Should I contact Ofsted?

[upsetparent]

My child (11) has SEN with a statement for behavioural,social & emotional difficulties (suspected Aspergers/ASD).When statement was first agreed it took school months to get an LSA then when I asked when all the programmes of support would be put in place was told that they couldn't do anything until after Sats exams. They said they could do lots for him after then! I said we were not going to wait over 5 months for support to happen and they then said that they would do things for him . I don't believe they are doing what they should but am regularly told otherwise. Head started to threaten ds earlier in the year that if he didn't do something (e.g return to classroom when he was distressed) she would exclude. Also said 'if you don't do that you know what will happen....This has happened on several occasions and finally,week after Sats,she did exclude. We strongly believe that this shouldn't have happened. Prior to this his LSA went into playground with ds and painted a 'box' where ds was meant to stand if he failed to follow instructions. We obviously complained and was told this was not for his use even though his initial had been spray-painted into it. To cut a long story short we made a formal complaint about various issues. The morning of our meeting the 'box' was painted over after being left in place for over 3 months. In the meeting the HT and DHT just lied all the way through and we are now deeply disappointed and concerned about how other dc's with SEN are being treated. Am now worried that our complaint letters will go 'missing' before next Ofsted visit. Could how ds haas been treated be classed as emotional abuse? Dh considering going to the press about this but ds still has a few weeks left. What can we do?

Write everything down. Send a copy to the head, a copy to the governors, and a copy to the LEA.

You don't, as you say, have much time left, but you do need to clear things up before you leave, so that this does pass without being dealt with in the corrrect way. You are entitled to an explanation.

does not pass

speaking from working as an SEN teaching assisstant I think his LSA should have created him a calm down area not a naughty step! She is there to do strategies other than that that have already been tried by current staff in my opinion. It can be very difficult working with kids with behaviour problems as they can appear naughty sometimes as I'm sure you appreciate but anyone trained in SEN should be able to make allowances and make the situation better. Hope you get some answers and better support soon

A child should not be excluded because of behavior relating to their disability.

Have you seen the Ipsea website?

www.ipsea.org.uk/

Lots of helpful advice on there.

Oh golly this sounds so like a school I used to work in ,I feel for you so much .
Is DC leaving ? ,moving on to secondary ? ( sorry ,have read your post in haste )
I hope you have other options and DC doesn't have to stay there .
Personally I'd advocate a letter to local/national press - school will lie of course .
Sadly school will pull wool over Ofsted's eyes ,but still worth contacting ,copy to school .

Take him out now so you have time to settle him and prepare for secondary. Also get him an EP diagnosis so secondary can support him properly, and he can understand and manage his behaviour.

Mine went to an 'outstanding' school, that was good at ticking boxes. Governors not interested in executive decisions, happy with school league ranking and Ofsted rating, letters are not shown to LA. HT brutally pushes Y5 from last day of SATs for a year to last day of their SATs, shouting daily comments about their lack of future. This year's Y6 spent the Royal Wedding holiday morning with her instead of enjoying the day! HT lost interest in science as soon as that was dropped from the SATs. When you have a psychopath like that, you're no longer in rational territory. Because of her obsessions, staff are also getting more clique-ish with some sadistic practices creeping in. The culture has worsened over the years, but it looks great on paper, and appeals to new parents' insecurities, so massively oversubscribed. Some longer-serving parents are getting their kids on waiting lists elsewhere having experienced this with an older child. Does any of this ring bells?

Most important thing is your son has a fresh start knowing that this sort of behaviour is not normal or acceptable. Secondary is hard enough without rubbish baggage like that as well. Remind him when he applies for Oxbridge nobody will care about his SATs or whether he stood on a box.

Great post boswellia !

You seem to have been badly treated by this school, who seem to have little comprehension of how to respond to your child's needs. As Boswellia says the most important thing now is to get your son settled in a new school and move forward.

My inclination is to put your full complaint down in writing and send it to Ofsted as well as the school and LA. The key may well be what your statement said should have happened in terms of LSA and support packages. If the school have blatantly ignored what is in the statement then the LA may not be too happy as they have been funding the school. It sounds very much like your child was left to their own devises whilst all the support was put into achieving KS2 test results.

Thanks for your comments.
Boswellia I would love to take him out now but dh & I both work full time and have no support network locally.
admission The HT and DHT went through the whole statement in our meeting saying what they did for each need. I don't believe a word of it but seeing as they have lied to us I don't doubt they will lie to anyone else and fabricate information. As an example they turned up with witness statements from staff regarding the exclusion at our complaint meeting when I know full well that these weren't there when we had 2 previous meetings. What is worse is that I am a governor there myself! I am disgusted with how they've behaved and lost all respect for them. Can't imagine how the other dc's/parents get treated.