action? Could it be:

*that it would mean more paperwork for whoever is writing up the IEPs, i.e. in addition to all the other pupils being on stage School Action+ and the statemented pupils?

*the school has limited SEN funds, it cannot accommodate every child who has been put on stage School Action?

*the SEN funds can be deployed elsewhere to aid other children who have more severe needs on stage School Action+?

*the school had overspent on its general budget by employing a highly qualified teacher ? it then has to compensate for this action by dipping into its SEN budget to balance its books?

 

A word of warning, just because your child is on the stage School Action please don?t assume that your child?s school is fully meeting your child?s needs ? my son was on the SEN register, I wasn?t informed of this, the LEA provided funding to the school to meet my son?s needs, yet my son didn?t receive any SEN support whatsoever. The headteacher had been ?misplacing? the funds. Neither the headteacher, nor the governing body, nor the LEA could tell me where the funding had gone to.

 

If you believe that your child has SEN, then ask your child?s form teacher if your child is on the SEN register, or on a list which acknowledges that your child has special needs. You?ll need to ask what stage your child is on.

 

Sorry for the long post, I hope you find the link interesting.

 

http://www.devon.gov.uk/dcs/speceduc/senco...ndary.htm#Ideas

Edited by Helen

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Hi again,

 

I mentioned my son in the above post - I forgot to say that this sad episode happened during his primary schooling (my apologies for repeating myself/ to anyone who is already familiar with my issue).

 

It just goes to show that this form of 'bad practice' can apply to both primary and secondary education.

 

Helen

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Hi,

 

I'm a special needs teacher in a learning support unit in a secondary school . I trained as a primary school teacher and have been teaching in keystage 1 and 2 for 6 years......so I have written quite a few IEP's!! I am now teaching children with a range of special needs and one of my hats in the unit is to be responsible for the students with Asperger's.

 

I am quite concerned by the way your daughter's teacher couldn't actually produce any targets for her. The SENCo is responsible for over seeing the needs of individual children but usually within primary school, it is the class teacher who would set the targets, mainly because she would know your child the best.

 

All targets on IEP's should be 'SMART' Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Realistic, Target. Just by the things you have outlined, I would suggest targets like:

 

To stay focussed for 5 minutes whilst sat on the carpet for lesson input. Your daughter may be able to stay focussed for longer than this!

 

To answer 1 question per day during class discussions. Or if she would find this too much, she could have a target that would get her doing this in small groups to start with.

 

To use traffic light cards to show that she doesn't understand something. This is a really effective way of getting children to show they don't understand something without the rest of the class noticing, therefore the stigma is lost. Basically, you have a red, amber and green card attached by a treasury tag. If she understands she would leave the green card on top, if she's a bit unsure of what to do, she would put the amber card on top and if she really doesn't understand what she has to do at all, she would put the red card on top. Her teacher could monitor this from the other side of the classroom and support her where necessary. I use this with my whole class. Sometimes, if I have a few red cards up, I even get some of my children with their green card up to help other children with their amber card up. So they are learning social skills too!

 

It's really good that you are involved in your daughter's education and whilst you're given the opportunity with open arms, I would advise you to get in there! Also, it's very important that the targets are shared with the child so they know what they need to do to improve, what the success criteria will be and what they are good at.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sorry to ramble on, I tried to summarise as much as poss!

 

Good luck

 

Emma

 

By the way, with reference to the funding in a reply to this post, it is the schools responsibility to inform parents as soon as an IEP is in place. The child may only be on the 'Early Intervention' stage of the special needs register, where the special needs are identified and are generally met within the classroom through differentiation-so therefore aren't funded.

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From my reading of the new code of practice, there is no early intervention stage only early identification.

 

I was told early intervention is now classed as pre-special needs, and is met from the schools usual budget . Isn't it wonderful how needs can be so easily re-classifed!

 

I like the idea of the cards on the desk - might try that with my son, as it would be fairly discreet.

