Permanent exclusion

[MarilynAlice]

My son was permanently excluded from school 5 months ago I have been fighting it ever since as they were discriminating him and manipulating suspensions. I took it to an independent panel amd they quashed the decision of the governing body and directed they review the exclusion again because of how flawed it was. At the independent review they completely made up a new lie that my child strangled another child, they have literally re wrote incident forms and got the child to re write their statement nearly 5 months down the line saying the strangling took place, they have submitted these to the reconsideration panel, surely this is not allowed.

Minutes have to be agreed by all concerned. If one party doesn’t agree, then they are not accepted as a true record. Presumably you didn’t agree, so that’s the point where agreement needs to be accepted. By everyone.

@Soontobe60 why do you assume the school sought to agree the minutes? Never happened in my case. The school was more concerned with attempting to control the narrative.

Move on. The LA has an obligation to find a solution for your son. 2 hours away is not acceptable. They should be providing offsite tutoring for him in the interim.

best of luck - you must be stressed out of your box and I feel for you

Some of the things that happened to us (and are commonplace tactics):

1. The HT did not follow the correct processes.
2. The HT ignored the views of the LA agencies involved that her actions were premature and that she had not allowed enough time for adjustments to bear fruit.
3. The HT and her daughter (the SENDCo!!!) falsified documents to suggest adjustments had been made when they hadn't.
4. The HT libelled/smeared us with the governors ahead of her actions to exclude with documents saying that we were bad/chaotic parents refusing help (all totally untrue).
5. The governors failed to properly investigate complaints. The investigation was one meeting between the chair and the HT with him then becoming aggressive towards us (in a misguided defence of the school).

It was shocking to experience, but even more shocking to discover that we were far from unique in the experience.

The local inclusion lead for the LA actively encouraged us to sue in the SEnD tribunal, as it was not the first time this HT had behaved this way, and she fully expected her to do it again.

How do you know that statements about incidents have been falsified?

For someone who works in a school, this is a concerning comment.
If your sole intention is to criticise those posting their experiences, don’t bother commenting.

A PRU might be the making of him. He'll get a more tailored education and have more support with his ADHD than in mainstream.

The parents minimising their children's behaviour and posting outlandish claims about schools breaking laws to victimise their blameless child are more concerning to be honest.

Ahhhhhh and all becomes clear.

Yeah it's sadly unsuprising that where this ended up isn't it

Thanks for this clear explanation of what I'm now too cross to articulate!

I'd also add that some schools knowingly engage in practices that heighten anxiety and precipitate meltdowns for ADHD/ASD children, and deliberately fail to put provision in place that would lessen the anxiety thus improving the behaviour. Constructive dismissal is a term used in employment law, but a very similar thing happens to many SEN children. They're managed out.

This is why I'm often grateful that my ASD child is not my only child. I can trundle out my older DC as examples of ones I made earlier, thus neatly disproving anyone who claims my shitty parenting is the problem! Not to mention the glowing reports my parenting has had from, let's see... social services, BIBIC, SaLT, the OT, and the Ed Psych 😇

Nobody has said any child is blameless. Your comments are becoming more and more ridiculous to be honest.
You have not experienced what others have. Accept that and don’t try and criticise parents who have been open and honest.

Thanks MNHQ for deleting the ablist bullshit post made by someone who clearly doesn't know as much as they think they know. Unfortunately that attitude is all too common and the anti-disability rhetoric is only going to ramp up as we approach a GE.

On the point Knowingly causing meltdowns, it's hard to prove but yes, we suspected that was happening to strengthen the ledger for exclusion. Its depressingly easy to do, and the HT in our case had ableist views that children with SEND should not be in mainstream schools, so allowing meltdowns by refusing to meet needs can become a self reinforcing cycle to "prove" that position.

Exactly.

In our case it was fairly obvious. We had plenty of evidence that one particular (non essential and non educational) activity caused my child to completely disregulate and become violent. On multiple occasions staff actually told my child to engage in this activity despite knowing it was advised against by at least 2 professionals in their reports and by me on an almost daily basis. Recommendations had been made for how to approach this activity if it was used in school, including the use of a special timer (paid for and provided by me). Did they follow the recommendations? Lol nope. But then every time my child went into meltdown, they issued a fixed term exclusion...

Or another example. I provided another piece of OT equipment for my child to use at certain times of day to meet a sensory need and reduce a particular inappropriate behaviour (again as recommended by a professional in a report that school had access to). My child had a full time 1-1 funded via his EHCP so it was perfecly possible for this to happen, it wasn't a staffing issue. School staff allowed another child to use the equipment and break it, so my child wasn't able to use it. They then didn't mention it to me for 6 weeks. My child went without the OT provision for those 6 weeks, with the behaviour it was meant to reduce getting steadily more frequent and causing meltdowns and...you guessed it...fixed term exclusions.

One of the other issues we encountered was cultural resistance to being told "how to do their jobs". There was one teacher whom we were assured "was all about inclusion". What that actually meant was race and religious inclusion. When it came to adhd and ASD, it turned out she had certain ideas about discipline and behaviour which meant she saw every non-conforming behaviour as a direct challenge to her authority in the classroom. She then rejected our child, in that she withdrew from him as he was a "problem" in her classroom. Guess what behaviour the anxiety that created led to...

Out of interest, did we ever find out what @Sofiabella's claim to expertise was?

Apologies for the name change. It's @idreamoftoddlersleepytime. I changed my name when the bees in my chimney swarmed last week.

PEX is a last resort for every school. How much easier it is to provide the support to the best standard possible given funding shortages than to deal with suspensions and exclusions. No one goes into school leadership to exclude pupils. The feeling of joy at seeing a pupil with SEN thrive in mainstream is too valuable.
Sometimes, being excluded is the only way the LA will be forced into providing what the child needs. The LAs are not in it for children. I've been sat in meetings where the LA have directed me to have a child in school for just twenty minutes per day to stop them from having to provide what the child is entitled to.
I would put money on the school being at their wits end with the ops son and they may be forced into this position because they know specialist provision is what is right for the child overall and they certainly do not deserve to be vilified for doing their best and doing a horrible thing (PEX) for the good of everyone.

@MonsteraAddict respectfully, teachers thinking that they are doing parents a favour with the LA is a major part of the structural problem. I really would urge you to read the research from Birmingham University on the profound damage that suspension and exclusions cause. It destabilises the entire family; it prejudices the parents ability to work and earn money; it causes families to be shunned by local communities; your parenting skills and morals are judged; and the abandonment/rejection issues it creates for children can have lifelong psychological implications are around low self worth.

It absolutely is not a short cut to action/intervention, and what actually happens that most families are simply deprived of their right to have their child educated.

@MonsteraAddict here is the link again.

go.skimresources.com?id=470X1716091&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.birmingham.ac.uk%2Fresearch%2Facer%2Fresearch%2Fthe-exclusion-of-autistic-pupils-from-schools%23%3A~%3Atext%3DLifelong%2520and%2520Profound%2Cthroughout%2520this%2520period%2520is%2520clear&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mumsnet.com%2Ftalk%2F_chat%2F5069766-permanent-exclusion%3Freply%3D135121361

Because that’s what happens at all meetings with parents that I have attended when it’s to do with SEN or exclusions

@Soontobe60 anecdote is not evidence. That may be your experience in one/ two schools. There are over 32k primary schools in the UK. Standards vary. Attitudes vary. The decisions coming out of the SEND tribunal support my statement that some schools don't keep accurate minutes and falsify documents when under scrutiny. It helps no one to be tribal and defensive about this. It just prevents the problems from being dealt with via a blanket denial.