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lilbec

Misled about school placement

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Some advice please. My son was finally diagnosed a year ago with Asperger's and 2 years prior to that with dyslexia. It has been a long hard road but with being very organized and pushy we managed to get a Statement ready for him to start a new school in Sept. and were given almost everything we had asked for including him repeating Year 10 so that he would be able to get his GCSEs. I did not feel that repeating a year would be too traumatic as he has an end of Aug birthday anyway.

 

It was a scramble to get everything in place for Sept especially since we were abroad for 3 weeks in Aug. and doing a great deal of the finalizing online. In the process, I was told that the school we had requested was full for Year 10 with a short waiting list but that a new special school for ASD was opening attached to a secondary school which was on the same site. So new that the building works were not scheduled to be finished until a couple of weeks after school started and we would have to start late. In fact they have only just been completed but are fantastic and the staff are absolutely brilliant, cooperative and I cannot say enough good things about it.

 

We did know that, unfortunately, the school was going to be a long drive away-at least twice the travel time of the school we had chosen and 4 times the nearest school which we were told was likely to be the only other option for us. The down side of the nearest school was that GCSE work starts in Year 9 and he already knew quite a few students there who I am quite sure would have teased him about being in Year 9 classes instead of Year 11.

 

So we chose the new school. What they did not tell us was that GCSEs in the new school also start in Year 9 and we did not find this out until we had already agreed to the Statement having this new school as the named school. OK, so we have been working with this and B has been doing very well except that he has objected strenuously to being in classes with Year 9s. I know that this is a pride thing and he feels "demoted" as age and Year is so important to him and he sees all his old friends getting ready to move on at the end of Year 11. He also is tired of travelling 45-50 min each way every day to get to school and not being able to have friends home after school since they all live so far away. As a result he has been refusing to go at all.

 

Today I had a meeting with the most wonderful head teacher who works so hard to make sure the children are all happy and thriving and is trying to get everything organized that I suggest might help. And I think we might get him back to school. BUT during the meeting I realized that at this secondary school to which his school is attached, starting GCSEs in Year 9 means that they are studied over 3 full years with no option to take them early if you are ready. Which means that B has effectively been moved back 2 years not 1 and will finish GCSEs when he is 17 and will turn 18 just before the next school year. Which means that he will not be entitled to LEA funding to attend the school for 6th Form and A-levels.

 

You cannot imagine the shock I felt when I was told this. Everything we have been working towards is liable to be undone when B realizes that he is going to have to go to school for 2 extra years to get the same qualifications. He hates school and I know that the idea that he will have to continue after 18 just to get A levels will mean he will not go at all. He is so bright and with the right support A levels should be easily attainable. I am so angry and feel like we have been duped into agreeing to this school rather than the one we wanted with the end result that he will not be able to continue on to get A levels with appropriate support if he chooses to do them. Is there anything that we can do about this? Or is it too late now?

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Sorry, but I'm confused by your post.

You've asked for him to be kept back a year.

But now you're worried incase he is ready to take GCSE's early? Why did you want him kept back a year if he is academically able? And also why seek it when you know how important it was for him not to feel demoted. Whatever is being arranged needs to be practical in the sense that your son is on board and not likely to refuse, as that is just wasting everyones time and energy.

 

Also, why didn't you stick to your first parental choice of school. Chances are a Tribunal Panel would have Ordered the LA to make another place, and if you had known what you know now, that would have been one of your arguments for your choice of school being the ONLY ONE that could meet his needs.

 

Regarding the Statement, was the placement amended by the Local Authority, or did you go to a Tribunal and the Tribunal Ordered the LA to amend it?

 

When was the Statement finalised and dated as you can appeal to SEND within 3 months of that date.

 

I would advise that you speak with someone at www.ipsea.org.uk

 

Statements are supposed to be changing to cover children up to age 24 or 25. But i'm not sure WHEN that is going to happen. If it happens within your timescale, then your son should be okay.

Edited by Sally44

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Sorry I knew that post would be confusing but I just needed to rant.

 

I wanted B to repeat Year 10 as he had really struggled at his previous school and so near the beginning of last year was sent to a Pupil Referral Unit where he ended up staying for the whole of his Year 10. He got on reasonably well there but they did not have the staffing to do more than 3 basic GCSEs at foundation level plus some other non-academic qualifications. Although he struggles with school he is actually very bright and with the right support should be capable of getting a good number of good GCSE grades which will open up his prospects later whatever he chooses to do. He was ok about repeating the year at another school as they would not know him anyway and would not realize that he was repeating.

