missing lunchtime because of work

[sawjd]

Hello everyone,

 

 

Hope everyone is alright and that the half term was good.

 

Please can anyone help as i think i have posted a question before but can't find what the repsonse was.

 

Our k has on occasions been missing lunch as he is taking too long to finish his litracy lessons. They (teachers)know about k and his struggle with litracy. I have twice before mentioned to them that he does on occasion say he has missed out on his sitting at lunctime and therefore not eaten anything. All we get back from the teachers is that all children eat at lunch time and do not go without food. This is happening on quite a few occasions. Has anyone been able to get round this, can anyone offer advice on this as it just seems unfair, we are going to go for a statement now we have a report sent to us from GOSH (hospital) recommending k have a statement.

 

Has anyone come across this problem and how can we resolve this issue. It was a bit of an issue with the last school aswell but how can i prove this is going on as they imply he is making it up, our k tells us what days he has had lunch and tells us when we specifically ask him what has he eaten, on some occasions he says nothing. We try and catch him out by saying what did the other children eat but k says he doesn't know so we know for sure that he is telling the truth.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Many thanks,

 

Best wishes

 

sarni.

[chris54]

Dont realy know what to say, there is noway that he should be missing his lunch to catch up on work. AlL I could say is ask the school if someone can make sure that he gets his lunch each day as he says he is missing it.

[Karen A]

Hi.

I think if you are going for a Statement then the easiest course of action might be to push on with that.Include difficulties with literacy and how that leads to your child missing lunch on occasions in your evidence.

 

I have Ben who is 12 and has AS.He has a Statement.Even the Statement has not prevented some teachers failing to appreciate his needs.However at least with clear documentation we have evidence to support our requests that he is supported more appropriately.

 

We have a friend who's son has a broken leg.He is just about walking on crutches and is attempting to get round a school on mutiple floors.He had been advised by the Year Head to avoid crowds on the stairs but still got into trouble for being late for one of the lessons.It shows that even with obvious evidence some teachers are more aware than others.

 

Karen.

[madsadie]

I agree with Karen, push on with the Statement- It's good you've got backing from GOSH.

Your son should not be missing any break to finish work, unless he's willingly misbehaved. If he has a problem with literacy he should be receiving help for that, not missing lunch.

 

Are you sure he's missing lunch because of having to work or is it that there is a problem with eating lunch? My son (in yr 9) is now not eating his packed lunch at school, I suspect because of anxiety, but how do I prove it? I could take photos of his uneaten/drunk lunch when it comes home, but I could be making it up. I don't question him about it now, he never tells me why, and I don't want to pressurize him - he could end up just throwing it away and then I'll never know.

 

My son also has do to lessons sometimes at lunch time so that the teacher can give him attention, but I still feel this is wrong -he should be having his needs met in lesson time (and have said so...waiting for reply from school.)

 

Hope you manage to sort things out.

[Sally44]

A good Autism Advisory Teacher would probably say that a child with an ASD is going to be working at a harder level (just to function and process) than other students, even when performing at a lower level.

Often it is recommended that the child has additional breaks to reduce fatigue and distractability or sensory overload. So for the child to be losing part of the daily breaktime is going to add to the difficulties, not reduce them.

School are obviously using this as a way of attempting to give the child a chance of catching up or keeping up.

It might be useful to speak with the AAT to get their view on this. It maybe better to get 1:1 adult support or specialist teaching included in the Statement. But you may also have to face the fact that reduced practice, repetition will cause the gap between them and their peers to widen. There has to be a balance between the child making progress and also keeping their sanity in school.

I would tell school what he is saying to you, or the fact that his lunch is not eaten.

I presume that you could specifically state that you do not want your child to lose breaktime/dinnertime due to extra work. But you also need to consider the unstructured breaktime issue, and whether being turned out onto the playground with no support might be more stressful than sitting inside and practising writing. It shouldn't be either, but it does take a while (even with a Statement) to get the correct level of provision quantified and provided.

[Grace]

Could you start sending in a packed lunch, so you can see for yourself if he has eaten it or not?

 

Or could you say you are concerned about him not eating (don't say not getting the chance) and therefore could a dinner lady please sign a little notebook every lunchtime to confirm he has eaten? I was not a good eater when I was young and they got the dinner ladies watching me and reporting back to my mum! That way again you can either be reassured or have evidence he is not getting the chance to eat/x

[Karen A]

Sorry to ask but how old is k ?

The reason I ask is that it makes a big difference regarding what to expect regarding monitoring at lunch time and the level of support usually available. Also it would not usually be considered reasonable to expect children in the foundation stage to stay in at lunch time.By KS2 it is not ideal but is less of a concern.

Karen.