Should school supervise better?

That's a shame because it is a legal requirement for the SENCO to hold a qualification within three years of starting the post and they must hold QTS. We get a phone call to check this every year. Unfortunately it's a thankless (and financially unworthwhile) role in schools so there is often a high turnover of people in the role.

And whilst that is true, many many schools simply don’t have a SENDCO who is qualified to that level, or even someone who is vaguely trained in SEND, I used to be a SENDCO in a different setting and I certainly didn’t do a PGCE for adult education, I had to seek out my SENDCO training by myself whilst I was employed as a SENDCO. Luckily I am a fast learner and completed very very quickly, but I happen to know at my children’s school the SENDCO hasn’t done any formal training, doesn’t actually know the laws and runs around like a chicken missing its head. She came into primary teaching after being a dance instructor for 14+ for a few years so only has a PTLLS and DTLLS. I have reported this to the LA, but everything is super underfunded, what can you do?

The SENCO has to hold a masters level SENCO qualification in almost all circumstances. My PGCE certainly did include SEND training, even HLTA training does.

There is very little understanding for kids like this. My own child has taken his finger nail off with another child's pencil sharpener, escaped school and run into traffic and climbed onto school roof. All while supposedly having 1:1 via EHCP. He's at alternative provisions now as school just couldn't keep him safe and it's glaringly obvious they haven't even read his EHCP. I got feedback he had a wonderful session in the snow and the photos I saw he's not in his coat he was fucking blue when I got him and they were taken aback when I said he doesn't feel temperature why wasn't he wearing a coat "oh he didn't want to we thought he'd tell us he was cold"

I teach this kind of age.
In my class, in a very normal average state school, I have 2 children diagnosed with ASD and 2 more on the pathway. I have 3 with a formal diagnosis of ADHD (two are also on the ASD spectrum)
I have a number of children who are EAL including one child new in the country with limited English. I also have other children with varying needs.

This is fairly typical for a class ime these days.

I have one TA who is in each morning only.

We are spending vast amounts of school budgets on supporting these children, on top of the normal daily levels of suppot.

Without a formal education plan laying out the need for 1:1 supervision, or any hint of where funding might come from, it sometimes feels like a massive balancing act to make sure every child gets what they want every day.

I've been on numerous courses and training days. In the heat of the moment, when dealing with 29 other children with their own needs, it can be difficult to put everything into practise every time sadly.

I'd love to do more for each and every child in my care. But the reality is that we have 30 children, limited support staff (and I know we have more than the average school as it is), limited funding, limited break out spaces, etc.

How many times has your ds poked himself in the eyes with stuff in the last 12 months? I don't dispute he has less sense of danger than most but I think you should credit him with just a little more nouse than you think. He has just demonstrated he can use scissors without poking an eye out and, as others have nentioned, the world is full of sharp things to put in eyes.

I am glad you're going to start the process of accessing additional support now. It's so important to be proactive as it will take a long time. While of course there are issues everywhere, in my experience the schools try really hard - they just can't work miracles with the resources they have. TAs in our school who aren't 1:1s will float and are often moved class to class around specific needs so relying on this sort of ad hoc cover isn't sustainable.

On a practical note though I personally wouldn't worry about the school scissors. Am frankly amazed they cut his hair - the ones at my kids' school would barely cut paper. I don't think they are inherently more dangerous than any number of other things they'll be using.

You are very fortunate the school have afforded your child so much unfunded support. If this is a general teaching assistant or even allocated to another child it is highly unrealistic to expect your child to be watched and supported a significant amount of the time. Even in key stage one we now see children with anxiety who need support from teaching assistants as well as children with a diagnosis. Classrooms are immense pressure pots. The volume of paperwork and observations needed to apply for support are highly unrealistic along with all other pressures on the teacher.

Schools awful local authorities are under funding constraints and pressures, you need to be the driving force if you feel your child needs additional 1:1 funded hours.

Teachers want children supported but they triage what they can do in the time available - child protection always being the priority. You have to advocate for your child and make that your priority.

But by that logic, he could just poke anything in his eye?

The school have done very well to give him as much support as they can, especially considering he currently has no funding for it. On this day it was just not possible to provide that level of supervision. You have been told the scissors cannot cut through skin. So they were no more dangerous than him using a pencil or a fork which he presumably uses.

