Hi everyone,
Just hoping someone can shed some light for me as anyone I turn to doesn't seem to be able to give me a straight answer! Let alone the school!
So my little boy has Autism, he's 7 and has a statement of sen, in this he is entitled to 25 hours 1:1 classroom assistance per week. Last year we had no worries as he was only in until 2pm each day which covered the full five hours... Now he is in until 3pm we've ran into trouble. What I didn't realise was that his current assistant (same from primary 1) takes a 15 minute break at break time and a 45 minute lunch break, which she's obviously entitled to a break but this leaves my son alone and if we take that whole hours break away he is only receiving four hours classroom assistance per day, which brings him to 20 hours per week instead of 25.
School have taken the assistance away at 2pm and so my son struggles sometimes for that last hour. I argued my case that due to the assistant breaks this hour should surely be made up from 2-3 each day so that his hours still equal 25 per week? I also explained to school that even when he was in until 2pm he was only receiving 4 hours assistance per day as this assistants breaks still happend at that length.
I'm just wondsfing if anyone can tell me if I'm correct in this.. Should that hour be fullfilled from 2-3pm as that makes up his five hours per day? I was told my my local authority that those 25 hours are solely for my son and every hour needs fullfilled.
I hope this all makes sense. Thanks for reading and hopefully shedding some light! :-)