Year 1 child excluded - help please

[ncforschoolhelp]

Hi all

I have a previous thread about my year 1 child's behavioural issues almost exclusively at school. He has now been temporarily excluded and I am really hoping for advice from any parents of young children who have been through similar, any teachers who could give any advice and any governors who might be able to shed some light on any appropriate next steps for me or from the school.

The reason given today was his level of disruption wasn't feasible for him to stay in the building and he wasn't calming down with the usual interventions the school give.

Happy to answer any q's and apologies for lack of insight so far.

Re post in special needs and ask mumsnet to delete this. If your child has been excluded at 5/6 unless your child is adopted or has some other serious trauma in their life they have SEN and although chat is not as brutal as AIBU you will still get replies that at are best unhelpful.

Look at it as evidence that his needs are not being met rather than anything disastrous. Keep dialogue open with the school and try and find out what they think is actually going on. I haven’t seen your previous threads, can you summarise?

So back in January things were looking up, just read your posts on the other thread. What has changed since then?

What specifically does his "disruption" look like and what are the "usual interventions"?

I disagree with this oft-given advice because I followed it once and got zero replies on the SEN board, which was more unhelpful than the occasional misguided answer mixed in with actual advice.

I'm on the way out the door so can't go looking for previous thread but have you been to the GP about his behaviour? They can usually refer for assessments if the school are unwilling.

Sorry you didn’t get replies that’s unusual. I didn’t mean misguided replies , there have been some horrible parent/child blaming posts in the past. Hopefully this won’t happen.

Has he been formally excluded. if so you should've had a letter stating why and how long for. If so, while it may not seem it, this is good as it shows unmet need. At the reintegration meeting and going forward, you need to discuss what they're currently doing to help him and what else they could try (exact adjustments do vary depending on need so listing her's probably won't help, but movement breaks help her sit still and concentrate). After DD's first exclusion, school referred to the council's inclusion service which led to team around the child meetings and opened up some external support. They couldn't speed up the diagnosis but did get the ball rolling. This was in year 2, and while it was a long road she is now in year 4 with a full time 1 to 1 and doing a lot better.
I also recommend posting on the SEN board as there are people far more knowledgeable than me on there.

I’m sorry to hear that. How long is the suspension for? Have you had a letter from the Head?
Is there a behaviour plan in place and if so have they been using the strategies outlined consistently.

I’ve posted a link to the Govermnent guidance. There will be a parent support service in the LA. They can offer support and advice and support you in meetings if you wish.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusions-guide-for-parents/a-guide-for-parents-on-school-behaviour-and-exclusion

Thank you all. I am thick skinned enough to ignore parent or child blaming posts, I'm at the stage where I need to reach out to a wider village than I have and hear from those who have actually experienced this.

No diagnosis but have chased GP since last Oct when he was first referred.

Local behavioural service have observed him 3 times and closed his case as saw nothing worth significant follow up (with some small changes to interventions for school staff)

Ed psych have not yet been reached out to by school despite my requests - the school haven't told me this but have been suggested that thismay be a cost thing?

His disruption is often down to extreme reactions to losing; he struggles with losing / not being first / not getting his own way at school. This is much, much less of a problem at home.

Behaviours then include throwing things in the classroom (which he is then removed from) and some violence to those removing him (shin kicks, scratching arms). He then doesn't really interact apart from saying shut up and blowing raspberries.

I know that any violence at school from him is completely unnacceptable and we follow up with conversations and consequences at home

I am a Governor who sits on PX panels - how can I help?

@Hoppinggreen is it really really unusual for such young children to be excluded? I have complete trust and faith in the school
But this is starting to break down as I have to consider that a lot of this is environmental. Are Ed Psych expensive? Could this mean reaching out happens later than it should sometimes?

Apologies for so many questions. My head feels a bit like it might implode. The exclusion is for 24 hours and we have a reintegration meeting tomorrow and I want to be really well armed for that. I've asked the school for a breakdown of the steps they have taken since his behaviour started becoming untenable as I've never had anything in writing, it's all been through meetings.

It is pretty unusual and its very much a last resort at the schools I am involved with.
The last time we PX a Primary child The Head was in tears.
Everything should be carefully documented and you should bee able to see all incidents leading up to this and what steps have been put in place to mitigate.
Getting SN outside help is expnsive but even if we have funding its hard to source and wait times are long.

Push push push for ed psyche

Oh, OP. I feel for you. My ds was asked to leave a nursery at 3 and half, a preschool at 4 and we removed him from reception in one school at Christmas when they were just keeping him in the library with a TA, we even tried an “alternative” private school in the end who asked us to leave too.