Im a SEND parent.
it is AWFUL what schools will do/say to wriggle out of admitting the truth. As often the truth is “we weren’t supervising and we don’t really care” as blunt as that is; I honestly don’t believe teachers are paid enough to care. They are always so so busy and don’t have enough time on their hands to deal with the so called easy NT kids they have, much less the SEND ones!
seriously, send off the EHCNA request yourself, you will usually get the contact info for your LAs SEND “top dog” and you can message them with your findings about the school.
Don’t forget to report this stuff to ofstead in the parent review panel too.
the more SEND parents speak up about the lack of provision for SEND kids, the more the government will hopefully stand up and start paying attention and hopefully start paying teachers to actually care for their students, instead of red tape all the time.

I read secondary ones, ours are often 20 pages or more with the reports attached.

Best thing is a one page summary of stuff I can actually do in my classroom to support the child.

What am I reading the rest for? I'll have forgotten it 5 mins later, it's a waste of time.

It's funny because I read many ehcp documents in a week for older children in secondary and they don't run to 20 pages so I find it amusing that someone who purported to know about them thinks a primary age child would have one reaching 20 pages.

What's funny about that?

Sorry OP, whilst I understand you are concerned, your son has no EHCP, no funding for additional support, and it is completely unreasonable to expect a TA to literally watch him every single second of the day, when they are employed to support the class as a whole. That isn't fair to the other 30 children. Frankly, if you genuinely don't think he can be trusted with a pencil, you need to seriously be considering looking into getting the EHCP underway and looking at specialist provision for him.

There is no sen training in the pgce

There is in every PGCE student I've mentored across 4 different universities.

A lot of your statements make it seem like your experience is true of every school, when it isn't the case.

20 page document 😱👀😂.

Ridiculous.

@gek

I teach DT in a secondary school. If he was in my class I'd be writing a risk assessment specifically for him.

I think the (blunt) scissors thing isn't much of an issue, it's the other things you mention. I volunteered on a London school trip for my daughter's year 3 class. We did a 20 min walk along the busy pavements with buses rushing by. In my group of 4 I was assigned a boy who kept intentionally slipping off the pavement into the road. I dealt with it, but even I found it stressful. Your child for trips like these needs to be presumably be assigned a 1 on 1 TA he is familiar with, or you or his dad must attend. If I were you I'd be arranging a meeting and getting that ehcp set up. Take a list of all the past incidences that have happened at school ask how the school will safeguard him from now on. Don't be afraid of being a polite pain, you are just advocating for your child. Your concerns have been brushed off in the past and your child is suffering because of it. Why don't you suggest a 1 page pupil info page you put together that can be handed over to any covering staff, including the key points they need to know about how to keep him safe.

I think yabu. Kids in nursery use scissors and I would say the majority of them won't really understand the dangers of them and they couldn't all have 1:1's.

He either does need a 1:1 or he doesn't, you say he doesn't but if he's not aware of any danger at all then surely he would need one? Because if that was the case there are a whole host of hazards in a school that a child without even a tiny sense of danger could injure themselves or others with.

@SupercutSchool I work in a school and no teachers only read them depending on the teacher... The Senco also have no proper training so they can't give help or tips.
Many teachers are actively derisoury about dc with sen eg adhd child is naughty and so on. There is no sen training in the pgce and if a teacher or staff member had already been in post then to become a Senco doesn't mean they know about it except in the most basic coordinating capacity.
. It's the blind lead the blind

@LifedestroyerifYOUletthem Why would you need a teacher to read the whole EHCP? I teach over 12 kids with EHCPs. It's much better to read the relevant parts and actual strategies that work, than reading a 20+ page document. Most of the EHCP isn't information we need (or can remember!).

@Sherrystrull I'm in education and my dc have sen.

What your saying maybe true of your setting but I'm afraid it's the outlier.

Just to manage your expectations: An EHCP might not give your child a 1:1 at all times. You might only get funding for part time hours to be used for certain lessons and then check ins, or interventions at other times.

Ignore posters who say schools don't read them though as they are legal documents and schools work very hard to implement them.

It's important to start the process of getting one as whole class TAs become rarer as children go up the school. I would ask to meet with the SENCO.

So have I. Plus your post to @noble was unnecessary. Her comment was no different to anyone else's and didn't warrant a personal attack.

@Sherrystrull I've got wide experience