 

Karen

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i had my stevens IEP review last week and his new targets are 1 to tidy away one toy when his teacher starts clapping (not bad but the other kids are now complaining) 2 sit on the carpet for 5 mins without shouting out or talking to anyone without putting his hand up first 3 work for 5 mins at his station without inturipting anyone or talking hope this may give you a few ideas of your own

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>>1 to tidy away one toy when his teacher starts clapping (not bad but the other kids are now complaining)

>>2 sit on the carpet for 5 mins without shouting out or talking to anyone without putting his hand up first

>>3 work for 5 mins at his station without inturipting anyone or talking

 

 

one could ask

1: what happens in assembly when she applauds something?

what is one toy? one piece of lego - all the lego?

what about when his Teacher is away?

2: does he know what shouting is?

It implies he has to wait to be asked, once he puts his hand up - does he understand this?

I presume it is five consecutive minutes, not any five minutes out of 30?

3: does he understand what interruppting is?

Is he allowed to ask for help if he gets stuck?

Is he allowed to talk to himself?

 

These IEP's are very hard to get exactly right - I have similar problems when I do reward or time out charts.

 

We had "Will sit on the bottom step for x minutes if you hit someone" - we then ended up getting into discussions about what was a hit or not a hit, and ended up with a list of hit, kick, pinch, push, etc!

 

Karen

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Thanks everyone,

 

Emma, your advice was particularly helpful and I've spoken to Laura's teacher today. She agreed that the traffic light system sounded like a really good idea for Laura as asking for help is a particular problem. It's a year on since I first posted about her first IEP and a lot has happened. Laura was diagnosed with Aspergers, nothing was done to help her on SA+ in the whole year so we made a parental request for a statutory assessment. It was turned down and we then went to tribunal (we're still awaiting their decision). It was amazing the effect the word tribunal had on the school and the LEA. ASD outreach have been in to see her and are in the process of devising a program for her, they're also sending their SALT lady in to do some formal assessments and she's now going to have termly visits, OT have done an assessment, the EP has been in. Laura's new IEP actually has relevant, feasible targets and also on my suggestion the teacher is going to introduce some cue cards for specific tasks during the day with basic instructions to try to get her working independently without being prompted. She has a home/school contact book and an "off load" time at the end of each day to try to help with the tranisition from school to home. I'm really pleased with all this. It's just a shame that it had to be such a battle and we had to go to tribunal to push them to do anything. All this could have been put in place in February last year.

 

My only worry is that there are 8 kids with SEN in Laura's class with one teacher and no support staff. It's a lot to ask her teacher to spend so much time implementing all this help for Laura when there are lots of others in the class who are not as capable academically and will also need the teacher's time. Although the support sounds good on paper even with the best of intentions will the teacher actually have the time to put it into practice.

 

Lisa

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my son has been in school since september 2004 and i havent seen an iep yet for him its been mentioned and everytime ive mentioned it nothing has come from it

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My son has just been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome - we had to go private because the LEA couldn't see it. He also has ADHD & speech & language disorder.

He attends an Early Years SEN setting (since age of 2, now 4 & about to start school).

I traced back his IEPs and the only info on all of them is the target & possible strategy. No who/when/how often/success/exit criteria and we have never been told whether he has met any of his targets. They just keep setting new ones!

As parents we have had no inut on his targets - in fact I was handed a copy of his last IEP in June (after half term) - the date of when it started was April & I wasn't even made aware of it!

Tribunal case deadline this week

Tribunal date been postponed 3 times now poss going to be Nov.

Asked for assessment last Dec.

 

How much of this will the tribunal panel take notice of? :wacko:

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Hello Lesley and welcome,

 

The SEN Code of Practice mentions throughout partnership with parents, it mentions the importance of early intervention etc, it provides guidelines/ procedures which all schools and LEAs ought to follow. Your son's school obviously doesn't have regard for the COP.

 

I hope the tribunal panel will decide to grant your son an assessment. If it doesn't then you have the option of making a complaint to the school's governing body about the fact that the school didn't follow the guidelines and procedures set out in the COP.

Edited by Helen

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Thanks Helen - I have 5 pages of SEN quotes that have not been given 'regard' to! (along with the 15 pages of evidence to show we meet the LEA criteria for assessment!) It's being posted in my tribunal case statement later today after I've done my final proof read...

The difficulties we are facing are to do with James transfering from an SEN pre-school into mainstream infants. Its the SEN place that are blocking our efforts to get an assessment!