We had no behaviour issues at all at home, when he was with family, out and about. We took him out jest after the start of year 1 and home educated him.

He went back to school age 9 when we did a big move (he wanted to try school rather than having to find all the local home ed groups there), and not a single issue. He was more mature.

He’s 23 now and remembers acting terribly at preschool and school as he just wanted to be at home and he thought if he acted bad enough, they wouldn’t want him there. He was just too young for it.

I posted on here at the time and I was blasted. Told I must have my head in the sand, that he must have some sort of SEN (his dr who knew him well was staggered when we suggested it, there were no signs at home and not in school either). Then I was told I was lying, that he must behave terribly at home too. It made me feel shit.

@Hoppinggreen I am trying really hard to be neutral and objective but I can't get away from the fact that I don't believe the school have acted quickly enough in standing up support from Ed psyche. It's really hard hearing how unusual it is as my son has had a trauma free, really quite dull upbringing so far with no family trauma / issues / nothing that I can put my finger onto trigger this behaviour.

The school is quite small, he's in a mixed year 1/2 class and it's free flow in that the classrooms are open and not walled if that makes sense.

I don't know if that plays into it but I have to consider everything. He's also super bright and working at top end of year 2 academically but socially obviously there are significant issues (at school). Again - we don't see these issues in any way as seriously at home or in other settings such as at friends houses etc.

And my son was doing the things your son is doing. But ONLY at school. Never elsewhere.

Agreed. Good luck going forward.
Edit - just seen you want a wider audience. Still sending you good luck wishes, for what it's worth.

I'm a primary school governor but help out at other schools doing exclusion panels.

It is unusual to see exclusion panels for primary school children but in more deprived areas it's more common.

A meeting with the governors, school and you will be set up where the governors will decide if to uphold the suspension, quite a lot of parents don't turn up to these, please do, where parents have turned up and they provided that they need help. We have been able to write letters to the Academy of trust of the school to push the further intervention to help the child. We've also written letters for the parents to take the GP etc

Absolutely, so many times the Parents don't turn up and it isn't helpful to anyone

This was my son.

Excluded multiple times in year 1 due to behaviour, now he has a solid behaviour plan, known factors, an ADHD diagnosis and over 30 1-1 session with the play therapist under his belt.

You need to push the GP, push CAMHS and push the school for the support he needs.

Like you, son's behaviour at home was 99% better and it was mostly school where he was exhibiting these behaviours because he couldn't cope.

It does get better, I promise.

Have you made a EHC needs assessment request? If not do so that will get the ed psych in. Ed psychs are very much in demand, in our LA they are currently only seein children as part of a needs assessment. Outside of these times school had a very limited number of ed psych hours and had to choose which child was seen that term or even year.
You should stick in a SAR to the school as well that will give you evidence of what is happening at school and what support has been put in place. If you can afford an independent ed psych assessment and or an ND assessment do that as well.
To secure an EHC needs assessment you only have to show that your child has or may have SEND and needs or may need the support of a plan so you need as much evidence as possible. The exclusion and the fact that your child has been referred is evidence the SAR will give you more evidence independent assessments will give you even more.

Have the school asked for any help from the social communication and interaction team?

My sons resitting reception but technically year 1, and he is disruptive to the rest of the class and it's quite obvious that they can't meet his needs and we're battling for a specialist school right now.

We had the SCI team brought in, and they recommended an alternative schedule for my son, and got occupational therapy involved to discuss things like sensory breaks, alternative communication boards, a staggered plan for things like learning to follow adult lead instructions through different therapies like attention autism which work better in groups so can even involve the rest of the class so it doesn't necessarily need 1 on 1 support or require resources they might not have, and are all facilities designed to help minimise disruption and help behaviours.

If they've not enlisted any external support then I think you need to include that in your message to the governors because it feels like they're not meeting their obligations to ensure that your child has access to an education in a way that meets his needs and now he's being punished for this.

There's also been a number of times, that if the parents had turned up, the suspension would not have been upheld

Exclusions for primary aged children are less
common than for secondary aged children but it is a relatively common scenario that a child starts mainstream school, cannot cope and has suspensions/exclusions at a young age.

in some ways this is a good thing as it is clearly evidencing that your child is not having his needs met.

EPs are very expensive.

I’m not working in this field any more but certainly when I was in school each school had a certain amount of EP time per term and they coild
only put one or two children forward for assessment.

i got my child assessed privately about a decade ago and the wait was several months and it cost about 800 pounds.

in the current budget environment I’m not sure what state school access to EPs looks like.