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Edcuational Record

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I have just received a copy of my child's educational record, but I am rather confused as I thought it should contain a lot more than it does. There is no mention at all of my child's SEN, no mention at all of the fact that the LEA provides a TA for him for a few hours a week, no mention of him being on SA+, no IEPs (though I am convinced that school does not do those at all), no records of any notes sent out to teachers explaining his needs (though school keeps saying that all teachers are aware, but I'd like to know exactly what they are aware of), no copies of letters sent to or received from the LEA, and so forth :wallbash: .

 

My question is, what should a child's educational record contain?

 

Does anyone know? Thanks! :notworthy:

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I have just received a copy of my child's educational record, but I am rather confused as I thought it should contain a lot more than it does. There is no mention at all of my child's SEN, no mention at all of the fact that the LEA provides a TA for him for a few hours a week, no mention of him being on SA+, no IEPs (though I am convinced that school does not do those at all), no records of any notes sent out to teachers explaining his needs (though school keeps saying that all teachers are aware, but I'd like to know exactly what they are aware of), no copies of letters sent to or received from the LEA, and so forth :wallbash: .

 

My question is, what should a child's educational record contain?

 

Does anyone know? Thanks! :notworthy:

 

Hello :) It seems from what you say that the school's record keeping is appalling :wallbash:

 

I found this in the SEN Code of Practice :

 

'Record keeping

 

5:24

Schools should record the steps taken to meet the needs of individual children. The

school’s SENCO should have responsibility for ensuring that the records are properly kept

and available as needed. If schools refer a child for a statutory assessment, they should

provide the LEA with a record of their work with the child including the resources or

special arrangements they have already made available. LEAs and schools may wish to

consider the use of an agreed style for IEPs at School Action and School Action Plus.

This may be particularly helpful in ensuring that information effectively transfers between

 

The Education (Pupil Information) Regulations 2000 require schools to provide

full pupil records to the receiving school even if the new school does not lodge a request.

Such records should include all the information held by the SENCO including IEPs.

 

5:25

In addition to the information that all schools will record for all children, the pupil record or

profile for a child with SEN should include information about the child’s progress and

behaviour from the school setting itself, from the child’s early education setting or a

previous school, from the parents, and from health and social services. It should also

include the child’s own perception of any difficulties and how they might be addressed.

It may also be necessary to record in the profile information about the child’s needs in

relation to the general strategies to be used to enable access to the curriculum and

the school day.

 

5:26

The information collected should reveal the different perceptions of those concerned

with the child, any immediate educational concerns and an overall picture of the child’s

strengths and weaknesses.'

 

You can download the code from here

 

I also found the Pupil Information Regulations here, however if you can decipher any of it then I am very impressed :notworthy::lol:

 

Hope that helps >:D<<'>

 

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It occurred to me, why have you received a copy of the records. Did you ask for them, if so what exactly did you ask for.

As it would be necessary to photo copy what was included, it is likely that the person doing the copying only coped what they thought you would require.

I know that when the records where sent on to my sons new school, there was so much paperwork included that some of the important point where at first overlooked, where there but lost in the mounting of paper.

 

You are entitled (at their convenience) to view your child's records, a lot, if not all school will, are entitled to, charge the cost of copying the records, and will edit out anything that includes a third person.(another child)

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I picked up on two things you mentioned in your post.

 

Regarding IEPs, are you going to those meetings? You should be invited to attend them, and you can also take someone from the Parent Partnership along with you to ensure that the targets the school sets are SMART (that means specific, measureable, achieveable, relevent and time specific). The Parent Partnership can be contacted via your local authority. Although the LEA does pay their wages they are there to support parents. They should also be able to give you some advice about the questions you are asking regarding school records.

IEPs should record when targets are or are not met. You can also look in the CoP about progress and what is considered progress. Targets do not just have to be academic ones.

 

The other thing I only found out about via IPSEA is that letters sent into school by parents regarding concerns they have etc are not automatically put onto the child's file - but if the parent requests it is put on file it will be. Any letters that a parent writes to the Head of SEN at the LEA is automatically put on the child's file.

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Thank you for your responses!

 

That quote for the SEN Code of Practice is very useful, now why did I not think to look in there...

 

I requested a copy of my son's records as his needs are not met at school at all and I have given the school an ultimatum. I am about to get the LEA involved and I wanted to know what the school has done/has not done so far, to prove that my concerns are valid. And by the state of the records, they now seem more valid than ever before...