We had our son's handover review on Tues and his Asperger diagnosis wasn't even mentioned - in fact I had to draw attention to the report that they had 'forgotton' was on the table!

Got my IPSEA case worker stunned!

 

Lesley

:hypno:

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I am very confused about all this.

 

My son received a diagnosis of ASD (high functioning) during the summer holidays - in between leaving primary school and starting secondary school. We believe it's Aspergers but the paediatrician who wrote the report said that we'd get more support by using the phrase ASD otherwise the school would be looking out for behaviour which he wasn't demonstrating (to her!)

 

As it is I'm very concerned that he's being seen as one of the 'naughty boys' (his words) BECAUSE they don't have the right criteria for assessing his behaviour and supporting him. But what do I know???

 

In addition, what's with the IEPs etc??

 

We had spoken briefly to the SENCO during an introductory evening a term ago but anticipated that the school would want to meet with us once they had the official report and before he started the term to discuss things. We then anticipated that they'd want to have a meeting within a week or so of starting - and then thought well, they want to wait to see how he settles in.

 

Aaagh - terrible mother - nothing is happening and i should have got in sooner!!?

 

I've written a couple of letters to 'explain' my son's difficulties and sent the SENCO a copy just to keep her up to date. The first resulted in an irate teacher phoning me back - fortunately I'd had enough sleep and was feeling fairly balanced that day but it took a lot of effort to bring her round. Defensive or wot!! As far as I can remember my note was simply an account of what would otherwise be invisible and some suggestions for ensuring he was taking in what she was saying. I also sent a copy of that one to the TA.

 

There is also a pastoral teacher for year 1 (super lady) and a new (fierce by all appearances but I suspect he's a pussycat really) form teacher but he seems to have a downer on boys generally which isn't helping.

 

I just don't know 'which way in' - how to handle this - what to expect - should there be an IEP, should we be involved...??? We dutifully write a note each week in his homework book but we've never received a comment back although I believe they read it and act on it as he always seems happier the day after they've read about some problem or other. I asked for a meeting iwth the SENCO over a week ago but haven't heard anything back. I don't know whether the reminder I've enclosed today of our request will result in anyting. I've grown to hate using the phone as a result of difficulties with my AS mother (it must have acted like aversion therapy!!).

 

As you can probably tell, I can't see the wood for the trees and feel completely lost - can anybody help me find a way in?? :tearful:

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Hi mikesmum, without knowing some further details I don't know if I can help, but I'll give it a go ...

 

Does your child have a statement or is he on the school action plus?

 

I would get on to the school again as a matter of urgency, I have learnt from bitter experience, that if left to their own devices they don't really do a lot. You need to go in and find out what they know about ASD/AS and how they are applying that knowledge (if any) to your son. You are also entitled to be included (as is your son) in the drawing up of the IEP and should have a copy sent to you as well.

 

Try not feel that you are in any way being an intrusive parent, without us policing what the school are/should be doing you would be surprised just how little actually gets done. I'd also advise getting in touch with your local Parent Partnership Service, they can accompany you to meetings at school/lea etc ... (some are better than others though).

 

If the SENCO still does not give you a meeting, I'd get onto the HT straight away, you have a right to be included in to decisions or problems that your son is facing at school.

 

HHxx

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Hi HectorsHouse. I went to my first local ASD parents meeting this evening - it was good to make some connections. I discovered what the Parents Partnership is and how to access it. Understood a bit more about all the jargons (Action+ and IEPs) - and now recognise what it is that I don't know!!) And...I got through to your blog - wow! Tough journey. It's half term next week so I've decided to put my angst away for a fortnight (as advised this evening!) and start afresh immediately afterwards.

 

Thanks so much for your reply. Everything is like a jigsaw at the moment and every new bit of input helps put everything else I hear into context. Getting there! :-) (Actually, I still feel pretty confused but I WILL get there ;-))

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Well, I phoned the primary school to find out where we HAD been on the system and discover we were at School Action Plus - and he has had at least TWO IEPs written which I'd never seen and TWO Reviews of Special Educational Needs which we weren't privy to either! We didn't have a single meeting during his last year at school.

