You'll like this one

[LKS]

We are starting the 3rd week now of secondary school and there have been some problems but son seems to be coping better than we expected. Teachers on the whole have been kind and understanding. Had a bit of a problem with the english teacher at first but that has sttled down. What hasn't settled down is son's complete dislike of his maths teacher. Maths is his strongest subject and he was in the top 5 at primary but he says he is learning nothing at the moment. They have had homework set nearly every day (have since found out that this shouldn't happen)The teacher is also getting them to self mark. I know that this is something they like to encourage but surely not for every bit of work. She has not taken in their books or looked at them since he started the only teacher not to do so. I had noticed that he had marked quite a few questions wrong and asked if he was having any trouble with the work, he said when the teacher was reading out the answers for us to mark she was going so fast I couldn't keep up so I thought I'd better mark a few wrong otherwise it would look suspicious! He is not getting the homework down properley either as the majority of the lesson seems to involve copying down lots of work, at the end of the lesson as he is desparately trying to catch up the teacher tells the class the homework verbally. Have spoken to the SENCO and she has told me that the info prepared by myself and the specialist teacher for autism (with thanks to Phasmid as well) does not seem to have been passed onto this maths teacher. Son is statemented and is supposed to be getting 15 hours of L.S.A. support per week. I have asked if he can have support in maths and she says there is no-one available at the moment. I asked when support was being given and she said we are still trying to decide when and where it is best to support your son, meaning I suppose he's not getting any. Here we go again

[annie]

Hi LKS,

 

Could you have a word with Linda or Isobel at PP. I know in the past that Linda had spoken to the SENCO at Alex's old school on my behalf. She did at the time get a bit more of a result than I would of done because the SENCO had virtually refused to talk to me.

 

Let us know how you get on.

 

Annie

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[phasmid]

If Annie's advice doesn't work then I would write in and ask them to inform you (in writing) of how he is being supported, by whom and when. This may force their hand and mean they HAVE to sort it out sooner rather than later. If your still not happy with the response send a copy od the first letter to the chair of governors asking them to look into it.

[LKS]

Had an e-mail from the school after I got in. The Senco is actually going to be supporting son herself in his maths class. She has asked to see me and son after school next week to talk to us about when son feels he needs most support. That sounds o.k. to me, perhaps primary school warned her about me

[phasmid]

Be wary.

 

Supporting your son is one thing, teaching the class AND supporting him is different. Check with them to be certain!

[LKS]

Thanks phasmid i'll bear that in mind. Reading my previous post I sound a bit of a big I am, you know watch out school here I come. What I meant really was the head of the primary school once said to me you are obviously in contact with many outside agencies Little does he know where my source comes from.

[puffin]

I think that you really need to prss the school to find out exactly how they are using your child's statement funding. Sounds as though it might be disappearing into a big pot for the whole school. He really should be getting the 15 hours where he needs them - not where the school would like them.

 

No support plan after 3 weeks does sound as though they are trying to slide out of it. Did they not have any plans when he transitioned from primary?

[LKS]

Puffin from questioning my son I think that is exactly what is happening. There is another boy from his old school who has aspergers. He is not statemented. He has been put in same tutorial as son,. SENCO told other boys parents this was a good idea as they could share support. what seems to be happening is the support is available in the classes that the other boy seems to be struggling in most. For example German where son feels he doesn't need help as the teacher is being very helpful and giving him print-outs. He really really needs help in maths at the moment although he is very good at it he finds the teacher confusing and doesn't always understand exactly what she wants him to do.We cannot even work out homework tonight as he has written finish bank thingy and can't remember what this means. Am trying to contact other members of his class at the moment. Don't need this. So I suppose I should ask SENCO next week to say exactly when son is getting support and as Phasmid says from whom. We do not have an I.E.P yet either. This was always my worry when son transferred to school without the individual financial support of his statement, because he is clever he is going to be lost and forgotten and the school will decide where they want the money to go.

[Zemanski]

they must meet his statement by law, if they aren't then take the matter to senior management (the head) first then to the governors.

Don't give them time to stop and think, if the senco is messing you about now she will do so as long as she can get away with it. Your son's provision should be in place, should have been in place on his first day.

 

you can call either the Ed Psych or the advisor/ASD team yourself to discuss concerns, they can be very good at putting pressure on the school.

 

They will be based at 'social inclusion services' (may be called something else in your LEA) normally and you can get the number off the LEA website, or a recent ed psych report or statement

 

meanwhile keep as much evidence as you can as problems arise - I keep a diary in the calendar section of outlook express of all incidents, letters, meetings, school related meltdowns, headaches, missing LSAs, which lessons he struggled in .......

 

- printouts were very, very useful at the end of last year and they showed definite patterns

 

good luck

 

Zemanski

[LKS]

Zemanski what a great idea to do the diary in outlook express and then just print it out. This will solve the problem of the many bits of paper I am struggling with! I really wanted to trust this shool and wanted it to be a new beginning but it is just a continuation of the system primary school used. I don't beleive there was a transition plan for son when he transferred. We had lots of discusscions about how he works, potential problems and how these would be best resolved. Primary school made suggestions as to where they thought he would need most support, but I suppose secondary wanted to see when he joined. Well they have had 3 weeks now, they must have a clearer idea. We had a major meltdown about maths homework again last night. He had no support in the class again yesterday and homework is due today. Again he was trying to finish copying work off of the board and teacher started to say the homework. I'll give you a little example of what he wrote for those of you who don't like maths, please ignore Will a card game work with four fours and with brackets square and square roots. you must devise board for game to be played on. To do this think which numbers are the easiest to get, impossible ones and anything else. This work is going to form part of this assesment for a short test on negative numbers tomorrow He is very good at maths but he needs to have it made clear what he is expected to work out. He said this lesson is making him feel useless. We only know one other boy in his class and we couldn't get hold of him. We gave up at about 9.30 last night as I thought why put him through this when the teacher cannot be bothered to explain properly. This homework did not reinforce anything they were doing in class yesterday. I even posted on the TES website for the maths teachers and they gave us some clues. But really I can't be doing this everyday with homework.