 

My son has been on SA+ for about 4 years now, he has been at College for a year and a term, and despite having requested NUMEROUS times, I still have not had ANY meetings with the SENCO... I have only been sent an IEP recently, but only in response to my letters and threats, and the IEP is so **** that there aren't holes but craters in it... but this is only more ammunition to show the LEA, who have been paying for a TA for him for some years now even though he isn't GETTING any real TA support from College. And none of this is documented in his Records.

 

I am hoping that the LEA is not going to be any too pleased about this, and will get involved and put matters to rights. But then, I might be dreaming here... However, the fact that they provided for a full time, one to one, TA for him for the whole of year 6, on SA+ and not a statement, shows that they do care when given the facts (by me!).

 

I just wanted to make sure that my feeling that all info relating his SA+ should be in his file, and any records of involving outside agencies also. The problem this day and age I guess is that emails are not documented in the same way, so a conversation via email to a 'specialist' may not be in it - or should they still be?

 

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Regarding IEPs, are you going to those meetings? You should be invited to attend them

College is not doing very well with IEPs. My middle son has a statement but I have never ever been invited to creating his IEP, and the only time I ever get to see one is during his annual review. I've always had the feeling that they have always only been created because they have to, they have never done any of the things mentioned on them. But as he is doing so well now, I have never brought this up, preferring to fight my battles where it counts...

 

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you should be going to IEPs, and as mentioned you can ask someone from the Parent Partnership to come along with you. What age is the child you are concerned about as you mention college?

IEPs do not just have to have academic targets. So if he is doing well academically why was he on SA+? Those reasons, and others they may not even have identified, can be the targets on the IEP. So if he has alot of difficulty with organising himself, or needs support in class because of other difficulties, those can still be turned into targets. If he has any social interaction difficulties, these again can be made into targets.

The fact that the LEA were willing to supply a TA for one to one throughout the day in year 6 makes me wonder whether they offered this as a way of stopping you going down the Statementing route.

But when you have a tight statement you are more able to monitor that it is happening. For example my son gets weekly sessions with a SALT in school. She sends me her appointments termly in advance, and we meet in school about once a month. She puts together the programme, which his TA has to observe every week, and the TA delivers it on a daily basis. The SALT recently verbally requested if she could come into school once a fortnight because the travelling was taking up alot of her time. So I sent her a letter asking her to put in writing her request and to state why she was making that request and asked her to specify how she would fulfill the requirements of the Statement as I felt he would not be able to attend for a fortnightly session of 1 hour (she had told me verbally that the session did not have to be that long - but actually it does, that is the whole point of the Statement, she has to do what it says). So I recently received a letter saying that my son had been dropped from her caseload. So the head of the SALT dept is going to take over until another SALT is found that can fulfill the Statement. My point is, that the request was obviously not for the benefit of my son, but for the benefit of the SALT and the SALT department. The CoP clearly states that any changes are to be for the benefit of the child and not the benefit of the system.

 

Maybe requesting an assessment towards a Statement might be a move to consider. You can write to the Head of the SEN stating your concerns about supports and needs not being fulfilled in school. That letter should be put on his school file. If you request an assessment the LEA has to consider whether to agree to that. They may refuse, but that gives you the right of appeal. If they agree then their professionals have to assess your son and complete reports. Again at that stage the LEA will consider the evidence and may decide not to issue a Statement - in which case you can appeal to Tribunal again. Or the LEA may agree to draw up a Statement. If that happens use the NAS or IPSEA to help you ensure that it is a tight statement. If the LEA do not agree to your requests you can again go to appeal to Tribunal over that.

 

I have already mentioned to you about special ASD schools that can do assessments. I have also mentioned BIBIC. Whether you decide to get the college to supply the supports your child needs (do you have anything in writing about what supports the school should be providing?) - or whether you decide to try for a Statement - any written evidence you can get about your childs strengths and weaknesses and the kinds of supports they would need and who should supply them is going to be useful.

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Hi.

I wonder if you have been given different documentation to the information you were looking for.

On a previous thread there was a detailed debate about the confidentiality of specific SEN information.I think the thread was ''Who should read a child's Statement'' and was with regard to whether all staff should have detailed knowledge of the Statement.

SEN information which would include most things other than the IEP should be kept separate from other records.

Only those professionals with specific authorisation should have access to the information .

This is to protect confidentiality.

So if you asked for the educational record then you might well not have been given any documentation with regard to SEN.

General school records would most likely include reports,abscence and other general information.

Edited as I found the thread I was thinking of and it might be useful.

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=22714

Karen.

 

Edited by Karen A

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