To think dd1 should be able to bring home books from school

[dealer]

Dd1 loves books, has tons at home, and reads all the time. We often go to the library.

She's now in year 5. Towards the beginning of y3 a school reading book went missing. She has mild sn and isn't very good at organising herself, so I'm fairly good at checking her bookbag for stuff. On the day in question I definitely put the book in her bag in the morning and there was no book when she came home.

I didn't worry about it for about a week, thinking they'd probably issue a new one soon, but she came home saying the teacher kept telling her to find it at home. I spoke to the teacher saying we'd never seen the one they said we had. They asked if it was possible dd1 had taken it out before I'd seen it, I said unlikely but I'd check. I asked if it was possible that someone, maybe one of the TAs had accidentally put it back instead of issuing it, they said no impossible.

So I gutted the house, and couldn't find it. I've never lost a school or library book before. The school insisted I should pay for it. I didn't want to do this, and asked if i could gift a lovely children's encyclopedia to the school instead (duplicate present). They were very happy with this. But then still insisted she couldn't take home any more books until the original book was found

I was fed up by this point, so just sort of shrugged and thought oh well, we'll just use the library more.

Except for, now our library is closing, and the next closest is 10 miles away. There's no way I can afford to buy books, with the rate she gets through them.

I think it's really unreasonable of the school to still hold this line after 2 years. Dd1 is on their sn register and needs additional help in lots of areas, and loads of different TAs used to see her, I'm certain that's how the book's been mislaid. It seems totally unreasonable to me that a sn child is being denied access to books over a mixup 2 years ago.

It does all sound odd. Does someone have something against you or do they always go on these little power trips?

I would take this higher than the head now. They are denying her access to a valuable resource - one which, it would now appear, is directly linked to her school work. This cannot be right and surely contravines some equal opportunity policy.

The school cannot prove the book came home, just as you can't prove it didn't.

You have already provided the school with a form of replacement anyway, even without their evidence that it came home. The matter should be closed from that point alone.

I would now be writing formally to the school governors and I would CC both the head and the LEA.

They are denying your child access to books which she needs in order to fully complete her school comprehension work. As a result her marks are now, according to the head, suffering. They are failing your daughter in her education.

stop tiptoeing around them and stand up for your child. Honestly, why on earth have you let this nonsense go on for 2 YEARS?

My DD was banned from the library too, when a Y6 pupil didn't scan her book in and then denied she had returned it. After a long protracted period of "just go and tell a teacher" I brought it up at parents evening, the next week DD went with teacher and pointed out her book on the library shelf. Library privileges were restored and peace reigned. Have hope, and stand up to the teachers, they're only people.

There are many issues with the head at this school, I literally don't know a single parent that doesn't have an issue with her. The school failed their ofsted about a year ago, citing leadership issues. Many, many parents brought forward their issues. Nothing specific happened, but we were reassured by the fact that ofsted wrote to us all saying that they had been made aware of many complaints from the parents.

So we sat back, while ofsted investigated...and then got another letter from ofsted to say that there was no evidence of weak leadership and we were being brought out of special measures.

For example, my biggest bugbear with her was from when my children started at this school. My first husband, who was severely disabled had died, and I had to be rehoused from an adapted property very quickly. We had no choice of new school, so I went to meet this head. Ds was starting the school halfway through year 4. Obviously he was very affected by his father's death.

I made a big issue of seeing what support would be available to him, and she was falling over herself to explain how they could help. On the first day he went in the class teacher asked who he was as he hadn't been told to expect a new child. I later spoke to him and he hadn't been told that he was bereaved.

I wanted him to settle him in as smoothly as possible so I wanted to buy all the correct uniform immediately. I had my cheque book with me and offered to buy everything including PE kit. She insisted he didn't need PE kit and everyone just wore their own t-shirts, even though the PE kit was right there, but she wouldn't sell it to me. On his second day he was given a detention for not having correct kit.

At the meeting there were photos on the wall of kids canoeing and climbing etc, which ds was eyeing up. She noticed and told him there was an outdoor pursuits club. I told him it would be expensive, and she said 'ooh no, that's free for every child, every week.' Which I thought was odd, since surely they couldn't afford it. Anyway suffice to say it's never been mentioned in the 6 years since.

Anyway, sorry for turning this into a massive ranty waterfall feed thread, but I'm annoyed now. The woman's a liar as far as I can tell.

No doubt I sound like a nightmare parent but I don't have any problems with the class teachers who have been great. They have apologised for the book situation but have been told not to issue dd1 with any.

You do need to take this further - Governors, with CC to head and to LEA. And get it all written down so you have the paper trail.

No you don't sound like a nightmare parent at all . This does need addressing asap though - I'm so sad and angry for your daughter.

Good god!

To this day I remember losing my school reading book when I was about 6-7 years old. My mother gave them another book without being asked and that was the end of it. I would make a formal complaint. Surely they can't deny access to resources for a sn child?

Ask the school for a copy of their complaints procedure. (If they don't have one they are breaking the law).
Are you in the UK? If so, it is unlikely that there is a stage in the procedure that requires you to complain to the LA. It probably says complain to Head, the the governing body, then possibly to Local Government Ombudsman and then to the Secretary of State.
Don't take any notice of people telling you to cc your complaint everywhere, just get the complaints procedure and follow it. You don't need to cc letters unless you are escalating, in which case you fully document the previous stages.
If you contact the LA, this is the advice they will give you. Similarly, the governors will not consider a complaint until it has first been taken to the Headteacher.
I deal with this stuff professionally all the time and would guess that if it gets as far as the governors it will be sorted.