School forcing 8am start for my SEN girl?

[emmapemma91]

So I’m having quite a lot of bother with my little girls school. She’s not settling in very well and becoming very distressed when going into school and can become aggressive.
She’s waiting on assessment for possible Autism. She’s 6 and in year 2.

She’s on a reduced timetable at the minute but the school are forcibly telling me they want her in at 8am to give her time to settle before her class come in at 8.45. I’ve told them each time my sons school taxi comes sometime between 8.15 - 8.25 and I can’t get her there, chase her around while she tries to run away, then carry her into school then be back in time for my sons taxi. Yet every day they say the same thing, she hasn’t settled and needs to be in 8am. If I miss his taxi I can’t get him to school as I don’t drive and it’s quite far away.

Is there any solution? I’m sick of fighting with the school to support my daughter.

I know @Marmaladey it would be lovely not to need to know the truth

Sorry about the random bear ffs

OP, I hope you find the more supportive parts of Mumnset and of other places on the internet. Does your araa have any SEN parents' groups as well?

I'm glad to see that there some more sensible responses from SEN parents.

On schools and local authorities, OP's situation sounds really difficult.

Actually it is national government cuts in schools funding, combined with stripping out council education departments (partly with some idea that local education auhorities are a waste of money, partly for if other political and ideological reasons),

A lot of education money is being given to academy chains, private companies and consultants, and education departments are being left with the expensive headaches that private companies can't see any profit in. One of these is special educational needs.

Horrible replies on here. My autistic son arrives a little later than everyone else, is met at the gate by a trusted aide and either joins his class straight away or goes into the quiet space next to it. I would never be able to get him in early, as mornings are stressful enough for him. Working together with school, it actually took us some time to come up with this simple plan. Had they just presented one option and expected my son to adapt, I'm pretty sure we'd have had to pull him out. There's always so much rigidity from certain posters on these threads, and total ignorance about what inclusion entails.

The thing is, they ARE making reasonable adjustments to cater to your daughter's needs. They have identified she struggles with the transition between home and school and have put an adjustment in place in order to better suit her needs.

@Y0ubetterwerk, an adjustment which it is impossible for OP to access is not a reasonable adjustment. Lack of funding isn't an excuse when the school has failed to apply for an EHCP.

School Transport can pick up at a differnt place at your Request as long as you speak too Council\ or whoever sort it

Simply not true. Quite apart from the fact that it's likely the taxi is picking up a number of children and can't disrupt their routine, most council policies are very firm indeed that children can only be picked up from their homes.

The answer is “no” as you can’t accommodate their idea.

Give me half a day, I will send this to my mum who is an send coordinator for an academy with multiple years experience in social services and give you a response on how to approach the matter or specific individuals or groups to approach for legal support from CS's x

@allofthetings

I'm sorry I assumed that the teachers (who IMO are in general professional caring people) have seen that the op's DD benefits from being in school earlier to help her settle. Usually what's good for the teacher/class is good for the child too. I'm sure you've all got your horror stories about schools and teachers, but I believe in general they want wants best for their charges, especially in primary school.

I don't think re-routing a taxi is necessarily inconvenient, it depends if anyone else is sharing the taxi (often they are not shared) and that second pupil and their family might be fine with it.

The Op's DD seems to benefit from being in school earlier, it's not punishment, why not give it a go and see if it helps her?

I don't understand what's so inflammatory about this point of view?

What is wrong with it is:

1. The child is already on a reduced timetable, which is itself illegal. Expecting the child to go in early rather than giving her full time education and support during school hours in those circumstances is in itself pretty offensive.
2. They aren't doing this for her benefit, but because it happens to be convenient as there is a breakfast club. They don't seem to be offering her any actual support or help at that time.
3. They aren't supporting the need for an EHCP, which would be a much more effective way of helping the child as it would be based on a full expert assessment of what her difficulties are and what specialist provision is needed to meet those difficulties.

Councils can (and will if pushed hard enough) change SEN transport where the current transport isn't working for the child in question, so I see no reason why they shouldn't be asked to change it when it isn't working for the child's sibling

Good luck trying that one, @StatisticalSense. At the very least you'll give the SEN transport team a bit of a laugh.

This isn't an issue of what is working for the child's sibling, it's an issue of what the sibling's school find would suit their convenience rather than trying to provide proper support for her SEN.

Quite surprised at the the level of vitriol aimed at schools on this post.

Schools which break the law by illegally imposing reduced timetables thereby denying vulnerable children vitally needed support can't exactly expect to be cheered on, whether here or anywhere else.