 

We didn't stick to our first choice mainly because of the time frame. I knew that he would need to get settled in a new school immediately if he wanted to settle well and keep up so I was keen for him to start in Sept The previous SENCO had told us that we needed to get all of our reports done and gathered together before we even requested an assessment, which had delayed everything by several months already. Then we were pushed by several people independently to go for the new school rather than our first choice partly because we would be very unlikely to be given our first choice and would end up being sent elsewhere anyway. We felt it was making the best of a not-ideal situation in the very limited time that we had. Keep in mind that we went from an Asperger's diagnosis in March '13 to a finalized Statement at the end of Aug. I did not feel that it was wise to risk having to go for a Tribunal and then him have to move schools yet again. And at first I did not realize that there was even a problem with the new school apart from the distance.

 

The new school opened in late Sept by which time the placement was named. It was soon after this, that we were told he would be attending classes with Year 9s. Unfortunately the mainstream secondary school where he has his classes had only last year started GCSE work in Year 9, which no one thought to inform us about and wasn't listed on their website when I researched the school while abroad. And it has only just this year changed the policy to a 3 year GCSE program. At the time of notifying parents of this there were only 2 students from the special school having classes in the mainstream school who would be affected by this and they neglected to notify us, and somehow the special school thought that we knew The other boy is in Year 9 anyway and so is unaffected really. So poor B is the only person for which this whole situation is a problem. Apparently a notice was sent out to parents in Nov. but we were missed out. Of course even if we had found out in Nov the process of requesting to move school at that point would have unsettled B even more and he still would be behind in the course work by the time he got to a new school if indeed we were allowed to change.

 

So you can see that it is a complicated situation made more complex by the special school being brand new with the Head trying to set up a new school with delayed building works and still recruiting staff at the same time as integrating the secondary age students with the mainstream school. The head is really doing everything she can to help him succeed. It just seems that yet again he has had the bad luck of being caught in the middle of changes.

 

I am doing everything I can to keep an open mind. Perhaps it will not be a bad thing that he will take so long over his course as his dyslexia makes his studies difficult and with so little support in the past he has not yet learned good study techniques or motivation. And if the Statements do change to cover older students then he could have support for A levels later on if he wishes to take them and perhaps even for university if he wishes. In the meantime the Head is setting up circumstances for him to be getting Sports Leadership qualifications and experience which would ordinarily only be open to 6th Formers.

 

I hope that has made a modicum of sense. The whole situation certainly doesn't make much sense to us as parents but we have to trust that all will come right in the end. The main thing is that B is happy and has as much access to as much education as he wishes or needs to live a fulfilled life as an adult.

 

Thanks for listening.

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Then I would suggest you contact www.IPSEA.org to see if by the time he should be taking A levels etc that his Statement should still cover him.

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The top priority must be getting him through GCSEs successfully. If I read your posts correctly you have asked for him to retake one year, but in fact he is going to be 2 years behind because of the need to fit in with the GCSE syllabus.

 

It sounds as if you have unwittingly ended up in a difficult situation - from the options you mention it is difficult to see how any can get him to GCSE by the end of next year as you had hoped. The only way that might be possible would be to go to a more specialised teaching environment (a specialist ASD school) who have much higher staffing ratios and are better experienced at tailoring the curriculum around the individual - but at a school like that you would only be looking at doing 5-6 GCSEs at most. The other positive thing about that sort of school would be it might make the A level situation easier. If he moves now to a specialist environment that will help them up to A level then you stand more chance of him being allowed to stay there past 19 (the age at which LAs no longer have to maintain a statement). However from what you say that does not really seem right for your son.

 

Have you discussed the issue in detail with the current head? Is it possible to get him back into Yr 10 but provide additional work to cover the areas he has missed? Given he has already done Yr9 and some of Yr 10 he should be able to catch up in the remaining 18 months before GCSEs if he has the motivation and he can get the support.

 

Can you do anything to make the current placement work better? Is moving closer a possiblity?

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Thank you for all your comments and I will follow up on all you have suggested. The school he is currently at is a specialist ASD school attached to a secondary but it is still brand new and so is not fully up and running yet. The good news is that I had a conversation yesterday with a friend who is a SENCO at a primary school and is very knowledgeable. She said that the LEA was going to increase the Statement age to 25 beginning in Sept '14. She seemed pretty certain. So that is one thing that is a relief to know. The head is working hard to get him extra work associated with helping out younger students with sports and hopefully even next year it might be paid as they do with their Sixth Formers. For him that is an excellent motivation ;-) Otherwise I don't think he is yet motivated enough to do any additional work to cover missed topics. I can mention it though and sound it out. I suspect the head of the secondary school is a less amenable person and more rigid about structure. Hmm.

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It is not just your LA. As I said in my post, SEN law [which is central government law] is making changes to the special educational needs system, and one of the things they will change is that a Statement will not automatically cease once a child leaves school and will continue up to age 25. You can read about these governmental changes on the IPSEA website.

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