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Losing my TA after Christmas- desperate

58 replies

InsidetheFactoryGeek · 22/12/2018 13:10

TA worked 1-1 with a child with ASD.

Child is on P scales and in Y2. They aren't quite non-verbal but do not speak in sentences. I can generally understand them now.

TA started the morning with some sensory input and some time doing physio-type exercises. They would come back into the classroom and complete one, very simple task and then have some iPad time. This basically repeated throughout the day.

I am absolutely dreading losing the TA and cannot switch off. Things are pretty desperate in school anyway. SENCO suggested a tent (I nearly cried).

What am I going to do?!

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DinkyDaisy · 22/12/2018 14:00

Why are you losing TA?
Can you fight this?
I know schools are stretched and I know TAs can be moved about...

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4point2fleet · 22/12/2018 14:06

How independent is the child? Was the TA velcroed to them or can they complete the classroom tasks independently?

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noblegiraffe · 22/12/2018 14:16

Has the child got an EHCP saying they are legally entitled to this provision?

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Sirzy · 22/12/2018 14:17

Does the child have ehc?

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Catandchicken · 22/12/2018 14:29

I think a plan of action might help.

So, yes to the tent! Have you read any of the links from the NAS:
www.autism.org.uk/professionals/teachers/classroom.aspx? Are you using a visual timetable? Have you got emotion cards and quick check pictures so, your student can use them when they get overwhelmed? Could you start the day with the whole class doing some exercises? Have you got a list of useful apps - both for education and as a reward?

However, my instinct is you are being set up to fail and it is unlikely you will be able to meet need. And it doesn't matter if that is inadvertent. So, I would also be drafting an email over the" break" outlining concerns about keeping this child safe, meeting their needs and teaching the rest of the class.

It sounds like your student needs a team, not just one person.

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InsidetheFactoryGeek · 22/12/2018 14:52

However, my instinct is you are being set up to fail and it is unlikely you will be able to meet need.

Yes, that's what I feel. There is an ECHP but it's coming down to funding.

The little one is not independent at all. They can now write their name and make some marks. They can count a little but cannot read. Any 'task' is very, very simple and still must be adult-led. She doesn't like sitting down at all.

Are you using a visual timetable? Yes, a very simple 'now' and 'next'.

Have you got emotion cards and quick check pictures so, your student can use them when they get overwhelmed? Yes. The child is really very gentle and only tends to get overwhelmed if there's been a sudden loud noise or she trips over.

Could you start the day with the whole class doing some exercises?
No. My classroom is too small and the child needs individual instructions. Going to PE is going to be nigh on impossible (which I hadn't thought about Xmas Sad)

Have you got a list of useful apps - both for education and as a reward? Yes, but I'm also reluctant to over-rely in the iPad.

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Sirzy · 22/12/2018 14:53

Is the ehc one worth the paper it is written on? Does it have clear, quantified provision?

If not I would be pushing for an early review to bet one which meets his needs

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Neolara · 22/12/2018 15:05

If the child has an ehcp, surely it's not legal to remove the ta.

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Sirzy · 22/12/2018 15:29

neo that depends on the wording, sadly most local authorities avoid making the plan specific because it saves them work

I am just coming to the end of this stage of battle with them for DS plan because they tried to avoid anything quantifiable

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4point2fleet · 22/12/2018 16:32

To get through the day, you are very quickly going to have to increase the child's independence.

How much notice has everyone had of the TA being removed? It would have been very helpful, had there been notice, for the TA to spend some weeks (months) building the amount of time the child could function independently (TEACCH workstation, using visual TT independently to move from tasks to choosing time/ tent time etc).

Maybe you could argue for TA hours to be kept on for a set period of time in order to intensively build this sort of independence and some routines.

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Catandchicken · 22/12/2018 16:37

EHCP should come with funding. Sounds like you need a meeting with your SENCo, parents, inclusion advisor, and senior management. Someone needs to hold the LA to account - this is not your job but if it doesn't happen, your work-life becomes impossible.

Does the child have noise cancelling headphones? How about a standing desk? How about a series of "tasks" - child + another takes book to office, note to year 1 teacher, collects X from Y - so, you manufacture walking breaks into the day - getting the rest of the school team to collaborate. The class then choose how they walk - on tiptoes, stomping, quiet skipping, hopping: so, everyone feels included. What about some peer-led shared reading of phonic based books and peer reading to this student (so, age appropriate but very visual). Do you have an interactive whiteboard? Can the class find memes/emojis/short funny clips around the subjects they are doing so they can include this little girl? For PE can she not come to school in PE kit on the days there is PE? What about tracing as an activity - based on the key words she still won't know. Do you have any idea where her receptive language is?

I am so sorry - this must be beyond stressful. Hope the ideas help rather than make the situation feel impossible.

