Unsure whether this is something I need to make a fuss about.

[crabappley]

Went to meet my DD’s new tutor last week at her new secondary school. Dd has diagnoses of ASD or Aspergers as it was, Dd has been doing great at new school and there was a well planned transition from junior school with lots of visits. She has not had many issues for a while and the previous difficulties were from transition to junior school from infants when she had constant tics and withdrew.
When I met the new tutor she knew nothing about her diagnoses and said that she doesn’t actually teach them so doesn’t check their ILPs (individual learning plan??) she said she is there as more of a nurturing role. This made me think that it was even more strange as in the nurturing role she might need to be aware of these sort of things.
Now, DD is doing fine and I have no concerns, very happy. I just wondered if this was unusual and whether I should be annoyed or just let it go.
Any teachers who might have an opinion?

[cjt110]

I have no experience or professional advice but to me, how can they offer a nurturing role if they have no clue about something fundamental in a child's life?

[LornaMumsnet]

We're just moving this thread over to the staffroom for the OP.

[Alanna1]

Honestly? We are at the beginning of the first term of a new year. Teachers are really busy. Yes, she should probably have read the ILP but she didn't and I wouldn't fuss but would work on building a positive, supportive relationship going forward. I say this as the mother of a child with a minor disability and which can impact school where we had loads of engagement when starting school and none of the teachers the following years were aware until we told them. That hasn't stopped all of them being excellent teachers.

[crabappley]

Thank you for the feedback, I did think it would be better to just leave it as I don’t want to get off to a bad start with the tutor but I must say I did feel a bit disappointed.

[NearlyEaster]

You're right. She should have known. Particularly for Y7. We have a section of our INSET on day 1/2 devoted to highlighting SEN students.

[leccybill]

Our SEN info only came through this week which wasn't ideal.
It's quite common for a form tutor not to teach their form, just the way timetabling can work. Form tutors do the register, check equipment and uniform, collective worship and teach them a bit of PHSE/citizenship type stuff, usually for about 15-20 minutes each morning.

[highinthesky]

SEN info should come through at the same time as the additional funding it attracts. Otherwise how on earth can you spend it effectively on that child’s educational welfare?!

[orangeowls]

Your child is fine and doing really well, which is great, if you make a fuss now you risk upsetting the positive start to the school year by causing an issue where I don’t think there really is one. (I’m sure her tutor will have had a look at the ILP now you’ve raised it,) however it is true that as a teacher and form tutor myself I tend to focus on needs of the kids I teach in terms of SEN rather than those of my form. Especially at the start of the new year where I will typically be seeing 180+ different kids a day.

If your daughter was struggling and the tutor hadn’t done anything to address it then you have a reason to be upset at the moment I don’t think you do.

[leccybill]

By the time it takes for our 20+ feeder primaries to send it all on, feed in our own CATS results and collate it all, it got to the start of October but I agree, it should have been sooner.