Weird school situation (SEN)

[Askma]

This is a bit of an odd one.

I've just found out DS is on the SEN register at school. Having spoken to the SENCO I should have been told about this when it was done, presumably last year.

The thing is no one seems to know why he's on it. Academically he is meeting all his targets and is probably gifted and talented in regards to Maths. Socially there are no concerns, he has excellent concentration and behaviour, never been any issues raised and all his teachers say he is a lovely little boy.

It appears the previous SENCO put him on the list but she's left so can't be asked why. His teachers don't have any explanation for it.

Their current plan is to leave him on the list to "monitor".

For the sake of the full picture, he is a slightly odd child, and when he was younger I did wonder about autistic trates (obsessions and being very high achieving in one area) but he doesn't have any of the other markers. He's usually as happy to play alone as with other children but is sociable and makes friends.

I don't really know where to go with this now! I'm guessing him being on a list has no effect on him, there are no interventions in place. But I'm really puzzled and a bit bemused by the whole situation. Should I leave things be? Ask them to take him off? Do something else?

I feel a bit concerned that someone somewhere thinks he has additional needs and I don't know what they are!

Isn't there a thing where being gifted and talented is considered a special educational need? I'm sure it is. That's probably why OP.

One of his previous teachers must know about it if they are all still in the school. Is it that he is free school dinners/summer born/EAL/ some pupil premium thing and it has been noted down wrong? Seems very strange if there’s no paper trail. Has he at least had an IEP before?

No free school meals, February birthday, I'm not sure what an IEP is!

Previous teacher (reception), the SENCO said they'd spoken to, along with his very new teacher and neither had any reason he might be on the register.

I don't know if gifted and talented would count but when I googled it didn't seem to?

I would look into the gifted and talented if I was you. I can remember some years back, it was quite a thing with the Governers

Things have changed quite a lot in recent years. An IEP is an Individual Education Plan, which should be devised in consultation with parents, to address the additional need of a child, what will be done, who will do it and when it will be reviewed. It’s one of the stages of the Code of Practice for SEN. There used to be three stages, of increasing intervention, possibly resulting in a statement ultimately.

It sounds as though a minor concern had been expressed about your son, perhaps in terms of the autism type traits you mention. That seems to be as far as it’s gone, because no one has seen a needcto escalate to more formal stages, especially since he’s progressing well. You should have been consulted, but I really wouldn’t worry about it, except to ask that they remove him from the register if no one has a concern and that if anyone does have a concern in the future, the teacher should consult with you before taking any action.

It's possible to be on both ends if the SEN register at the same time so if he's got ASD traits that were flagged to watch plus G&t it might make sense to include him but you should have known about it.