School being awful - no idea how to respond

[cansu]

Dd's school has decided that they can no longer meet her needs. I have asked for a review as I am intending to get a placement in a specialist provision. School have been shit for a while but today's stunt has quite honestly left me speechless. Letter in bag today telling me that because her TA is finding her difficult, they have decided to give her a different TA every day. Apparently this will all be fine because they know her as they have watched her in the playground. Please tell me how to handle this. I have an independent ep going in after half term and am doing my best. How can they treat us like this? No phone call, no discussion and a really ridiculous way to support a child with v limited language. I can't stop crying tbh.

[Ineedmorepatience]

Oh no!! I am guessing that your Dd has a statement! I would ring her statementing officer first thing monday morning!

Its shit that they did that to you on a friday afternoon

[2boysnamedR]

What's your la like? I would email the la case officer and cc school.

Stirring things up is the order if the day if they couldn't even talk to you about it on the phone / face to face.

Your la might not give a hoot but schools bend over backwards to please the LA (in my experience) so that might put a firecracker up them

[cansu]

I have written a letter detailing my opinions and asking for a meeting. Would anyone care to have a look if I pm them? I am so angry I don't want to get it wrong. I was thinking of copying in the LEA.

[cansu]

have pm'd you Polter
Thank you

[2boysnamedR]

I can look to if you want

[senvet]

Sorry they have been so rubbish, but the silver lining is that it will help your case for special school if you have a mainstream saying that they cannot meet dc's needs.

If they suddenly improve and get their act together it will be because the LA is telling them that the LA does not want to pay for special school.

So I would sieze this moment to get as much evidence from them as possible. For you bid for special school you would benefit from knowing:-

all the things they have tried
all the experts they have had advice from
what courses/training/experience the relevant TAs and teachers have had
what their concerns are
which needs in particular they do not think they can meet.


I would be as nice as you can to get as much of this info as possible. If you go in fighting, they may dig in and become defensive.

Obviously, they are being ridiculous, but it will be easier to get special school if you have evidence that they have done lots of work to meet dc's needs and there is still insufficient progress.

Good Luck

[cansu]

Thanks 2boys. I have sent off letter now. Feel a bit calmer now. I don't think getting special school will be an issue - the problem will be battling for independent special school with LEA. I just can't cope with them making dd unhappy and confused. She will simply not understand why her routine has been completely changed and why she is with so many different people. I have been exceptionally nice to the school, but I cannot let this go. It is so appalling. I also can't get my head round the fact that they did not even speak to me about it. Unbelievable. Am teacher myself and just cannot countenance idea that such a massive change would be introduced without asking parents in. I would almost rather they simply excluded her if they can't be arsed to meet her needs at all. I feel unhappy to send her back to a school that quite clearly doesn't care about her.

[2boysnamedR]

Your in a tight spot right now but it's fuel for tomorrow's fire. ( at the expenses of your child of course).

I agree with senvet. At work I am always told "tell people what they want to hear" Ie suck up to my boss ;0)

So I agree, say your sorry, sad, disappointed it's come to this ( through your teeth) ask what they have tried, ask why they can't meet needs, pick out the best bits of why needs can't be met, file it away mentally.

In my county every parent I personally know has got into indi as without attending a appeal.

Ms can't meet needs, ok, but they said the needs was too complex, to severe, to whatever. Then the parents had a child to traumatised by school, classes to big, appealed, all dropped by la before hearing.

I know that's just poo. It's wrong. But it builds a case. Of course it too, is never that simple.

My la either fight to the death or roll over spectacularly. Rolling over always happens after placement failure. You truely do need to fail before your helped here.

Once my appeals done and ds3 is placed I might name and shame

[Lesley25]

I think you also need to work out what your indie ss has that your local ss doesn't. The lea will try and name a local ss.

[Icimoi]

What is the LA doing about the fact that the school says it can't meet her needs? It should not be down to you to call for a review. I would strongly suggest you write to them pointing out that, since the school isn't meeting her needs, the LA is not complying with its statutory responsibility and you would like a move to X School immediately.

[cansu]

I would love to do that, but I would want to name a specialist independent school which the LEA will not want to agree to. I have no idea which special school they will offer as my dd wont fit easily into any of them really.

[youarekiddingme]

Can you start with that as a list Cansu? List all the specific things DD needs, cross reference statement and professional reports. Then list what schools provide that. Show that the only place that can meet all her needs is the specialist indi.
If it ends up with the LA offering SS then you have a list of things Dd needs the SS aren't providing so they either need to provide - written clearly in statement or grounds for appeal are already up and running.

Sorry to hear current school are being so difficult.

[Icimoi]

It does no harm to ask for what you want, cansu, particularly if the LA hasn't got anything else on the table. Don't let them string things out - given half a chance they'll leave him in the current school as long as they think they can get away with.

[cansu]

Thank you all for your advice. I have made an appointment with school tomorrow. I also rang LEA today and annual review will be happening after half term. Sen officer was clearly surprised, she didn't seem to know anything about latest mad plan.

[senvet]

Good luck for meeting Cansu

[kojackscat]

Hope the meeting goes well

[cansu]

Thanks for all your support. Just back from meeting. Well, basically one member of staff has decided she will no longer work with my dd and the other TA was feeling isolated and finding her difficult so the school feel it is better to share the burden. I have made it clear I am not happy. They say they must think of the staff.

Apparently having a weekly meeting will mean that approach will be consistent. LEA SALT sees no issue as anyone can work on her functional language by just reading the notes! Autism Outreach have no input into staffing arrangements and will support whatever the school wants to do. Ed psych wasn't consulted.

It is all a nightmare tbh. Goodness knows how long it is going to take to sort out a school for her especially if LA oppose my choice which they will. The only positive is that this looks crap whichever way you look at it and I am sure the tribunal will think it is crap too.

[kojackscat]

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't get a satisfactory outcome. Sometimes I wonder if these experts have actually ever met a child in real life.

[cansu]

Just spoke with Ed Psych and she thinks that dd is very unhappy at the school and is not being dealt with in the right way. Says dd is incredibly anxious. Feel like crying actually. I invested such a lot of effort in this placement. To see it fail like this with dd in the middle is killing me.