Newly diagnosed, insuffferable mainsream flipping teachers! (uk)

[Sesity]

Hi,

Has anybody had trouble with their child's mainstream school?

My son, Leo (was diagnosed three weeks ago, but been having difficulties long before that) has been having an awful time at school! they don't seem to have a clue about how to deal with him. I think I'll bullet point for ease and maximum complaining speed!

* At one point in September, Leo was only allowed to attend school if a family member went with him.
* He is only allowed to attend school trips if a family member goes with him.
*He has been unlawfully excluded many times, they would ring grandparents to collect him 3+ times a week, until I pointed out it was illegal.
*He has outside support in the form of a behavioral specialist who suggests things to the teachers, which they will do 80% of the time.
*When they change routine or do that other 20% differently and he becomes destructive (tipping chairs/ripping down displays etc) he gets formally excluded. I am sure that they are now deliberately pushing his buttons so to speak, in order to get him permanently excluded from the school.

There are other things, but these are the main points.
I have no idea what to do, they absolutely don't 'get' autism, the head has said to me (conveniently with no witnesses) that she has failed Leo and failed to educate him since September. But when we have formal meetings they say all the right things, and plan strategies ect.

At the moment he is part time, and is still getting exclusions. Has anyone braved actually saying "hang on, your not doing it right!" or knows of any support or place of advice?

 

[willow25]

Has he got an ehcp ?

 

[LoraLoo]

Ipsea are great for advice. If he doesn't have an EHcP Id get the ball rolling now as im having a nightmare with it now and wish Id done it years ago! Has he had an ef psych out? If not- you need to be asking the school why not? Has he hs a speech and language assessment- again, if not, why? Can relate to a lot of what you're going through

 

[smurff]

Hi, my daughter has learning difficulties and sensory issues with autistic features and speech delay. We know she's autistic just waiting for official diagnosis.
My daughter goes to an ARB unit attached to a mainstream school. It's good because if there's a certain subject she's good at she cam go into a mainstream classroom for the lesson but she'll always have a special helper with her. That way she has friends in mainstream and her own class. Before we knew this school existed we looked at another school. I asked them what help they would give my daughter given her circumstances, I was told that there is nothing in place for children like my daughter but by law they have to accommodate them and she'd have a helper come in and watch her!. I got the impression they would find my daughter more of a hindrance, I turned around walked out and refused to set foot in that poor excuse of a school again. I was preparing to home school her when we found out about the ARB unit.
You need to get an EHCP asap, and an app with a child physiologist, peadiatrion, and hv, and speech and language therapist. all of this will help with ehcp as government have cut the funding and they are getting very hard to get now. Luckily for us we were rushed through the process but it still took 4 months. Stressful months aswell as there's so much to sort out for an EHCP. Having the Ehcp is the best thing u can do as it's a legal document that states your child is entitled to extra help with education. That EHCP could pay the school to get a helper in to be with your son or it will pay for him to go to a specialist school. He will keep that EHCP and be entitled to extra help all through his educational years. I don't know where we would be without it, Good luck 🍀

 

[Thurinius]

Hi, my daughter has learning difficulties and sensory issues with autistic features and speech delay. We know she's autistic just waiting for official diagnosis.
My daughter goes to an ARB unit attached to a mainstream school. It's good because if there's a certain subject she's good at she cam go into a mainstream classroom for the lesson but she'll always have a special helper with her. That way she has friends in mainstream and her own class. Before we knew this school existed we looked at another school. I asked them what help they would give my daughter given her circumstances, I was told that there is nothing in place for children like my daughter but by law they have to accommodate them and she'd have a helper come in and watch her!. I got the impression they would find my daughter more of a hindrance, I turned around walked out and refused to set foot in that poor excuse of a school again. I was preparing to home school her when we found out about the ARB unit.
You need to get an EHCP asap, and an app with a child physiologist, peadiatrion, and hv, and speech and language therapist. all of this will help with ehcp as government have cut the funding and they are getting very hard to get now. Luckily for us we were rushed through the process but it still took 4 months. Stressful months aswell as there's so much to sort out for an EHCP. Having the Ehcp is the best thing u can do as it's a legal document that states your child is entitled to extra help with education. That EHCP could pay the school to get a helper in to be with your son or it will pay for him to go to a specialist school. He will keep that EHCP and be entitled to extra help all through his educational years. I don't know where we would be without it, Good luck 🍀

Can I ask re ehcp. We have a first panel meeting next week to see if they will assess my asd son


What does yours say exactly?
I was thinking it would state my son's needs and how they are to be met, eg one to one support.
But my liason officer said she's never seen a ehcp recommending one to one.
And that it doesn't lead to funding and that's it's more s set of goals for him and help for his teachers in assisting him
We already have an action plan from the communications disorder team so now I'm wondering what the point is.

 

[Thurinius]

To answer the op.
I had a terrible time with my son's first nursery. They couldn't be bothered with him. They described him as a health and safety hazard and that his presence wasn't fair on the other children.
Ok I had no choice but to remove him but it was the best thing that happened. I found another nursery that was absolutely brilliant and he now attends the school there and loves it.
Do you have an early years team at your Lea? They can help you find a more suitable nursery for him because the one he's at doesn't sound at all good.

 

[PresqueVu]

Do you know about SENDIASS? I'd recommend finding your local branch and getting a representive to go with you to meetings. I believe they are usually a parent whose been through the same thing, they are volunteers - will help take notes, explain terminology and just stop you getting quite so lost. They also have information about exclusion policies, which has been helpful. I've had to quote the law on that in a few meetings...

We had a very bad, prolonged patch with my son where School did not understand things. I was getting very frustrated and some of the 'support' they were doing was actively cruel. He was setup to be excluded on multiple occassions, in ways that actively discriminated against his additional needs.

Since we've had our rep to sit in, that has helped a lot. As well as her explaining all the acronyms she's also been useful at helping me pick my battles in some sense, and accepting that some mistakes have to be ignored to focus on getting the right support in place.

We've got the same thing with school trips - in fact they wouldn't let him go on the last one at all, even with me and his TA as carers, because they were scared! They very much let him down there. We took him separately at the weekend so he didn't feel so left out.

Have you been referred to CAMHS? it takes forever, so worth getting that in quickly. Is the school Senco any good?

 

[smurff]

Thurinius..... Sounds to me like your liaison officer doesn't have a clue what they are talking about. My EHCP consists of reports from her peadiatrion, child physiologist, speech therapist, and teacher from her child development center. It states all of my daughter's problems and how best to deal with them. It states that my daughter learns more in a smaller environment and will benefit from one to one help. It's a huge document so it's best if I just run through ......
States she would not cope well in mainstream school
Needs one to one teaching
Has no sense of dangers so needs constant supervision
Learns by following others
Is not toilet trained so needs help
Cannot walk downstairs on her own
Hates loud noises
Doesn't understand instructions.
There is alot more in her EHCP but that's will give you an idea of what goes into one.
I think I'm right in saying under the age of 5 it gets re viewed every 6mths and over age of 5 it's yearly. And I can 100% say that yes an EHCP DOES entitle the school your son goes to extra funding, I know this because before we knew about the ARB unit she goes to we were looking at mainstream school and when I asked what help she would get I was told the funding the council gives my daughter for having an EHCP would pay for a helper to come in and watch her. As I said before I walked out at that point but she goes to ARB unit attached to mainstream school and you can only attend the ARB if you have an EHCP because that funding pays for her place there. And as she has the EHCP all the way through till she finishes her education at 18+ she will always be entitled to extra help because no matter what school we send her to that school will receive the funding