Bullying

[Allansmum]

My son has been saying for a few weeks now that he doesnt like B and M because there horrible to him. Thurday when I picked him up he said they had hit and kicked him. I asked the stand in teacher if she was aware of it, she said no. Friday morning told his teacher, told her i'd told stand in and that she wasnt aware of it, she said she'd sort it out. Picked him up, and was told my son had said he'd told stand in teacher. So nothing was done. Once home from school my son told me that M had pushed and kicked him again that day. When getting ready for his bath, i noticed that his thigh covered in bruises,he says thats were he was pushed and kicked.

Spoke to head this morning, and he phoned a little while ago to tell me that he's arranged for someone to shadow him in the playground for a week. B admitted hurting my son and has lost playtime.

 

Anyway what I'm wondering about is his statement. In light of these two incidents can I complain about provision not being provided. Or is the wording to vague?

The statement objective is

monitor his safety and welfare, meeting his needs in activities of daily living and developing his independence in self help skills

 

Provision

Close adult supervision and support to monitor his safety and welfare and meet his needs in activities of daily living, building his independence as he matures through an appropriate skills development programme.

 

He has 25 hours per week of learning assistant support. Which can be delivered on an individual basic, within small group or as in class support, available to A as required.

 

The incident friday was in class, thursday playground.

 

Agreed action today is an I'm hurt card.( A has severe speech communication difficulties. He was nonverbal till a year ago, and very poor understanding ) Plus someone will be shadowing him on playground this week.

[Kathryn]

I would think the wording is too vague to challenge them on not providing the statemented provision as it is set out at the moment. "Close adult supervision and "support ....available as required" are open to interpretation. At your next annual review though, you may want to ask for lunchtime and breaktime support to be specifically written into the statement so continue to keep a record of anything that happens during these times as evidence that the support is needed.

 

Whether or not it's covered in the statement, all schools have a duty of care to all pupils which involves keeping them safe from bullying and harm. Check your school's anti bullying policy to see what they ought to be doing to prevent it happening, punish the perpetrators and help your child feel confident and safe.

 

Write to the head to summarise what the school have agreed to do following your conversation. Ask for a meeting in a couple of weeks time with the head and maybe class teacher and/or senco to review how things are going.

 

What happened here sounds like a bit of a breakdown in communication between the supply teacher and class teacher. It sounds as though the school are taking action now, so give them a chance to sort it out, I would, and then complain and ask for further action if it doesn't work.

 

Always a good idea to set things out in writing - say what's happened, the effect on your child and what you would like the school to do about it. Then everyone knows where they stand.

 

Hope things improve for your son

 

K x

[Sally44]

I agree with Kathryn.

What kind of school does your son currently attend?

 

As he was non-verbal until recently I think using visual cards will be useful. But the difficulty is whether he is going to be emotionally able to use them at the very time he needs to. When upset he may not to be able to do or say anything. So, yes, he could have a clip on his trousers (as my son did) with a couple of picture cards that he needs eg. 'toilet' 'help' 'hurt' 'happy' etc. What you need in addition is for someone to be proactive and check he is okay.

In my son's school they use the thumbs sign. So they often check with him by shouting his name and using the thump up, horizontal or down to ask the question "how are you, good, okay or bad". Yiannis can give the appropriate thumb response. So if he has given a 'bad' thumbs down response the TA can ask "has something upset you."

The benefit of this is that if a TA or Teacher is always asking "has someone hurt you" etc that is not good and puts ideas into their heads that can scare them. But expecting a child with an ASD who was practically non verbal to approach an adult and give an account of an incident is unrealistic. So maybe a "thumbs" type of signal might work and is something that can be used in all contexts. He maybe more able to use that symbol.

The other thing to consider is whether he needs dinner time clubs, or circle of friends, mentoring etc. And that would depend greatly on what he does during breaktimes.

I had those types of supports included in my son's statement because left to his own devices he would walk up and down the fence line repeating DVD dialogue to himself. With structured activities and support he joined in.