Questions for first meeting with SENCO

[EscapeInTheCity]

I have my first meeting with the SENCO this week re ds2.

ds2 is currently followed by CAMHS (I am hopping that they will finally start to do a proper assessment for AS). Last time I saw them they told me not to tell the school .

However, following parents evening, it is becoming appearant that ds2 IS struggling. His teacher has already tried to put something in place (TA working with him on a 1-1 basis some of the time) but he seems not to 'appreciate' the help so she isn't sure that this is actually a help for him.
She also has noticed similar things than me (lack of eye contact, not always understanding what is going on, likes to do things 'his' way, freezes if you tell him to do it another way...).

So, any advice as to what I need to say/do with the SENCO?
What I would like to see is a real picture of what is going on in class (ds2 says nothing at all about what happens in class) but also an evaluation from an Ed Psy and an assessment from SALT (Teacher agrees on that too).

Is that a good aim for the first meeting?

[EscapeInTheCity]

bump

[EllenJaneisstillnotmyname]

Sounds good to me. I can't understand why CAMHS want you to keep their involvement from the school? I is confidential if you want it to be, but I would have thought that the best way to support your DS would be by sharing these assessments.

Do you know what level of support your DS is getting? School action is the lowest level, whereby school supports him from within their own resources. School Action + includes any outside agencies, (such as CAMHS, OT, SALT, EP etc) that need to be involved and who provide advice (hopefully) to the school in how best to support your DC. Lastly there is a statement of SEN, which after a Statutory Assessment of your DC's needs by all the professionals, school staff and parents, a legally binding document of your DC's needs and the provision agreed to meet those needs, is drawn up. This often (but not always) includes some 1:1 time with a TA when in MS. Could you be asking where in the process your DS is and how they see things progressing?

[EscapeInTheCity]

Ah CAMHS.... First meeting, he asked me if I was happy to share data with the school. Said they had had some bollocking in the past as they aren't sharing as much as schools would like them to.
Then at our second meeting, said that it would be best not to say anything as otherwise it would change the teacher's behaviour towards ds2 which would not be good (implied that it would be better to treat him 'normally' and made me feel I was looking for some problems when there isn't any)....

Anyway, as this is the school who flagged the issues before I had time to say anything to them, I'l go with that .

I have no idea what sort of support he is getting. I get the feeling that this was a decision from the teacher, something she tried because she could see issues but that there has been no SENCO involvement (but then I might be wrong).

I think we are very lucky as this teacher has a child on the spectrum so she spotted things that other people wouldn't have notice iyswim.

Atm what I would love is some sort of assessment/recognition of the problem to avoid the 'Oh he is just lazy' type of comments that ds2 had from his YR teacher (different school though).
And being able to see how best support him in class (but I have no idea about what tbh)

[EllenJaneisstillnotmyname]

Ah, blame the parents, it must be you that is causing his behaviour, of course, or you are imaging things!

Glad that school seem to be on the ball. Try to have some idea what you want the meeting to accomplish, an EP assessment maybe, and have that written down. Have all your concerns and questions written down, because it's very easy to forget them in what can be quite an emotional meeting, discussing your DC's difficulties. Good luck.