Blimey I could have written your post OP!
DS is just starting Y3 and having exactly the same trouble. Our DS doesn't tantrum or hit people, instead he sort of implodes and refuses to cooperate. This irritates the teachers and they think he is wilful and disobedient. He doesn't disrupt the class or other kids and his grades are average or above. His issues are hidden because it's diffcult to see where someone is having a problem if they refuse to do the thing they are struggling with! I see his refusal to leave the house/breaking equipment and putting holes in clothes etc as anxiety and stress - the school seem to blame my lax parenting. (I'm the opposite of lax!)
Like you I am terrified about the transition to secondary when kids like ours tend to struggle - the advantage we have is that we have diagnoses and are forewarned unlike many parents before us :( My theory is that our kids historically have problems at secondary school and so with early diagnosis, the primary schools don't understand their roles is preventative action as they've not seem many of the problems they are trying to avoid?
I've no interest in naming a school at this point, I just want to know he'll have support wherever he goes.
I have spoken to SENDIASS in our area and also an autism support worker from a local school (not ours unfortunately). I also popped in to the free drop in sessions with an EP run by our LA. All said to get him assessed - although none have met DS which makes me hesitate a little. I've read lots of websites and they all say autism = apply for an EHCP but I've not been able to find decent advice on the best way to present DS' rather subtle and complex series of difficulties to the people who can help. Our school have said that they will not apply for us as he is too able - I need to speak to them about whether they will support us if we apply on our own.
Autism is considered a learning disability in itself and it's a fiendishly complex and difficult thing to assess. Most schools must be unqualified to deal with it if the diagnostic teams are multidisciplinary and require lots of experience to be effective. As such, I don't understand why an autism diagnosis (ie acknowledgement of difficulty) in itself doesn't automatically justify an EHC assessment....
Anyway the first thing is to find out if your DD is on the SEN register and to ask for copies of her school file to see what support has been considered. DS was put on the register in 2014 and we have 3 meetings a year about the progress on his SEN plan (as required by law) so you should be getting something similar - even if actual help on the ground is a bit thin. If not ask why not.
Did the school contribute paperwork to the diagnosis process? Get copies. Although our SENCO maintains that all is fine, DS' class teacher last year wrote a report which was heavily quoted by the paediatrician and outlined a lot of stress/anxiety/signs of distress that supported the diagnosis. You need records of these same signs to support the EHCP. Start keeping notes of all meetings and telephone calls. Keep files in date order with the newest stuff at the front so you can find everything easily.
In your case I imagine you should keep a diary of your struggles to get your DD into school and maybe film a typical morning as evidence that she is trying to avoid school/is anxious about going there. (By the way have you asked whether a member of staff that she likes can meet her at the gate and help ease the transition? I've heard that that can help avoid getting to the point of school refusal and doesn't cost the school a great deal. Remember to ask in writing tho and keep notes on any responses).
Look up the SEN Code of Practice on the DfE website. Read it thoroughly. You will need to demonstrate that your DD has evidence of SEN or a disability. There are definitions in the document so check that your DD meets those definitions and that your evidence clearly supports this.
Look up your Local Authority website and get their SEN pathway policies and procedures. Make sure that you note any particular information or extra forms/questionnaires that they require. They will have a series of requirements eg that you can show that the school has spent more than £6k per year on support and that no academic progress/improvements have been seen over 3 terms of monitoring. Like us you probably will have difficulty meeting this criteria for academic subjects so you need to work out the best way to illustrate the problems in the key areas of need (see below) which are not academic but which "limit XX ability to access the curriculum".
The theory goes that any indication of SEN should be justification for the LEA to do an EHC assessment but in practice it seems that you will need a lot more than that. The SEN COP talks about 4 areas of need:
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and learning
- Social, emotional and mental health
- Sensory and/or physical
Think carefully about where your DD's needs fit under these headings and list them out. In our case (in my uneducated opinion) it will be 1) ASD 2) Handwriting/Specific Learning Difficulty with written expression 3) Eating disorder 4) Fine & Gross motor issues, but you will have different items and maybe not cover all the headings; or maybe have several items under a single heading etc.
The school have recognised DS' eating disorder but all the rest are invisible to them. They were surprised when we got the autism diagnosis as DS doesn't fit the pattern they are used to. As a result they have done little/no assessment of him, so I've done the evidence gathering.
I've got various reports to support items 1, 3 and 4 from the NHS assessments and don't have cash to burn on an Educational Psychologist, so I opted for a basic/cheap online screening test from dysgraphiahelp.co.uk to demonstrate that further testing would be beneficial. It's supposed to be the LA's legal responsibility to arrange the EP assessment so I would rather not do this unless I have to.
I'm just about the begin drafting a letter. It's important to use one of the templates which uses the correct wording to ensure the LA actually start the process off. I've heard of people with one vital word missing who end up in a bit of a mess. Contact A Family have a good template on their website. I thought it gave me a better idea of how to pad out the request than the one from IPSEA. I get the impression that the best thing to do is pack this first letter with information and set out evidence in appendices like a formal report. A short 2 line letter asking to assess with no background is unlikely to cut it. I'm trying to get help compiling my letter from SENDIASS, AFASIC, NAS and IPSEA then I will see if the school can help finish off the draft with local information.
Based on other families locally, I imagine that the LA will refuse to assess in the first instance and that we will then have to find the cash for an EP report before going to a 1st Tribunal (or possibly try negotiation with the help of an advocate). So another job for me is to work out all of the different statutory timescales and make sure I know what to do and when.
crumbs that was longer than I expected! sorry but hope that helps and please do let me know how you decide to tackle things. I'd really like someone to bounce ideas off as that lot took my about 3 months to figure out on my own!