incontinent child being excluded from trip.

please fight this OP, otherwise your son is learning that its ok for authorities to discriminate.

speak to the local authority - they might be able to suggest some help

OP if you really are not up for the fight, take him away for the week of the residential and enjoy the cheaper holiday. You will only be fined if the school refer your holiday onto the LA and they won't do that for sure!

I shouldn't be saying this - I'm an Attendance manager!

Watching with interest. I'm currently working my way through the complaints procedure after the school refused to take ds on a residential - ds has AS and ADHD. I'm livid.

I don't think the school should be allowed to discriminate their pupils like this. Even if you don't want to start a battle with the school I would certainly highlight to them how much they have let down your child. Maybe raise it to the head teacher that you request to keep your child at home for the 5 days? At least you could plan some fun and educational trips of your own. I would also make the authority aware, if at least to prevent this from happening to another child in the future. Hope you find a happy solution.

This is illegal. Do not let them get away with it. They should not have planned a trip your child is excluded from. Go back into school now - they will still be there - and insist they follow the law.
Or they could cancel it for everyone else. Which would they prefer?

Excluding a disabled person is illegal they havnt even tried to get ypur child a carer they should explore all avenues before saying that the trip isnt accesible (sp) id contact the LEA

Ffs. My ds is 16, doubly incontinent (and unable to clean himself) and has been on every residential trip his school has done.

Op.if he hasnt got an EHC you should start the ball rolling as I presume there my be more residentials to come and this can't keep happening.

Yes I wondered about charitable funds to cover the cost of personal care.

does your dc's SEN have a dedicated charity? if so, they might be helpful
Moving gives good advice
hope you get it sorted

The precedent is to book trips the children can go on. This happens automatically for most children, hence state schools not booking a week long residential to the Pyramids, but seems that some people find this really hard for children with disabilities.

The school should have already considered accessibility for the following reasons:

Price - is it affordable?
Educational value - does this fit with the educational (including social education)'objectives?
Is it safe?
Is it accessible to all pupils? This one has not been considered apparently.

In year 6, is he able to clean himself up to a certain extent?

Oops xposted. I agree that if they employ a staff member already as part of a care plan then they are obligated to do so for the trip. I have to say I find the attitude of the school very sad. You child has enough to deal with 24/7 surely someone at the school can empathise and make an effort.

You could ask to see their risk assessment to see if they have even considered it?

Hi OP. I would imagine this isn't the first time this sort of situation has arisen so there must be a precedent? What is supposed to happen. As pp's have said, teachers aren't trained to do this and agency staff would be around £800 for the week.

poor kid. Can you take them all out and away somewhere for a few days?

I'm surprised that the headteacher doesn't know that this is illegal. It's hardly rocket science.

Can you check to see if here's a special loo?

Gosh they should make adjustments to accommodate your child as to be excluded on the basis of disability is not going to do his/her self esteem any good and sends out a message that it's ok to exclude someone with a disability. I know it's all a huge battle but I hope that you are able to make school see sense as they are breaking the law. Good luck xx

I suspect staff aren't trained to deal with such incontinance. As a care worker myself, I know there is an extra level of training that has to be done before staff can deal with personal care. However it is down to the school to employ suitably trained personal staff - TA, teacher or other. Teaching staff could be trained up but are not paid extra for manning trips and will have thier hands full anyway. Employing agency staff would be extremely costly (think £9 per hour plus £60 per sleep). Is it worth approaching your LEA or governors to resolve things?

Also you won't be fined for one week off school in my area. You will get a warning letter and nothing more.

I think the school is legally in the wrong. They are not allowed to discriminate like this against a child because they have a physical disability. He is being excluded because of a disability and that is not legal. I agree with forget the school and contact the Local Authority directly.

Really poor behaviour from school. Why haven't they checked to see if there is a specialist toilet??

Schools begin to plan residential trips well in advance and must take the health/ safety/ needs of children seriously. The head should know all details of the trip,even they aren't going with the children.

There are ways to make this work- actually this is doing my head in a bit. I'd be very surprised if a residential building didn't have facilities for children with additional needs.

Also they should have the balls to tell her themselves not leave it up to you to have to break it to her. Poor girl!!!!

Please ask them what provision they have made for her is they will not allow her to attend? I also assume that the school will not be doing work based around the school trip during the rest of the term????

FFs they could have made this work or failing that they could have consulted with you every step of the way so that some compromise could be made. I'm so sorry.

What sort of activities will they be doing, OP?

I understand. Actually as soon as I posted I thought you're probably just bloody sick of battling on.

As your child is year 6 and there's not a huge amount of term left could you just take him/her out and "home school" until the end of the year?

If you feel up to it, a complaint to the governors that your child is being deliberately excluded from a residential trip due to disability and that you are considering legal action would probably be your escalation point if you did decide to fight.

I would forget the school here and contact the authority/council education department and say the school is discriminating against your child. From what you have said about the "planning" I think they definitely are. You might find things move more quickly then. It would be better that they fix this than that you take out a case against them afterwards.