School refusing

[Jourdain11]

Hello,

I'm at the end of my endurance with this! It has been an issue for a while, but things seem to have got worse after half term. Monday got off to a terrible start because my 9 year old DD1 would not go to school. By 8am we'd had screaming, tears, trying to hit her head against the walls, and younger two DC agitating because they were missing breakfast club. Managed to get them there in time for school (DH took them on his way to his school for one of his many extra MAT insets) but it took another hour and a half to persuade DD1 into leaving the house. She was totally traumatised and I felt like the most evil mother of all time making her go there. And I was an hour and a half late for work, which did not go down well.

I don't think we can continue like this. It can't be kind or healthy. But I can't just take her out of school - both of us work and we can't afford not to

I have nothing to offer but my sympathy op, that all sounds very difficult.

DH says that getting a private assessment is essentially not worth the paper it's printed on, because the school aren't obliged to pay attention to it and won't.

Are you sure that they won’t pay attention to it though? We moved from France to U.K. with our DC and had the private French Ed Psych assessments and reports plus translation into English and the U.K. school didn’t bat an eye. We had a few meetings with the SENCOs and EHCPs were drawn up....

Perhaps ask the school of you did get a private assessment done whether they’d accept it and act on it?

Is there a way of finding out who would carry out an NHS assessment for ASD in your local area? If so, you could pay for a private appointment with that person or their superior. They would have to take a report seriously if it’s from the same professional that the LA use.

Hi OP

I also have a school refuser so feel your pain. Also an inexperienced teacher.

It isn’t true that private diagnosis or assessments aren’t worth it - it’s actually founded in law that independent professionals assessments hold as much weight as LA/NHS ones as long as they hold the correct qualifications/experience. Schools will often say that a tribunal etc will discount evidence from independent professionals - it isn’t true. Sometimes the LA wrongly takes this approach but again that could be challenged.

A school certainly should not discount a private assessment and would have absolutely no basis for doing so. School support should not of course be based on diagnosis anyway but need - so your daughter shouldn’t need to wait for a diagnosis to have the school meet her needs ( althogh I agree in practice sadly diagnosis often helps).

If you go over to the SEN boards there are lots of people who are super helpful and could no doubt help.

Id be asking for an urgent meeting with the SENCO.

SEMH needs, which OP's DD certainly has, are a type of SEN.

Remind the teacher DD has SEN and the school are required to make their best endeavours to meet her needs and make reasonable adjustments. Follow up verbal conversations with emails, so you have a paper trail you can use as evidence.

Yep, I would agree with that and I feel that the school are actually trying hard to accommodate. The individual class teacher not so much.

Thanks for the info about private assessments, it's definitely something to explore. Regardless, she has a MH diagnosis and is on SSRIs, it's not like there's no evidence of anything

When was the decision about refuse to issue a plan made? You said you had an EHC needs assessment within the last 6 months so you may still be in the timeframe to appeal. If it's not too far over you could try submitting a late application to the SEND tribunal. It's worked for me before.

Beginning June - sooo, it is definitely within the 6 month point.

You have the later of the 2 dates to get your appeal in - 2 months from the date of the decision or 1 month after you get your mediation certificate. You need that to lodge the appeal. I was thinking that if the EHC needs assessment was carried out quite recently then the decision not to issue an EHCP was more recent and perhaps within the timeframe.

I'd just fill the form out for a late appeal and see if it gets accepted. Just explain you have been so caught up with your daughter and didn't understand the process etc.

If the decision not to issue was made at the start of June, you potentially had until the start of October to appeal. That's only a month or so ago.

You don't send a mediation certificate for a late appeal as you can't normally get one if it's after the 2 month period. There is a box on the form to tick about it.

The IPSEA website has loads of information about how to write an appeal

I am going through exactly the same with my 8 year old daughter. I would be grateful if you could let me know how things are by now. I am at the end of my tether she is refusing to go and has lost a lot of school since November last year. She is scared to go and when l ask what is it she is scared of there is a different reason everyday so l don't know what to believe. I cannot fault the school they have tried everything 😪