Annual review - who should submit reports? No report from class teacher and she isn't coming to AR

[Athena]

Who should normally submit reports for an Annual Review?

The reason I am asking is that DDs class teacher has not submitted a report for her annual review and has told me that she may not come to the meeting either, if there is no one to cover her class.

Is this normal? Surely, she has had enough notice to arrange class room cover, if she wanted to attend the meeting.

I really don't think its very good practice to be honest, but it doesn't surprise me as this particular teacher has very little contact with DD and leaves it all up to her 1:1 TAs!

[Sally44]

Just typed a huge reply and then lost it!!! arrrggghhh.

 

Anyway.

 

Months before the AR you need to ask the school who they are inviting to attend. Send them a letter confirming what they have told you. If you wish anyone else to attend ask the school to invite them and give your reasons. If you think the Statement needs amending to include anything additional or to increase therapy etc then ask the school to invite the Inclusion Officer as it is ONLY them that sanction any amendments or veto them.

 

Write to each and every professional and ask them to submit an updated report using STANDARDISED ASSESSMENTS, as only those assessments, compared to previous standardised assessments, can give a true reflection of any progress or lack of it.

 

Ask each professional to send you their reports two weeks before the AR so that you will have time to look through them.

 

Now I am not promising that they will do all that. But if you end up at tribunal again, you have your evidence that you asked them to do these things and they did not.

 

Remember that lack of progress, loss of skills, is what triggers additional support, or therapy or a different placement. And YOU need to ensure you get that information as much as is possible, by overseeing and managing the process.

 

Have you looked at the SEN Code of Practice at the section for Annual Reviews.

 

The whole point of the AR is for those there to determine if the Statement is valid and is a true reflection of need. It is a time to demonstrate to you in writing what progress your child has made.

 

I don't think the teacher necessarily MUST attend. But you could ask that they do, and ask if the class could be covered for the duration of the AR. If they are not going to attend you need to know HOW they are going to demonstrate to you your child's progress. What assessments have they carried out. You would be expecting that these would be coming via assessments especially for the AR, but also via SALT or OT targets and IEP targets. Are these being met. We found that SALT targets were met in 1:1 therapy with the SALT, but not generalised into the classroom or other environments. And that the SALT would then set new targets - so skills were never being generalised and therefore progress was not being seen out of the 1:1 discreet sessions. However the fact that he met those targets in those sessions meant that he could learn them. So that meant we had the evidence to be seeking additional therapy - group therapy with similar peers - specific specialist input etc that led us back to tribunal for an independent placement. However his previous placement had completely broken down by then.

 

Who is going to attend the AR? And are they submitting up to date reports? It is reasonable that standardised assessments carried out previously are updated once a year to measure progress. Otherwise what is the point of doing them? From the NHS SALT's assessments we could see where my son had improved, where he remained the same, and where the gap had widened. We could argue again that he had made some improvement on some of the areas assessed and worked on. However 'no change' means 'no progress', and the gap widening means that the child is falling further behind and 'remediation' is needed which can take many forms such as additional therapy, smaller group teaching, group therapy, specific specialist input such as a dyslexia teacher, or a different placement.

 

Interestingly, what I found was that the NHS SALT did not assess specific areas that she knew he would do very poorly in - this was specifically in formulated sentences, which is the ability to form a sentence around a specific word. My son scored 2 where 3 is classed as severe. And this ability is directly related to how a child learns in the classroom and records that learning by writing on specific topics etc. The SALT knew this, because when I asked her about it that is how she explained it to me! When I asked her why she had not carried out this specific sub-test before, she said she already knew he had difficulties in that area from his results in other sub-tests. But I knew it was specifically about NOT identifying severe needs which proved he was not mainstream material.

[Athena]

Hi Sally, thank you very much for your detailed reply (sorry that you had to type it out twice too) I wish that I had asked earlier as the AR is this week. We have all the reports in from SALT, OT and Ed Psych. SALT has said that DDs progress is so slow that its not worth running ab assessments again this year (some CELF tests were carried out last year) Ed Psych has carried out some WISC IV tests, but not a full assessment.

 

DD is currently in mainstream, but we are going to be asking for a SS at the AR, as the most appropriate placement for her. She spends so much time outside the main classroom with her 1:1 support, that we consider she would be better integrated in a SS classroom.

I have really left the organisation of the AR up to the school, in terms of who has been invited to attend.

[Sally44]

Has the SALT put that in writing to you? Ie. that her progress is so slow that she does not think a re-assessment is worth doing!

 

If you are going to ask for a SS, I would recommend that you bring that up at the AR and ask for those changes to be made. See what the SALT input is at that SS. Has your daughter made progress in any areas worked on by the SALT, and has that been 1:1 with the SALT or was it delivered by a TA?

 

Lack of progress is what triggers more therapy, input, support, different placement. Your SALT has admitted that that is the case. Get it in writing. If she hasn't put it in writing, send her a letter saying "further to our conversation I am just writing to clarify a few things. You informed us that you were not going to carry out any further standardised assessments as our daughters progress was so slow that it was not worth doing. However we feel that those assessments are needed to demonstrate where progress is being made, and how much progress otherwise we cannot determine which approaches and what level of therapy will produce results."

 

If you do think it would be useful to get an independent SALT report, you know to get that WHEN you have lodged an appeal with SEND - start looking for who you would want to use - but get the report so that you submit it just inside the timescale for final submissions. You will probably have to get an independent SALT as part of your argument for the SS placement, or for the SALT input to be increased. Don't get it done sooner because it just gives the LA time to re-assess

[Sally44]

Get a copy of her daily timetable from school so that you can see exactly where she is for each lesson. Ask the school to detail whether she takes those lessons with the whole class, or whether she is removed for 1:1 or group work with the TA.

 

Is she writing independently? Have you seen any of her school books? Has she met IEP targets or SALT/OT targets. What are her academic levels and how do those look compared with last year and compared with her mainstream peers. How is she coping herself. Is she anxious. Is she self aware. Does she call herself stupid or rubbish. Does she comment on the fact that she is removed from lessons and how she feels about that. Does she have friends in school. What is her social communication and play skills like [remember progress is supposed to be in ALL areas, not just academic, so social, emotional, sensory, physical etc.]

 

And remember that you can appeal to SEND if the LA do not amend, and also if they do amend. And you can appeal about any part of the Statement - it does not just have to be about an amendment or lack of amendment. It can include anything in part 2, 3 or 4.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Sally44