To say my DS cant keep missing school because the school “cant cope”??

Another thing that comes to mind, your son seems to struggle with the work complexity increasing, cannot keep up especially in a busy classroom and is upset when it's pointed out he got things wrong. Did he have a recent educational psychology assessment for his EHCP?

Thanks!
We have similar (not called EHCP) but made at the school with head teacher, deputy head, (ASN provision if required) and parent.

In this situation I’d call an immediate meeting with head to discuss and get this sorted, if support is supposed to be in place then school should comply and child should also know what is in place for them 🤯

Distorted interpretation? Of legal requirements?

Depends on the child and their needs.

What is it you expect ref 'proper required support'?

Thats terrible.... specialist schools are needed more than ever

The EHCP is a legal document issued by the local authority detailing the child's needs and the support they should receive to meet them.

One of the questions here is whether the school is actually complying with the EHCP as the child has been there for 5 years without (it sounds like) such major problems.

No but they must do the PAPERWORK.

It helps the child as it builds evidence a new setting may be needed.

It helps the school because it evidences more LA support may be needed.

Besides they are required to do it. I wouldn't want my child (SEN or not) in a school not following legal requirements, because what else aren't they doing properly?

First off, this is a new school year and there will be a settling in period. For some this shows immediately and for some it won’t be for a few weeks.
from everything you’ve said I’d say it’s a teacher stamping authority across the class from the beginning of the year, for your son it’s absolutely terrified he does something wrong and reacting immediately instead.

Some questions - is he medicated? Have you explored this? Does he have a timetable to follow throughout the day? Could this be introduced? What does “helping” him look like to you? Could a reduced timetable help short term? Have you had a meeting with his teacher and head teacher? Can you arrange one?

unfortunately, throwing anything is a danger to others (and will terrify the others even if none have ever been harmed) and can see why it’s suggested he is collected HOWEVER.. this should all be in a plan with school for him. Slow start, regular brain breaks, calm room to visit (perhaps scheduled so he follows routine) and some time and support from his new teacher!!

I’m in Scotland so don’t know the whole EHCP thing and how exactly you guys work but hopefully some of the things mentioned above may help.

I have no doubt things will settle, he needs a little time and patience!

I have massive respect to anyone working in education and SEN at present. There's no funding, schools are expected to just get on with things with no support. I'm not suprised staff are leaving.

If school is not coping with your son's behaviour - and you said it yourself he has been struggling with school for a while - pressuring them to do more won't help. It sounds like mainstream may not be the answer for him. Better to look at other education options now when he is 9 rather than wait until he's older.

That’s a distorted interpretation of legal entitlements and how they play out when children behave in unsafe ways. It means there is always a period of instability during which it takes time to reach a conclusion about whether the school can meet the child’s needs or whether alternative provision is needed. Schools are never required to keep children who are throwing furniture around at the expense of the safety and education of the other children.

I don't think it's solely costs but that old chestnut of different budgets.

No-one as far as I know is comparing lack of primary health care in schools with extra costs incurred by secondary health care (we had a girl in one school having major seizures every week, bashing her head on furniture inadvertently etc). I'm sure a good school nurse could prevent hospital admissions, as well as do staff training on common and less common conditions, but it's hard to prove the benefit of prevention because it's proving a negative.

The private school I worked in did employ a nurse of course.

Yep.

My son has a central line in his chest which his teachers need to be trained for. His line doesn't need to be used during the school day but they need to be trained to know what to do if it is accidently pulled out or it gets a hole in it etc and ''trained'' pretty much means showing them the emergency kit, showing how to stop/slow any bleeding if it is pulled or temporarily repair the hole if it is damaged. It's actually terrifying.

But again, it all comes down to costs unfortunately.

Because they can't or won't spend the money.

My pro rate salary as a f/t student welfare officer running the medical room for 1600 secondary school kids is £23,600pa.

Far more important that they spend the cash on business, finance and HR bods to run the academy side of things...🙄😡

46 free schools scrapped and 59 special schools in limbo https://share.google/ZUl1gWJ3NTMVsLmWb

@cityliving99 while as my posts on here no doubt show, I have a low opinion of LA SEND teams, the problem you describe sounds like the NHS letting schools down.

Like every teacher in the country, I have just done allergy and epipen training. The reason everyone did it is because of the hard activist work of Benedict's parents (he died when his school didn't take his dairy allergy seriously) not because the NHS said "oh there are rising rates of serious allergies, better train teachers."

