Anyone else’s child like mine, still on SN register but on and off support at school?

[SupportPlanBounce]

Have posted in both Chat and SN Chat to get a range of views.

DC is 8, Year 4.

I spent all of their Reception Year begging for help from school which got completely ignored and I was told DC was fine, managing well, liked school. Despite this DC took until February half term to use the toilet and had repeated toilet accidents due to this (both wet and soiled), couldn’t tell me the name of their teacher or any of their classmates, and resisted going into school to the point that I have a scar on my hand where they bit me to fit going into school.

In Year 1 the teacher picked up on an issue, and referred them to the SENCo. Assessments were arranged and it looked like we were going down the route of Dyslexia and co-ordination. Which fitted with my own research of DC and their presentation.

Due to covid the assessments never happened, but they were on a school support plan for Years 1 and 2. The assessments were rearranged for during Year 3, but then never happened as DC was pulled off the support plan due to not needing it at the beginning of Year 3. They bounced about a bit then, sometimes on a support plan sometimes not and school seemed to just take away the support randomly with no explanation or would tell me “They no longer need it”. Sometimes they were on the plan for a week or two, the longest time was a half term where I got my only ever review meeting to be told “No longer needed”.

I put my foot down at the end of Year 3 and said that they needed to be on the plan and have it followed and reviewed. School decided DC no longer needed it at all, and they spent the last half term of Year 3 and the first half term of Year 4 not on a plan.

Things felt like they’d settled down, DC still happy in school, seeming to get some support but nothing unusual or above what I’d expect bar a bit of extra speech input but I’ve just been told they’re going back on the plan again as they’re not making enough progress quick enough. I asked about the assessments to be told they have to be on the plan for 1 academic year before any assessments. I asked them to keep DC on it for a year and they’ve told me they will pull them off the plan when they no longer need it whether that’s 1 week, 1 year or somewhere in the middle.

It just feels so unstable. I looked into an ECHNA but I’m not sure DC is bad enough to qualify for an EHCP so I’m unsure. DC is still on the SN register and known to the Senco.

Anyone else’s child like this? And did you go for the EHCP and get it granted? I’m thinking and considering it more and more at the moment. The only reason I haven’t is DC is generally happy at school, dislikes English/Literacy and wordy subjects like History and dislikes PE and Forest School but otherwise is happy to go and doesn’t appear to be masking/holding it together/resisting. Behaviourwise at school they’re perfect a bit chatty but otherwise ok. They do out of school activities and cope there. If it wasn’t for the bouncing around on Support Plans and my initial concerns in Reception Year I'd probably not have any major worries.

So WWYD?

My now 15 year old was a bit like this. Constant on/off interventions in english and very clumsy but liked school a lot and really enjoyed everything else.

I think he is dyslexic, they did the phonological assessment battery - you could ask for that PhaB and he didnt do well and they said he had areas of difficulty.

He is fine now, english still isnt his strong point but other than the exact same interventions im not sure what else they could have done with a diagnosis

He got on well with a coloured overlay ruler to help reading.

@AntlerRose It's so frustrating isn't it? I just want to lose my s**t with the staff at school, like make a decision and stick to it please.

I will try coloured overlays thank you.

Is he summer born?

@AntlerRose Yes July born

I sometimes wonder if the standards are too high for summer borns or if they assume difficulties are due to that and dont look into it properly.

You would need a proper assessment for coloured overlays. It's not as simple as just picking a certain colour.

It can be a challenge to get one in the first place in some areas too - some don't believe that they make any difference.

@Pinkflipflop85 My concern is we're never going to get the assessments as school keep removing them reinstating the support plan, it's slightly different each time but it's essentially the same.

But I'm also concerned they're not "bad" enough for an EHCP given how stretched things are, so even if we go the ECHNA we may not be in a better position with school and support.

It's perfectly valid to by a mixed pack for a tenner on amazon and ask the kid which one they feel helps the most.

You can request an EHCNA and the LA will send the documents to the school to complete. Part of this is showing how much of the 6k budget they've spent on your child and the other part is the plan do review. School may say the can support without EHCP and its also a long process. I'd speak to the senco again

@Dippydinosaurus See again none on the intervention DC has had when on support has been anything other than small group work or 1-1 reading or a TA checking in on them in class, they've never needed 1-1 for longer than average so I doubt it'd get anywhere near the £6k support mark. So we wouldn't get an EHCP, so we're in the same position.

Can you afford to get a dyslexia assessment privately? Or to see an Ed Psych in general? You shouldn't have to do this, but if you could get private reports proving difficulty, then the school would have to put appropriate support in place, and couldn't just withdraw this on a whim.

I agree that this doesn't sound like ECHP territory.

The putting on and then withdrawing the support plans like a yoyo sounds really odd to me- almost like they are trying to avoid your DC meeting their internal thresholds for assessment?

In my LA, for coordination issues, you’d go to the GP and request a referral to the OT. That wouldn’t come through the school.

For dyslexia, I don’t know any schools that will fund Dyslexia assessments now-the entire budget would be gone within a week from parental requests. Some schools may do their own screening, but these can be unreliable.

@howshouldibehave They were council assessments, someone from the council was coming in to do assessments but they were general literacy/english and numeracy/maths assessments they were never ever labelled as Dyslexia/Dyspraxia/Whatever, I assumed DC would fail the literacy assessment and then it would go on to be EHCNA/EHCP for the official diagnosis.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl I'm a single parent sadly and cannot afford private assessments, if I could I absolutely would as I do feel the support would help if given a chance, but how can they know if DC is only on a support plan for a week? That's what at most 1 or 2 sessions of group work/invention and I don't see how they can show DC has improved after only 1 session.

Which LEA are you? We don’t have any council assessments in mine. It doesn’t really sound like there are any significant difficulties though and an EHCNA would not proceed. I’d go and have a chat with the SENCo and explain your concerns though.

I'd make a complaint about how it's been handled tbh. In the school I teach at, we cannot remove a child from SN register without parents written consent, and we wouldn't even try unless they had consistently shown they no longer need to be on it, for a year at least.

So when the child is on the plan what additional support do they receive? When they are taken off is that support withdrawn? Or what support is it that you feel they need that they aren’t receiving?

@Ibouncetothebeat On plan they get:

• Small Group intervention with reading
• Small Group Intervention for spelling
• 1-1 SALT
• A TA checking in on them in class and helping with any extra helping such as breaking it down, reading or spelling help as DC can get upset in class
• Help with cutlery and cutting at lunchtimes (this I don't feel is needed personally and does sometimes get taken out)
• TA support to move between buildings/classrooms as well as verbal reminders of where they're going and why

When not on plan they get nothing apart from a lunchtime club to help with speech which I assume is a small group from various age groups across the school and most of the time DC has to be reminded of that.