Special Needs register

[dalziel1]

Can anyone tell me what it means in practice to not be placed on the special needs register?

Since I provided them with a professional report, DS's primary appear to have accepted that he does have a learning disability (dysgraphia). He is also very able in other areas, so he is twice exceptional.

To me, it looks like there is a big dis-connect between his ability to verbally answer questions and what he writes down. he is making very slow progress in writing at school.

Yet, they've sent me a letter implicitly agreeing with the diagnosis, but saying that he's meeting the minimum NC levels of progress, so they are not going to do anything, except maybe offer him a choice of pens.

The SENCO explicitly wrote that I should be pleased to know that DS does not merit inclusion on the SEN register.

Should i be pleased to know this?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

LOL. I wouldn't worry about being on a register. What's the register gonna do, jump out of the filing cabinet and teach your child maths?

What I would be concerned about is that he is getting the appropriate support in order to receive an adequate education. 'Adequate' is a current legal definition of the level of education and child with SEN is entitled to. I suspect it will be challenged in law at some point as Gove is currently disgracing schools who do not achieve good or outstanding for their typically developing children, but currently that is all you can expect.

'Adequate' is difficult to defined however. He is not entitled to achieve his full potential but if his IQ is substantially higher than his performance than this would indicate that the school are not meeting his needs and vitally, not accommodating them, which is actually a disability discrimination issue and can be challenged through the equality act.

I would not get side-tracked by any register, just focus on outcomes for your child. If that involves internal documentation done in a certain way then that is for them and their admin staff to worry about.

[dalziel1]

He does have a SEN. His writing is falling further and further behind (along with his self-confidence). He's still doing better than some children but he's in the bottom half now for writing , whereas he's in the top set for most other subjects.

The report that I provided with the diagnosis also recommended an hour of 1:1 help per week but the SENCO said she felt this was unneccessary.

Basically, the school is rubbish and I have very low expectations from it.

However, in 12 months' time, the primary will be briefing the secondary school (its a feeder school) and the secondary school is really good with SEN.

So, I was really hoping that the primary school will not start picking on DS2 for his writing with SATS prep starting in September and that they will inform the secondary school of his dysgraphia. Ds2's older brother also has dysgraphia and was let down badly for both things by the primary.

The SEN register was not something I'd thought about before I got the SENCO's letter so I am asking myself why don't they want to include DS2 on it and does it make a difference anyway?? I just don't know the answer!

What would happen if he was on the SEN register? Are they discriminating against a disability by excluding him from it?

[dalziel1]

StarlightMcKenzie - I think we cross posted. I think what it will boil down to is whether Ds2 is receiving an adequate education or not.

I think he is not. The school will point to the 2 NC levels of progress and say that proves he is. As to the big discrepancy with his progress in other subjects, they just say that he can't expect to be good at everything.

I'm torn about whether to fight for him or not. I fought, on behalf of DS1, but only succeeded in getting the teacher to stop scolding him for writing slowly and illegibly. (which made a huge improvement in itself). They would not actually try to help him to address his problems with writing.

TBH I just can't wait until this time next year when I don't have to deal with this primary any longer.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Can you hire a tutor to compensate. I know this is costly in resources, but so is fighting the school.

[dalziel1]

It is expensive but I'd be happy to give private tutoring a go as i'm learning that problems just compound if not addressed in a timely way.

What about ensuring the school adds DS2 to the list of names it gives the secondary for the attention of their learning support dept? I am guessing they send through the names on the SEN register.

They excluded DS1 although he's now under the care of the secondary's learning support team albeit after a delay whilst it was established that the primary school had omitted to mention him. So will I just have to do this myself again?

[dalziel1]

zzzzz - I suspect that is precisely why they have decided to exclude him from the register. I can't imagine though the circumstances in which they would be able to use the exclusion against DS2 though.

Ideally, they would help him work around his dysgraphia, but I know they won't do that. (He's "not far enough behind").

Second choice will be that they don't make it more difficult to access help when he goes to secondary school (as they did for his older brother). I'd give this a 3:1 chance.

Third possibility - this is where I draw the line - is that DS2 gets a very hard time about the speed and appearance of his writing from the teacher in year 6 as they gear up for SATS. This is what happened with DS1 who ended up quite depressed with it all so I am on alert now.