Sally44 Report post Posted October 21, 2010 I am putting together my Case Statement for Appeal. I want to say that my sons low academic achievement is stated as an accepted fact. That the gap between him and his peers is expected to continue to widen over the next few years and that there is a low expectation and no remediation. I believe there is a government document (Every Child Matters?), which states that low academic attainment is not to be expected and accepted. Can anyone give me the link to it? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zeldasmum Report post Posted October 21, 2010 Hya I dont have Word on my comp so cant search the Every Child Matters Paper. http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/tackling-low-achievement-children-with-sen-2539 this has a breakdown of the outcomes of research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation into low achievement + SEN here is the actual paper Tackling low educational achievement ... 22 June 2007. Tackling low educational achievement. Robert Cassen and Geeta Kingdon. 22 June 2007. ... Factors associated with low achievement. ... www.jrf.org.uk/publications/tackling-low-educational-achievement Hope this is useful Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluesbreaker Report post Posted October 21, 2010 this may be what you need, Im not entirely sure... every child matters.pdf Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cat Report post Posted October 21, 2010 this may be what you need, Im not entirely sure... every child matters.pdf Brian Lamb said that low expectations of achievement should not be accepted for young people with SEN when he wrote his report last year. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/lambinquiry/downloads/8623-DCSF-Lamb%20Implementation%20Plan.pdf Chapter One page 9 A Clear Focus on outcomes. 1.1 The Lamb Inquiry is clear: parents are most confident that the needs of their child are being met when they can see that the aspirations for their child are high and there is a real focus on progress, an independent life and employment in adulthood. The Government shares this view and our Implementation Plan shows how we will make this happen. Brian Lamb told us that in addition to high aspirations and a focus on outcomes, parents wanted someone who understands the needs of their child: we will help schools develop skills and capacity within their workforce to provide this. Parents will also be better able to access specialist expertise. Not sure how much of this the new government are going to stick with this. I was at a meeting where Sarah Tether was talking about the SEN Green Paper and was asking what we felt needed to be included in the paper. http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/informationforprofessionals/a0064379/sen-and-disability-green-paper-government-calls-for-views It's all change at the moment it would appear. Cat Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coolblue Report post Posted October 21, 2010 Every child matters is a policy, rather than a piece of legislation or set out in a specific document - so there are loads of documents that refer to it. I don't think any of them are definitive. As Cat points out, there's not much point referring to anything produced by the previous government as it's all up in the air at the moment. cb Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Athena Report post Posted October 21, 2010 Have a look at Breaking the link between special educational needs and low attainment It was published in March 2010, but is on a page updated 23 August 2010. Also try "Googling" Sarah Teather, the Minister for Children and Families for useful up-to-date quotes. HTH Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sally44 Report post Posted October 22, 2010 Thanks everyone. Thats given me plenty of things to look at. Although this is a new government and things can change, I still think that if there is a government view that it can help a parents case if they remind the LEA of it. There are party politics, but there is also common ground, especially in the overall aims and goals. I doubt any government would say they did not want children with SEN to be aiming for independent living and working for example. I'm pretty sure that the major reason my son was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia was because the Jim Rose report said that children should be diagnosed and that there should be sound reasons why an independent report was ignored or refuted and I said that in my letter. My LEA were saying that the EP did not need to see him because school did not have concerns because all his needs were already being met. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
call me jaded Report post Posted October 22, 2010 The OFSTED review of SEN was published in September 2010 and there's a fair few quotes in the press release about expectations being too low. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sally44 Report post Posted October 22, 2010 What I think is very crucial is that "expected progress" is supposed to be measured against previous progress. If a child has not made good progress because of the learning environment, teaching approaches, sensory issues, or SpLD then their 'expected progress' will be inaccurately based on poor progress due to the inappropriate teaching environment or approaches. That can easily turn into a vicious circle and self fulfilling prophesy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kazzen161 Report post Posted October 22, 2010 Try: Progression Guidance http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/190123 and Comparison and Analysis of Special Pupil Attainment http://www.sgasystems.co.uk/caspa/features/keyfeatures.htm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
