Year 10 review of SEN

[joybed]

Hi all as some of you will remember Marcus whos is 14 and in year 10 has had numerous problems in his mainstream comprehensive school. This was really bad in year 8 when we had a period of home ed/ flexi schooling, severe anxiety, self harm etc etc. He has recently been coping Ok at school, he has 25 hours support, a taxi to and from school and is ticking along. This is the problem he is just OK, he still has social difficulties with the other pupils, general teasing, name calling saying they are going to call the house and speak to me saying he has been bad at school etc. Marcus is a very private person and likes to keep school and home very seperate he rarely tells me what happens and if he does it is usually after he has built himself into such a frenzy I have difficulty extracting any rationale snippets that could help him or me. From what the teachers reports say about him he is just achieving in subjects but in others he is being very diruptive, not achieving anything and they are using the nintendo Wii as a form of bribery (you do 30 minutes gym work and we will let you play on the Wii for 30 minutes). He has had a meeting with the connexions people (what planet are they on) and they have discussed future careers he apparently said he wanted to design or try out computer games connexions have said this is a much sought after position and maybe he should consider being an IT trainer, he has no social ability, cannot answer the telephone appropriately, and does everything on his terms. In his last review he had said to connexions he wanted to be a racing driver and her and the SENCO were laughing saying well everyone should have a dream he is also severely dyspraxic and has no road safety awareness. When I pointed this out i was told I was being negative and it was all too far in the future to worry about it now.

When we had all the problems in year 8 I found him a lovely school for communication disorders who were happy to take him but the LEA said he was too bright, now his predicted GCSE results are ranging from a C (in IT) to a G in most other subjects. I am not too upset by this as he I don,t think he could cope socially in a work environment anyway. He is very bound by routine, tries to manipulate others to allowing him to have his own way, refuses to join in with any family events and makes no allowance for others needs. Yes I understand this is his condition but i don,t think school do. He is also still very destructive has no ability to rationalize his actions and no awareness of consequences or danger. The other day he tried to encouraged his brother (also ASD) to ride a tonker truck down the stairs and thought this was funny thank god I overheard what was happening. He doesn,t want to go to further education, I doubt in the current climate he will find a job and I work so cannot be here all the time I wouldn,t dare leave him alone for more han a few minutes as he would probably flood the house or burn it down he has already tried to flood the house on numerous occasions not to mention ripping up carpets, scratching windows glass, breaking his siblings and his own things. What does the future hold. School are happy with him as he doesn,t cause them a problem, he now happily goes to school with his taxi driver and no longer makes a fuss so on the surface everything rosy. He is 15 next month so running out of time. Any advice. I have written all my concerns o the school and I am about to speak to the ASD team now. What can i reasoanbly ask for. I am sorry if this sounds very negative I love my son very much but he isn,t the easiest child to live with and at times even my patience wears very thin. Very worried about this meeting and DH can,t go with me.

[JsMum]

Did the school for communication disorder think your son was too bright?

 

My son attended a school for able ADHD/ASD boys and many are Bright, intelligent ect..proving that special schools are not just for low IQ, They can be fore intelligent children too, but have significant impairments in other parts of thier development.

 

Does the communication disorder cater for Able Aspergers Syndrome, where they have potential for taking GCSEs?

 

JsMum

[Sally44]

For all the reasons you describe, that is why an independent ASD only school that goes up to age 19 and which will teach the social skils and life skills that he needs is where he needs to be.

And I think from being on this forum you know what that will entail in trying to get him into such a place.

Others might have suggestions about SEN colleges that he could attend and where he might get the support and teaching his needs.

 

Education is not just about taking and passing exams (although that is hugely relevant and the wrong placement can cause a child to perform very badly in exams). Education is about preparing a child for adult life and independent living and working.

 

I really do feel for you, because your child is right on the border isn't he. Capable, but not quite enough yet. There are some employers, such as Remploy, that maybe able to take him on. But as most of our children are also delayed, keeping him in education for the additonal life skills and social skills maybe essential.

 

You may need to get independent reports to prove that, and expert witnesses to visit his current school and the one you think could meet his needs. This will cost you money, obviously.

 

What do the school and professionals involved think about the other school and about his current abilities, both academic, social, emotional, behavioural etc. Would they support a move?

[Suze]

Hi joybed, our boys are a similar age , mine is in yr 11 but was only 15 in aug.The yr 10 review is pretty important, are connexions coming??.......you really really need some idea of post 16 provision and what you would want for your son in this regard.To me he sounds like his needs are quite complex and independent skills and social skills should have more of a focus for him post 16, if poss you need to keep him in some sort of educational setting as this maybe the only way for you to access any help.I would get as many proffessionals as possible (who have had any contact with him )and an LA rep to attend the review, good luck we have ours next wk it,ll be our last before college ....very scary thought, suzexx

[bid]

There are actually Special Needs Connexions advisors...we had two absolutely brilliant ones with my DS. It might be more helpful to see a specialist Connexions advisor rather than the mainstream one.

 

Bid

[Sally44]

I just wanted to say again that 'being too bright' is not a reason for refusing a school.

If you have a copy of the SEN Code of Practice it clearly states the different areas of SEN. These are academic (cognitive), social and communication, emotional and behavioural, sensory and physical difficulties.

