Holding child back a year

[MangoYell]

Hello Everyone, our son was born on 28/8 and was 14 weeks premature. We adopted him 4 years ago ish now but asically he's in the wrong educational year. He's currently in Yr 1 and will move to Yr 2 next year but he needs another year in Yr 1.

Our Council are refusing to give him an EHC (Education, Health and Care Plan) even though a v recent Educational Psychologist report suggested this as one of the solutions to his problems. The SENCO believes his reading and maths is sufficiently good enough for him to be denied at EHC.

The school and Council are also refusing to consider him as an 'excepted' child under current legislation.

Any help or ideas will be welcomed.

Thanks

Paul

[TeenTimesTwo]

No idea, but as a fellow adopter I am right behind your proposal.
That level of prem should be enough, let alone being adopted too.

Hopefully someone more helpful will be along in a while.

[nuttyknitter]

I would be very concerned about holding a child back a year after they've started school - it could seriously disrupt his social relationships and knock his self esteem.

[TeenTimesTwo]

I personally suspect that an adopted 14wk prem whose parents think he is out of year may not have the best social relationships and self esteem anyway. Adopted children tend to be immature anyway, and this child is really 3 months younger. I suspect that they might be more accepted into a lower year quite quickly as they would be more on a par with the younger kids.

My prem adopted would have been better in the year below, but she was Autumn born so that was never going to happen! It would have enabled her to make friends at the same level as her, and she would have been more ready for the work she was being asked to do. As it was she had no solid friends, and self esteem damaged regularly by struggling with the work.

However, that it is a good point, and it could be that moving schools would be a good way around the issue.

[ChoccyJules]

If you go on the county admissions page they should have a document about children being out of cohort and the factors they believe should indicate this is a good idea for a child. We applied successfully for our adopted child by addressing each of those points and getting supporting statements from SWs. We also listed professionals who were in favour of this, which in our case included the adoption panel, senco, headteacher...can't remember the others.

However in your case I can see that school aren't being supportive in this area, so you'll need a different strategy. There's a good Facebook group where they share sample letters and talk about the different counties.

Also as a PP said, there is for your child the social aspect to consider. Our child was starting a new school and was not yet of Statutory School Age, so we were able to put them into a Reception class. So the peers are as new as them. The problem will come later when they realise our child is a year older, but we thought on balance this was still the right thing to do.

Hope some of that is helpful!

[Naty1]

Im sure the child would be fine after socially - they arent even 6 yet.
It is up to the head about repeating a year and i assume this is what op is referring to there would need to be a space in the year below.
You have my sympathy.
What is a bit.crazy is it probably impacts the year below less to have 31 where they are keeping up than maintaining 30 in yr 2.
Once in yr 3 the ics rules dont apply though and it is easier to be excepted i think. So if you dont succeed now maybe try again to repeat year 3.

[WombatStewForTea]

Our LA don't hold children back at all any more as far as I'm aware. I know in the past we had a girl in our mainstream primary who had been held back a year and then went on to a special secondary. They wanted her to tranfer at the end of Y5 so she was chronologically in the right year group. Children who went to mainstream from mainstream transferred at the end of Y6 as normal.

[ChoccyJules]

Adopted children trump the 30 in a class rule for KS1. They can be made to take them.
Secondly, the going up early thing needs agreeing with the KA at the time, ie my child will not go up when they are 11, they will go up with their current peer group. For which we are extremely grateful.

[ChoccyJules]

LA not KA

[ChoccyJules]

I think what I am saying is a lot more is possible than they want to admit. If you can show that it is in the child's best interests and someone listens (in our case the Chief Admissions Officer or whatever their role title) it can be done.

[TeenTimesTwo]

I'm thinking EHCP might not be the way to go.

Would the class teacher or SENCO agree that the DC is operating academically more at end yR standards than end y1?
Would they agree that emotionally and socially they are more at end Reception than end y1?

If you could get that in writing, then maybe you could use it as leverage along with the prem & adopted to get LA to agree?

[Witchend]

Adopted children trump the 30 in a class rule for KS1. They can be made to take them.

Is this true? I know they usually now get top priority in admissions, but I don't think a school that is full will be made to take them whatever.

[brilliotic]

Witchend, I believe it is true in certain cases. Particularly if a child moves into a new area because the school age child is moving from their foster home to their adoptive placement. In this situation it is extremely important to get the school right (first time, no changing schools 6 months down the line or so if it can be at all avoided).

The child is then technically still in LA care (pre adoption order) and I believe the LA has the power to direct a school to admit the child as an excepted child. Not 100% sure as it has been a while since I looked into this.

OP I sincerely hope that the powers that be will find a way to do what clearly is in your child's best interest. It does sound that a different school might be more open to considering this.
FWIW I think that if the headteacher prefers to stick to a narrow definition of the rules, rather than put the child's best interests first, then maybe it isn't the right school anyway.

[MangoYell]

Wow thanks everyone. I read everting and digest. Thanks