Repeat with diabetes, asthma, epilepsy etc. Schools used to have nurses. Why don't they?

One of the (many) things that has really disturbed me about the current government proposals is that they have actually cancelled a number of special schools that were ready to be built.

We have such odd people in charge. They actually think providing a breakout room and providing a minimal amount of extra staff training replaces specialist schools for those who need them. Those types of schools are centres of expertise and a world away from "a harried OT or speech therapist comes to a school an hour a month and does their best in a room not designed for that purpose" which is what we get.

They know it now

Do they? Are you sure? Because the SEND reforms are about increasing the number in mainstream schools.

leading to huge, costly…court fees.

I disagree. None of what you list means LAs have to spend reprehensible amounts of money defending indefensible cases they know they are going to lose often against unrepresented parents. None of it is a defence to acting unlawfully. It absolutely doesn’t have to lead to huge, costly court fees.

While the percentage with EHCPs has increased, there hasn’t been such a big increase in the percentage of DC with SEN as some like to suggest. The most recent statistics released this year show 20.8% of pupils have SEN. In 2010, it was 20.9% or 21.1% (depending on which statistics you look at - I think it is a rounding issue adding up SA, SA+ and SSEN). In 2005, it was 18%. Going back several decades to the Warnock report in 1978, “some 20% appeared to need some form of special educational help. This may even be an underestimate…”

They don't seem interested in providing more/better specialist provision.

I'm a student welfare (medical officer) in a secondary school and the lack of funding and support in the face of a massive increase in in students with complex mental health needs and SEN is the reason I have just resigned.

It's heartbreaking as I really thought when I started in the role I'd be able to make a difference.

The government need to wake up and realise that banning mobile phones in school and restricting access to social media is just a drop in the ocean in terms of the support our young people need and actually start investing in infrastructure, support service and meaningful changes to the education system if they don't want at least one lost generation on their hands.

Yes, of course I have. I was part of the consultation.

There is a place for mainstream, as well as a range of other provision. Some schools, mine included offer(ed) excellent support and inclusive practice.
Some schools really struggle to do this.

Unless more money, through taxes, is put into the system, with increasing numbers of children requiring support, there are always going to be compromises, unfortunately.

Personally my conscience is clear having a) saved them a bunch of money privately educating my DC at primary; b) DH and I paid for nearly all assessments, therapies etc privately because there was nothing; c) I spent two years doing tribunals to secure her a place in a suitable secondary in a different LA; d) I work in a state school as a teacher. I think I'm probably a net contributor! And more professional than them grrrrr.

Not sure what your point is?
That all the parents of SEN kids you meet are lazy? And therefore SEN kids behave badly? Or that parents in general are lazy? Or that we have an epidemic of badly behaved SEN kids? I haven't seen any empirical evidence for this, but maybe you have seen it with your own eyes.

Perhaps, like many of us, you have more general concerns, or maybe don't like the way society is heading, as portrayed by the media?

I'm not sure which parents you hang out with, but most of the ones I meet are also concerned about too much screen time, kids not reading books, and generally how to love their kids and bring them up well in this digital age... Isn't that what most parents care about?

I know for a fact that anyone who beats parents with the stick of "too much relying on screen time" has never worked closely with the kind of SEN kids and families I know, where screens provide incredible regulation because they isolate the brain and nervous system from all the triggers around them, like noise, social environment, interactions... That doesn't mean leave them on screens all day, but if you can't articulate the nuance of appropriate screen use vs. lazy parenting, then you're already on the judgmental side and probably don't realise just how different (and difficult) it is to parent some SEN children.

So, I'm not sure why you've mixed up "kids getting addicted to screens" with "SEN parents are lazy" and "as soon as a child gets a medical diagnosis, parents shift the responsibility" and "there's an epidemic of badly behaved SEN kids"... Because most of that seems like regurgitated opinion pieces from Jeremy Clarkson, Boris Johnson and other ill-informed, lazy commentators who want to colour the opinions of society.

Have you seen the proposed SEND reforms? The government want more SEND children in mainstream.

If it goes ahead, things are going to get much more worse.

It will take a serious incident like another child or teacher gettjng killed before the education system actually does anything. And am not bejng dramatic either as just need to look at the news of teachers being stabbed