 

There were several comments about his poor attendance which I don't even understand. I was always sending him in when he didn't feel well but he did have several mornings off for appointments with the specialists he was seeing as a result of School Action Plus!! And there were comments about him being late! He was always on time to our knowledge - we took him to school in the car. If there were problems with lateness and attendance why didn't they talk to US? How can a child be responsible for being late and attendance??? I'm thoroughly angry and confused as these have also been forwarded to the secondary school.

 

Anyway. if I can scrape myself off the ceiling...what happens next? Do you know what the relevance is of something called CAPS???

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it's really difficult with some schools to get them to involve you in, or even show you, IEPs but they should be doing it

 

on lates (can't speak for absences) I had an ADHD kid who was consistently late and when I spoke to his parents I discovered they were dropping him off at the front door and seeing him enter the school well before time. The problem was between the door and the classroom.

It turned out that he was going to the office to deliver his food diary, having a good natter - could talk for england this lad - then ambling up the stairs stopping to talk to anyone he met on the way.

 

got his LSA to meet him at the door!

 

Zemanski

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Zemanski is probably right about the late mark. I have twins who were in the same class, we dropped then off at the same time, together every day. They lined up together in the playground before the bell goes and I'd watch them go in, TOGETHER! At the end of year we get a printout of their attendance and punctuality and my daughter wasn't late once, whereas my son had about 20 late marks!!!!

 

Lisa

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LOL - That made me laugh. Thanks for that!! :-) :thumbs:

 

We had a letter from the Secondary school today saying they have decided to put him on School Action Plus and will spend the next few weeks doing assessment amd gathering information before contacting us about drawing up an IEP.

 

Does that mean they've spend the whole of the first half term doing nothing??!

 

And if they had the results of the 'previous' School Action Plus during the vacation...what more are they going to do?? We've done the ed psych, the occ therp, the physiotherp, and the paediatrician. They have the reports. What else do they NEED?????

 

Oh, and the other thing which 'got' to me - the primary school IEP made many comments about my son's dependence and reliance on his dad. I have had SO many discussions (aka arguments) with my AS hubby about NOT doing everything for him because it's disabling and doesn't help him become independent (and he DOES want to be independent tho very open to opportunities for laziness!!) - again WHY didn't they challenge US instead of blaming the child for lack of independence!!! Their challenges would have been helpful. Not their fault I guess - but I'm growling!!!!! :angry::oops::(

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Does anyone have any wording for targets relating to bullying/teasing?? And about asking for help??

 

My son has finally made an attempt to ask for help in a kind of oblique way at school and has made it known that he is getting very upset about teasing. He was in tears on a day I turned up for a meeting about the IEP. The SENCO instructed him to keep a diary of the number of times he was bullied and to write a tick for each time he ignored or dealt with the teasing by saying 'hiya' in return to a reference to his height (he's very conscious that he is very little for his age)

 

Well, we've talked to him so much over the years about handling teasing, he has books which he often reads...but they don't seem to recognise that he doesn't ...?have the maturity to handle it or the ability or...not sure what words to use but I know it's part of the ASD which is at play here. He simply cannot interpret the teasing as friendly but he's been 'told' that it's not malicious (he would naturally feel that's a great big assumption for how do they know if they haven't seen it?!)

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Our relationship with the SENCO seems to have completely imploded.

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Before starting an IEP I suggest that the class teacher draws up an assessment first. We use the Birmingham Profiles for instance, but there are plenty of them out there. From that assessment there will be plenty of targets to be drawn.

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Hello

I am a teacher in a special needs school.

The curriculum we use is based on a system of P levels. These are broken down further to make small but manageable targets to put on IEPs. I would certainly recommend them as I cannot fault them for the children that I work with.

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In my role as (newish) SEN Governor, I was discussing IEP's with the new SENCO.

 

I found out that they are using the outcome section, to describe the hoped for eventual outcome (eg: he will read more fluently), and no where is it recorded whether the targets were met or not!!

 

Also (probably because of the above), most Teachers are just overwriting the existing IEP, and no copy is kept of the old one!

 

I am a bit shocked that no-one has picked this up before, and that it is not apreciated that these IEP's are evidence of progress or not (although one child has been recently statemented, so not sure what evidence was used for that).

 

I'm off to read the "Managing IEP's" link, and we are going to sort it out over the next few weeks.

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