Presumably they’re trying to do their best in challenging situations, with very limited finances, large classes often with multiple children with different needs and requirements.

Not when they're refusing to ask for an EHCP which a child obviously needs.

From what I hear, even with a diagnosis, it can sometimes be difficult to access the specific individual assistance due to staffing, budget constraints and the needs of other children in a mainstream school.

That's not a valid reason for failing to have a child's needs properly assessed and provided for.

I’m sure that can be very frustrating, but equally with classes of 30 + and limited budgets I’m not sure what some people expect?

The schools obey the law? Doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Complaints about lack of funding ring somewhat hollow when councils spend millions on defending SEN tribunal appeals which the statistics demonstrate they lose in over 90% of cases.

@emmapemma91

Yes it’s a SAR for the school. They sent me a copy of a form I need to fill in and it says they need a copy of her ID, my ID and proof I have parental responsibility. Will double check with the school tomorrow!

Presumably the school accepted her ID, yours and proof of parental responsibility when they put her on the school roll? Otherwise they would have been pretty irresponsible. Point that out to them.

@emmapemma91

I’ve thought they may be trying to save money, and also their ‘outstanding’ reputation. I feel like they’re ashamed of her and try to hide her from the parents. They said the Fair Access Panel reviewed and agreed on the timetable (she only started this school September as her previous was out of area).

That just means that the Fair Access Panel was colluding in breaking the law. It doesn't make the reduced timetable lawful.

Council provided school transport usually as a matter of policy cannot pick up or drop off anywhere other than the home address.

The school are trying their best to support your daughter OP. YABU.

This is not a reasonable adjustment and to pick up on what someone else said, the school has to make best endeavours not a reasonable effort ( although this is not even that).
Have you asked them for everything in writing? I would write to them asking for a copy of the reintegration plan. If they respond verbally email them with their response in writing. Every time they say something email them with a summary of the conversation. Every incident that happens send a summary in writing. You need a paper trail.

I wouldn't let the current situation go on beyond half term and I would consider after that saying that you will not pick your daughter up early unless they provide an exclusion letter. You could do that now but you may want to concentrate on building up a paper trail first.
She absolutely meets the criteria for an ehcp assessment and if she is refused, go straight to appeal.

It would be interesting to see the correspondence between the FAP and school. There's also a LGO case that I read recently about the LA using FAP when they shouldn't, I'll see if I can find it.

A SAR revealed my son's old school submitted paperwork for his part-time timetable that I'd never seen and would never have agreed (said I'd refused to send my son in beca I was anxious so they offered the reduced time table to get him back in!) And said I'd not signed it because I'd not brought my son to school that day (last day of term and if been up to collect his stuff).

The Ed department that deal with reduced timetables don't have direct contact with parents and I think this is open to exploitation by some schools. On my to do list is to raise this with LA.

The school are not trying their best.

Everyone is berating the school on here but they have in fact offered a solution which the OP herself said works for her daughter:

On the days my partners not at work I have had her in early and it does seem to have worked

So the school have addressed the issue with a solution which recognises what the child needs and which helps her to settle in at school. So this suggestion that they are somehow just trying to make things easier for themselves with no regard for the child's wellbeing is not entirely valid.

Reasonable adjustments aren’t supposed to make things impossible for the child or caregivers (that’s not reasonable)

The school are going to have to come up with something else.

Bloody hell @DobbinReturns - that’s fuckung
disgraceful (but not at all surprising)

I don't think the child's dad giving up work so his daughter can attend breakfast club is really a solution.

The stuff the school allegedly reported to the LA EP about me as part of the tribunal is even worse @LaLaLandIsNoFun. I'm still deciding what to do about that

"Everyone is berating the school on here but they have in fact offered a solution which the OP herself said works for her daughter:"

The 'solution' is not following the send code of practice which makes it unlawful.

I have asked for FAP minutes. They were around 3 lines long and basically said said; Daughters name, DOB, SEN Support. Will go to ‘school name’. Request accepted.

[quote emmapemma91]@Johnny1963 I’ve actually applied for a EHCP myself as the school don’t support my decision and think it’s too early on.[/quote]
I’m sorry op but your daughter is at the wrong school, yr2 is late for a child to get an EHCP when there is obvious Sen. It does sound like they are trying to hide her, they are failing your daughter.
Continue to fight for your DD, you are doing a great job.
I can’t believe the ignorance on this thread some posters need to get an education about Sen and how difficult it is to live with!