Even though he is scraping through he may do better in an appropriate setting. As he has a diagnosis he must have speech and language and social communication difficulties (which you have highlighted), and which appear not to be being addressed currently. He also has emotional and behavioural issues (being controlling and rigid). He has dyspraxia and possibly sensory difficulties as well.

 

What you would need is for an Educational Psychologist to say that his current school was inappropriate, and to visit your preferred communication school and say that that could meet all his needs. They must have a place available and offer it to you in writing and you must send that in as part of your appeal.

 

As already said, you would need all independent reports (unless any within the LEA/NHS would support such a move). And you would probably need then to attend tribunal as witnesses and would also probably need legal representation, unless you could get support from IPSEA or the NAS.

 

I would speak with both IPSEA and the NAS to get their advice on this.

 

Does he have any input from a Speech Therapist for his speech and language and social communication skills?

[joybed]

Meeting went well on Friday. School have said that academically they have no concerns but have finally agreed thay cannot meet his social needs. They agreed when I said that mainstream couldn,t meet his social and self care needs and said they cannot imagine him in mainstream college. Connexions also said i need to be looking into future long term care for him as an adult as they can anticipate huge problems in early adult life. Part of me is relieved they have finally admitted this but the other part is angry it has taken this long. It has been obvious to me he needs more structured social teaching for the past 3 years why have they continued to fight me. How can they suddenly go from saying he is brilliant and coping to needing long term support as an adult? .

We have agreed he will continue with year 11 at his current school on the level of support (or maybe a slight increase) he has at the moment. However they are looking into specialist ASD colleges for year 12 and 13. I have an appointment to look around the local deaf college which has a large number of ASD students and offers a good support package on Wednesday and connexions are looking into the school I wanted him to go to in year 8. Fairly positive meeting but just waiting to see what will happen as he needs to have an assessement by the local mainstream college to see if they can meet his needs, if they cannot then the LEA will agree funding for special college. This won,t happen until next autumn. Have a further review meeting in June to discuss it all again arrange appointments etc. My worry is that Marcus will go for the assessment appear as if he would cope and they say he is able. Marcus tends to say he is OK and not tell the truth at these kinds of things, not his fault he just gets really stressed and wants it over so he tells them what he thinks they want to hear to get it over with. Hopefully my views will be taken into consideration. Thanks for your wonderful advice again. Will keep you posted on the outcome. I will continue to fight for him as i have for the last 10 years and with all the help on her we will succeed thankyou again.

[Sally44]

Meeting went well on Friday. School have said that academically they have no concerns but have finally agreed thay cannot meet his social needs. They agreed when I said that mainstream couldn,t meet his social and self care needs and said they cannot imagine him in mainstream college. Connexions also said i need to be looking into future long term care for him as an adult as they can anticipate huge problems in early adult life. Part of me is relieved they have finally admitted this but the other part is angry it has taken this long. It has been obvious to me he needs more structured social teaching for the past 3 years why have they continued to fight me. How can they suddenly go from saying he is brilliant and coping to needing long term support as an adult? .

We have agreed he will continue with year 11 at his current school on the level of support (or maybe a slight increase) he has at the moment. However they are looking into specialist ASD colleges for year 12 and 13. I have an appointment to look around the local deaf college which has a large number of ASD students and offers a good support package on Wednesday and connexions are looking into the school I wanted him to go to in year 8. Fairly positive meeting but just waiting to see what will happen as he needs to have an assessement by the local mainstream college to see if they can meet his needs, if they cannot then the LEA will agree funding for special college. This won,t happen until next autumn. Have a further review meeting in June to discuss it all again arrange appointments etc. My worry is that Marcus will go for the assessment appear as if he would cope and they say he is able. Marcus tends to say he is OK and not tell the truth at these kinds of things, not his fault he just gets really stressed and wants it over so he tells them what he thinks they want to hear to get it over with. Hopefully my views will be taken into consideration. Thanks for your wonderful advice again. Will keep you posted on the outcome. I will continue to fight for him as i have for the last 10 years and with all the help on her we will succeed thankyou again.

 

 

I really feel for you. The same is happening to me. It takes years for people to eventually agree and admit that issues raised years ago as concerns were actually true. And like you, I feel that the whole process has just been an exercise in trying to do as little as possible for as long as possible.

BUT you have to detach these emotions and get back into how the system works. They have now admitted he has serious social and life skill needs. How will this be achieved, and more importantly WHERE?

Is it worth seeking an ASD specialist placement? Have you visited any? I know that they tend to do alot of work with life skills and independent skills. You need a placement where the other pupils are academically at around the same level.

And these schools tend to go up to age 19, and from there he may move to further education or training. If he does not currently have the social or life skills to move into a further education setting, then there is no point accepting that at this stage. He needs the professional input to improve his skills to a level that he would have any chance of success at further education.

If the professionals and system are not going to equip our children for independent work and living, then I feel the whole process is just like a babysitting service during school hours.

Go and visit every suggested placement and ask them how many ASD students they have. What professional input they have access to. What life skills and social skills they have as part of the daily curriculum. What accreditation they can achieve etc.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Sally44