Jump to content
paulfoel

Can not believe how useless sons school have been - how to complain?

Recommended Posts

Son is 15 now. Hes had "issues" for around two years but only got formally diagnosed last october (I guess we all know what CAMHS are like). CAMHS at the time sent the letter to school also.

We've had various conversations over the years with the school with various head of years etc. For instance, he has a bit of a toilet thing so they let him use disabled toilets. They did also sort out counselling with a person that came to the school.

Fast forward to last week. School parents evening. NONE of his teachers knew he had been diagnosed.

Had a chat with the Special Needs teacher. Sat next to her was a lady who I remembered. So I mentioned son to her - never heard of him, not aware. Her assistant had and had arranged the counselling sessions (but obviously had not told her colleague). I asked why they hadn't informed his teachers - not seen the letter.

Turns out the letter arrived at the school last October and has only now been seen by the Special Needs lady. Nice one. Even then only because I mentioned it at parents evening.

She phoned today and was really rude. Not her fault apparently and, anyway, we should be grateful that a meeting has now been sorted in MAY between CAMHS and the school. This should all have happened 18 months ago!

Surely a Special Needs teachers job is to read letters from CAMHS about the pupils? Otherwise I can't see the point.

They have been useless. Whats the best way to complain? To the governors? MP? Council?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My son now 25 went to a main stream school with a statement for one year at 5 and it was a nightmare, I was constantly down there going over his needs ect ect long story short we sent him to a special school best decision we made.. We no longer had issues like your haveing where teachers weren't aware ect... Whilst at mainstream our son was allocated 15 hrs a week with a support worker.. Does your son have that.. Does he have a statement.. If he's not got a statement I found to be blunt teachers talk the talk but actually don't have to do anything... 

I'd complain to the head the goveners and if you get no joy go higher. 

Not the same but last year I'd a friend had issues with a school and her daughter who has adhd similar thing no one passing on or acting on Info we went to the local news and told the school that's what we would do... They soon sorted out the issue

Edited by Paula
Mid spelling

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 13/03/2019 at 2:37 PM, paulfoel said:

Son is 15 now. Hes had "issues" for around two years but only got formally diagnosed last october (I guess we all know what CAMHS are like). CAMHS at the time sent the letter to school also.

We've had various conversations over the years with the school with various head of years etc. For instance, he has a bit of a toilet thing so they let him use disabled toilets. They did also sort out counselling with a person that came to the school.

Fast forward to last week. School parents evening. NONE of his teachers knew he had been diagnosed.

Had a chat with the Special Needs teacher. Sat next to her was a lady who I remembered. So I mentioned son to her - never heard of him, not aware. Her assistant had and had arranged the counselling sessions (but obviously had not told her colleague). I asked why they hadn't informed his teachers - not seen the letter.

Turns out the letter arrived at the school last October and has only now been seen by the Special Needs lady. Nice one. Even then only because I mentioned it at parents evening.

She phoned today and was really rude. Not her fault apparently and, anyway, we should be grateful that a meeting has now been sorted in MAY between CAMHS and the school. This should all have happened 18 months ago!

Surely a Special Needs teachers job is to read letters from CAMHS about the pupils? Otherwise I can't see the point.

They have been useless. Whats the best way to complain? To the governors? MP? Council?

See if you can find a copy of their wellbeing or mental health policy on the schools website, quote sections from this in the complaint letter.

You can look up your local MP on the website www.theyworkforyou.com where you can see how your MP voted on a variety of issues including special educational ones.

Also are they on this list (weblink below);

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/campaign/appga/members.aspx

See if there is any parental support in your area by typing in "autism near (name of your county)" into an internet search.

Pre Cahms stopped helping us when I had one session where I couldn't engage with them. That was back in the late 90s. I'd just been diagnosed myself then.

www.mind.org.uk is a mental health charity, covers mental health and can put you in touch with local resources as well. They operate a legal line as well.

Just found the below weblink as well.

https://childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/discrimination-in-education/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...