inclusion officer, suggesting what we have already done

[sawjd]

Hello everyone,

 

K refused to go to school on Thursday and Friday, he thinks the school are trying to trick him into dressing up for an easter play. They were trying to make him act as as tree. (sarcasm= not sure what social interaction you can learn from being a tree but there you have it.)

 

On Thursday i spoke to the inclusion officer explained everything and photocopied all the reports on K for him, he said he would contact the school and get the SENCO to ring. The SENCO did not ring but i know i am not the only parent with a child with learning difficulties, so i let it go and thought she was busy, and she knows of this problem with K anyway and not dressing up. We have had a good chat about trying to talk to him that he does not have to dress up. The SENCO has asked me to explain this to K.

 

Honestly, i have tried to explain to the SENCO that i have done this but to no avail and its better coming from the SENCO and the school teacher who obviously manages such events for the class.

 

I have spoken to the class teacher about this, i have spoken to the SENCO about this. So when i was left a message from the inclusion officer saying obvioulsy K needs to be in school and then they could explain (what about the days he has been in school could they not explain to K then about plays coming up). The inclusion officer suggested K has a card that the school could give him or i could give him to exclude him from dressing up and that he won't get extreme anxiety (clinging to doors) the night before school. He explained that 'could we show him social stories'?. The school suggested social stories in the first place for everything not just about dressing up.

 

Their attitude is' here is one or two books sorry thats all we have, but take these and teach him.Work with him over summer so he does not fall further back than he is. I did this despite what else i manage at home. K needs visual stuff really as they (the school) know about K and not paying attention to books much. It has been a struggle to get him to read and they know this already as he has had to have guided reading for sometime at playtimes so he has had to miss breaks. Another thing i am not happy about but thats another issue to add to the pot. I know we need another IEP meeting and one is coming up after the inclusion officer has assessed him. He has a diagnosis, but i understand they (LEA) need his (inclusion officer) input.

 

Given all of this background info and fair enough the inclusion officer is new but has been in place for about a month or so. I would have expected better from him than the message he left on friday.

 

His suggestion is could i explain to the class teacher about Ks refusal to dress up and mention using the card. Obviously he needs to be in school for them to do this. (like i said what about the other days they could explain to him. Thursdays and Fridays are the worst as they have school assembly and this is when the classes do their pieces of work or acting, for what ever the subject is for that time of year or what project they are working on.

 

My question = Am I doing the work of the inclusion officer ? ,what the hell does he think we have been, doing of course we have told the teachers already about how he refuses to dress up and why he can't do it. I have told the inclusion officer this already, (what a waste of a phone call for him to suggest something that has already been done and obviously not worked) The man is still on first base and we have already gone on ahead and he knows where we are at.

 

What would you do ? Whats the next step, we need this man on board to get help for K but this is not a good start for further help for K. How can we turn this around?

 

Many thanks,

 

Sarni

[Sally44]

I would simply put that in writing to the Inclusion Officer and copy it to the school as well. However this is the type of support and intervention that is going to be suggested. But it should not be the inclusion officer making these suggestions, it should be the SALT and/or EP that have put together a programme that is being carried out by school, with these targets on his IEP. My son has used a 'help' card and a 'wait' card. He has also had other specific targets and now is working on 'giving compliments'. The SALT has taught him this in the sessions and his TA is now working that into his learning experiences in the classroom.