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imip · 22/12/2018 16:42

If the parents are able, you could encourage them to challenge this at tribunal. I’m a parent if 2 kids with ASD (one with a plan and one without). Im also an LSA at a different school. A child as you describe would not be left without some form of support in class. The problem is schools and SENCOs don’t understand the legal entitlements of children and LAs are trying to restrict the number of plans they have.

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danni0509 · 22/12/2018 16:59

Thing is if your losing this child's 1-1 TA what exactly is the child's ehcp funding being spent on? Plus the funding the school are required to spend before the ehcp funding.

Would most definitely be querying this, the school sound like they are having a laugh to be honest.

Whether the ehcp states 1-1 or not (my sons doesn't state 1-1 but he has it full time he couldn't not have.) the ehcp funds are required to be spent on the child. So where will the money be going?

& no the child most definitely needs a 1-1, yr 2 as your describing and they are removing support Confused Jesus!

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danni0509 · 22/12/2018 17:23

I am in all honesty shocked that a year 2 child with an EHCP who isn't at all independent, who still cannot read, only just writing own name & still only able to do very simple adult led tasks was receiving only a bit of support scattered throughout the day, and now none at all.

Not fair on the child at all & not fair on you as the teacher either.

What does the child's parents say?

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imip · 22/12/2018 18:51

I’m sure the EHcp is barely worth the paper it’s written on and the child’s provision is underfunded, hence scrapping the TA.

I’d direct parents to IPSEA or SOSSEN for legal support.

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MerrilyWatkins · 22/12/2018 21:27

We have several children with high needs in our school and the most provided by an individual ECHP is £8000. This does not pay for a 1:1 TA. Schools are expected to fund the first £6000 and have been providing significantly more than this until now. However, we are now at crisis point and the money simply isn't there. Things are only going to get worse.

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danni0509 · 22/12/2018 21:37

@MerrilyWatkins is that £8000 on top of the £6000 or the £6000 then £2000 additional from the ehcp?

My ds is in mainstream, gets £7100 on his ehcp, then £6000 on top. So £13100 in total. He has full time 1-1 with that.

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MerrilyWatkins · 22/12/2018 22:09

I thought that it was on top of the £6000 but now that you ask I'm not 100% sure. All I know is that all our TAs are now working 1:1 with children with SEN; General Teaching Assistants no longer exist in our school. Children with very high needs, for example Yr 5 working at the level of a Reception child, do not receive enough funding to pay for a full time TA. The child currently has a full time 1:1 and has for many years but this is no longer sustainable.
Something has to give and it is usually the mental health of the class teacher.

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danni0509 · 22/12/2018 22:39

@MerrilyWatkins definitely agree. Little boy in my ds school is in yr 4 non verbal needs 1-1 I speak to his mum and he gets less funding than what my ds gets from the LA but school have to provide him the 1-1 as he couldn't not have it.

There is 4 children in my sons school that I know of that need 1-1.

I do feel for the class teachers can't be an easy job.

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Starlight456 · 22/12/2018 22:45

I don’t have answers but this is so wrong on every level, for the child with sn’s , teacher and all the other children in that class as inclusion only works with funding

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imip · 23/12/2018 06:50

The 6000 is supposed to be additional. It’s the SEN support componant. However, it is not ringfenced for the child and inevitably it will be used to help fund something else - a broken roof, someone else’s 1 to 1 who doesn’t have a EHCP because the LA refuses to give one, there is a crisis in send funding at the moment. In a number of boroughs, parents are taking their LA to judicial review. A national case has also just been launched taking central government to judicial review over a lack of funding.

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WhatwouldCJdo · 23/12/2018 07:17

That is shocking. I feel sorry for you and also the child and parents who are being left down big time. Do the parents know there's no 1:1 from January?

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Tanaqui · 23/12/2018 07:29

In the long term, get the parents to contact IPSEA, the LEA, their MP even. In the short term I think you will have to use the other children- make a kind of rota in your head so you don’t overuse any one child, and see what they can do that might help, making sure your whole class work as a team.

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4point2fleet · 23/12/2018 09:06

there is a crisis in send funding at the moment.

^This

That is why Damian Hinds has bunged SEND and extra fiver to try to shut some people up ( here ). Of course it's a drop in the ocean.

I think rather than there being a new SEND funding crisis, the general school funding crisis has uncovered how much support schools were providing out of their budgets. Now the budgets are to the bone, one of the most obvious and shocking effects is the evaporation of SEND support.

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4point2fleet · 23/12/2018 09:16

To put it in perspective- of the '£100 million for new specialist places', my LEA received £100,000 (one off payment). The resource base I run costs £200,000+ per year (just to keep going, not including set up costs).

A standard Band C resource placement costs 15k per year, so if a child were to need one from Y3- Y11, that is £120,000... so the 'extra' money doesn't even cover one child's long term educational placement.

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