call me jaded Report post Posted October 22, 2010 What I think is very crucial is that "expected progress" is supposed to be measured against previous progress. If a child has not made good progress because of the learning environment, teaching approaches, sensory issues, or SpLD then their 'expected progress' will be inaccurately based on poor progress due to the inappropriate teaching environment or approaches. That can easily turn into a vicious circle and self fulfilling prophesy. That's it in a nutshell! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluesbreaker Report post Posted October 22, 2010 Thing is I was subjected to being Over Estimated with my progressparticularly at my years at Leicester worst Comprehensive.... thing was i have had this for years and my parents have had to fight over it and in recent years so the past 6 years of education, i have took a stand and told the staff they are wrong about me. The initial thing i used to get was 'he's intelligent he doesn't need any help' ***enter QI's obvious answer siren*** how wrong they were! It's silly overlooked basic facts about ASD and autism that causes Some problems within education and i have found this stems from inadequate training, not many teaching staff fully understand how to deal with your 'average' autistic/asperger's student in mainstream education. another one i have found is the teaching styles, which has been mentioned. I can give a fine example of what happened in my music and Maths lessons at GCSE level. the teachers kept saying to me and my parents that there was a lack of progress and understanding which normally meant me and the music teacher getting the grump with each other and being at loggerheads, in turn we told the SENCo about the situation, she did a marvellous job of things and spoke to ALL of my teachers, and the odd one or two went on a training course. What i then noticed was the teaching style had changed, i understood the work in a better way and i found how they organised and structured the tasks suited how i work, however, they implemented this for the whole class, and even though i don't have access to figures, the new teaching style meant that ALL the 'normal' kids were fulfilling their potential too. thought it might be of interest to you Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
call me jaded Report post Posted October 22, 2010 What i then noticed was the teaching style had changed, i understood the work in a better way and i found how they organised and structured the tasks suited how i work, however, they implemented this for the whole class, and even though i don't have access to figures, the new teaching style meant that ALL the 'normal' kids were fulfilling their potential too.thought it might be of interest to you My LA is doing some research that is showing exactly this - the headteachers in the cluster group can't get enough of it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluesbreaker Report post Posted October 22, 2010 My LA is doing some research that is showing exactly this - the headteachers in the cluster group can't get enough of it. which is good because 1) we will have some facts and figures as proof 2) we can then hope that other LEA's follow suit and implement this to other schools 3) we, as ASD's or ASD's parents, can use these facts and figures to say look, the teaching style here isn't working but if we look at a recommended style for ASD's etc, as illustrated in XYZ then we can see it benefits all pupils, etc. All in all, it's a win-win! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sally44 Report post Posted October 23, 2010 Thing is I was subjected to being Over Estimated with my progressparticularly at my years at Leicester worst Comprehensive.... thing was i have had this for years and my parents have had to fight over it and in recent years so the past 6 years of education, i have took a stand and told the staff they are wrong about me. The initial thing i used to get was 'he's intelligent he doesn't need any help' ***enter QI's obvious answer siren*** how wrong they were! It's silly overlooked basic facts about ASD and autism that causes Some problems within education and i have found this stems from inadequate training, not many teaching staff fully understand how to deal with your 'average' autistic/asperger's student in mainstream education. another one i have found is the teaching styles, which has been mentioned. I can give a fine example of what happened in my music and Maths lessons at GCSE level. the teachers kept saying to me and my parents that there was a lack of progress and understanding which normally meant me and the music teacher getting the grump with each other and being at loggerheads, in turn we told the SENCo about the situation, she did a marvellous job of things and spoke to ALL of my teachers, and the odd one or two went on a training course. What i then noticed was the teaching style had changed, i understood the work in a better way and i found how they organised and structured the tasks suited how i work, however, they implemented this for the whole class, and even though i don't have access to figures, the new teaching style meant that ALL the 'normal' kids were fulfilling their potential too. thought it might be of interest to you Yes I understand what you are saying. My son has been assessed as high average cognitive ability. But that does not transfer into the classroom situation. There are so many different barriers he has to overcome to even receive, process and understand the information to enable him to demonstrate learning. Often he falls at one of the hurdles. I agree that many ASD approaches are beneficial to the learning of all children. But they are just not ones that are usually used in mainstream schools. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites