ASD in mainstream secondary

Can I ask if any staff in your secondary, other than SEN staff, have autism training? personally, I am massively overtrained in autism, in that I've had months and months of training from different sources, for different reasons, and much of it is contradictory, and little of it is of use when getting to know individuals.

To a lesser extent, have also been trained in dyslexia, dyspraxia, ODD, ADHD, DAMP, PDA, OCD, brittle bone disease, allergy/ anaphalaxis, BSL, epilepsy ( all its manifestations) sensory disorders, perception disorders, language disorders, sickle cell, diabetes, RTS, MCAD, Downs, FAS,Tourettes, NF1, Bipolar, discalcula, cerebral palsy, conduct disorders, attachment disorders, SMD, SID, asthma, APD.............

Just of the top of my head.

And many more besides.

And I am not in a medical career,

The point is, many parents want us to be specifically trained in the specific medical problem that their child has, but actually, no one can possibly remember it all, and yet more training really isn't the answer.

I've never been given a kid's ed psych report! We see IEPs on SIMs but they're obviously not on there for Y7 yet.

What we did have was a quick PowerPoint on the INSET at the start of term detailing the kids in Y7 with SEN, a few bullet points for each child like "diagnosed with ASD, weak literacy, struggles with noise". That's it.

What I really want is for his teachers (all of his subject teachers) to remember and understand his issues when teachers have 200-300 students, and 10-20% have SEN......

• are absolutely crap

We wouldn't have a spare room to give out!

And sadly, many primaries absolutely crap at passing on SEN (and CP) files. Really frustrating this far into term and not having vital info on some kids. Not all parents will bother to contact the school themselves.

You need to have a meeting with the school asap. The school will and should be able to support your DS. His needs are individual to him but will be issues that the school has come across before.

I would ask for a meeting with his Form tutor and also SENCO. Schools are busy places and however good and caring a teacher I am there is no way that I could work out your DS needs in the first week of term. Relationships need to be made with the 250 students I teach in a week and obviously that takes time.

Now that you have a clearer view of how the school works and issues that your DS finds difficult then you can make this much easier for the School to offer the support to your DS if you arrange a meeting to explain this to them.

Passes are used a lot either for the loo break or for chill out in a specified room. Staff in the room will welcome input from you to help deal with issues that arise.

A family support group would not be helpful to the school as they will have qualified staff who are able to deal with students needs but they obviously need to be aware of what those are.

Talk to the school.

I don't know Verbena. Is there not a parent forum locally for children with ASCs?

I can only speak for my school and the answer would be no. Not because we don't care or woulnt find it a good idea but because we don't have many spare rooms, we can't have random adults in the school and I imagine that it would be helpful for a member of staff to attend and simply, they can't. They have timetables!

We would probably be open to hosting a forum outside of school hours though and someone might attend from the SEN/Pastoral team every so often.

On the other hand the school may say no and suggest a neutral location. Whilst parent voice is important to schools often parent forums get heated and it might be better to have a representative meet with the school at a calmer point so everyone concerned can approach whatever issues are raised in a calm manner.

You can but ask.

Just to illustrate how even when you have a statement and a PITA mother on their back things still go wrong TA didn't turn up because she got muddled up!!! No explanation as to how she didn't know she wasn't in the right lesson seeing as she was supposed to be providing 1 to 1 support but one email later an apology and an agreement that the hour will be made up and so they will be doing dd's homework with her rather than her bringing it home

Sorry! Got confused!

My advice still stands, be your sons advocate. Go to the SENCO, explain the issues. Make suggestions and ask for their suggestions too.

I'm afraid though, that although it may make you sad and frustrated, as others have said, there is no way that a dozen teachers with hundreds of students are going to magically "get" your son. It takes time and patient (on your part) perseverance. The teacher will have to take time to learn his ways too. Just like it took his primary team - but on a larger and more variable scale.

Please try to remember that the vast majority of teachers, SLT and SENCOs want the best for every child. They will listen and they will learn from what you say but they won't just 'jump' in to the right mode automatically, they have to find their way to work with your son based on how they run their subjects, classrooms and the other 20+ people in the room.

I am so sorry Verbena for confusing things by hijacking your thread. There seemed to be a lot of understanding and supportive sorts on here. I wanted to ask about key workers then got a bit distracted.

Year 7 is bloody hard. Not only for children with Asd. You would expect the teachers and support staff to be on it from the start (baring in mind they can see primary schools' reports) but in our experience they didn't. For your ds it's early days in school. Teething problems likely but can cause absolute nightmares especially when they get home from a day of it. I must say I was a bit reluctant to contact school as 'this is big school now' and I didn't want to be one of THOSE parents so I held back and ds had many a problem. When I did contact school I found some staff really helpful, some, really not!! Like yours my ds's diagnosis was pretty recent so feel we're still feeling our feet. I would say - don't assume they know something, don't assume they're doing something, any issues contact the person you have most faith in. It's very wrong that parents of children with asd have to fight for their kids, but from my experience and that of people I talk to in RL and on here (where you can get some fab advice) this is frequently what we need to do to get anywhere.

Ahhhh. Ok, it's all beginning to make sense now. Right, he's a clever kid but, just by nature of the type of school the teachers will have seen fewer students with SEN (although many of the SEN students in grammars have ASCs). They won't have much experience and they are used to very articulate and organised students. From day one they will expect students to be able to regulate their own timetables, understand the school day, go to the toilet at breaks etc. Because for the most part that's the nature of the children they teach. Rather than getting angry, ask to meet with the SENCO and discuss some of the suggestions made on this post. The school will want to help but probably don't have as much experience as others - think of yourself as an advocate and guide for your DS and future students with ASC there. Grammars offer a lot to clever kids but they just don't have the strategies used in many comps as they simply don't need them.

Yes ds diagnosed but no statement or ECHP or whatever they're called now. I know he's on the sen register as he had a nosy. Yes it's a grammar. Is this why so little support, despite their bold and ambitious statements in their policy? I have no idea how many on register. I think that figure must be with statements only surely. ??

Yes ds diagnosed but no statement or ECHP or whatever they're called now. I know he's on the sen register as he had a nosy. Yes it's a grammar. Is this why so little support, despite their bold and ambitious statements in their policy? I have no idea how many on register. I think that figure must be with statements only surely. ??

Flying - do you mean %ge statemented (which was just under 3% in dd's school IIRC at the last inspection) or %ge on the SEN register (over 50%?)

1-2% on SEN register?! Is this a grammar school? Or otherwise selective (EG. Very strict religious observance standards?) They often have very low SEN figures.

As far as I can see there's about 1-2% on sen register. Yes you're right Insan. I've just checked and there appears to be 4

I'm not aware of ds having a keyworker. Surely I would know. Should he have one?