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.

@Legoandloldolls

Nailsneeddoing - the thing is, the more you ignore SEN in juniors, the bigger, more expensive problems you create further down the line. In my county most of the SEN budget goes into private SEN schools. Why? Because my LA are incredibly tight at providing any support, so we have a lot of mainstream kids placements brake down. Where do they go? Into private SEN places as the state schools are more than full.

In this case all the child might need is to be taken to a side room, check she has her reading book in her bag, to sit calmly for five minutes then join the class when the others are seated. Cost is maybe 15 minutes of TA time x5 x37. Or do nothing, wait for complete refusal, then what? PRU? Dedicated 1:1? Move to a SEN school? Not sure what the cost is in reality but state school is about 4k ish pa to teach a child. Local sen school is 17k. There is one LA pot for SEN so that diverts the cash out of mainstream support

Or they can make her stick out more by coming in early or say I'm sorry we just cant cope we have 29 other kids.

Fine, whatever. But if it was your child you wouldnt say, that poor school. I should take her in 8-12 to work around them.

Or would you? I wouldnt. That's not my job as a mum. Meh - lifes hard kid, suck it up. Most parents want a little bit better than that.

Exactly.

The reason DS has managed so well in mainstream school is because they have been flexible and have worked with me to find plans around the obstacles. We are lucky now that between us we fought for the LA to name full time 1-1 in his ehc which has helped even more.

18 months ago it was looking highly unlikely he would be able to go to mainstream secondary and the only local specialist which would be suitable would be a independent one. Now he is in year 6 and we are in talks with the local high school (with good reputation for SEN) and we are hopeful that they will also be able to meet his needs.

Waiting around at school for ten minutes with an autistic child is also a nightmare. Learning to drive is not an even remotely easy solution either.

Schools are underfunded, that is a plain and simple fact. They are not given enough money to meet the needs of children with SEN, whether or not those children have an ehcp. They cannot just magically make someone available to settle your dd at the same time as the other children are arriving without it being detrimental to other children. That isn’t your problem obviously, but it is the schools problem and they’ve offered a solution that will work better for your child and enable them to meet her need. They aren’t being difficult, they just have more children than yours to consider. How much can reasonably be expected of them when they simply don’t have the resources?

But they can get the resources by applying for an EHC Plan, and are refusing to do so. Admittedly they will have to fund the first level of support, but that is no reason not to take sensibly steps to ensure a child's needs can be met. To say nothing of the fact that, as matters stand, they aren't complying with their legal obligations anyway.

School transport is very difficult to get, usually has a lot of children to pick up spread all over the place. You can't just ask for them to change the route, or come a bit later. You can't even ask your child to be sat in a different seat in the taxi without it all going through the LA first.

OP cannot ask for a taxi for her DD, she has no Ehcp, goes to a local mainstream school, where would the funding come from?

Triming your household budget to find the thousands of pounds to be able to learn to drive, buy a car and get insured is impossible for many families already on the breadline.

Finding a different job with later hours is hardly easy at the moment. Maybe both parents need to be around in the evening, two kids with additional needs can be challenging.

And suggesting that the taxpayer is funding Ops lifestyle is offensive! I wouldn't class having two kids with SEN and one needing to attend a Special needs school as a lifestyle choice!

@NikeDeLaSwoosh wow, you really need to take your head out your arse. I’m very sorry my SEN children are taking up all your taxes. It’s hardly ‘nearly a whole extra hour’ when she’s already on a reduced timetable is it, plus the staff are already there for breakfast club.

The school have found a solution that seems to work by having her arrive early but you can't facilitate that. I'm not sure what else they can do if arriving at the normal time causes her distress.

Support the EHCP application so that she can have the support she needs within normal school hours?

Wow this thread is shocking and its sad how little understanding people have of sen.
I have a son same age with ASd with a pda profile i am currently home educating due to the very same situation son struggling getting him in school a nightmare my son managed 1 hour a day school addiment that he had no needs at all (thats with a diagnosis) school wouldn't support ehcp council refused ( we have one now) and the only solution the school had was bring him in at 8 am to breakfast club for a 8.45 start i told them it wouldn't work as it's adding to his day. They then asled him if he wanted to go he responded with screaming at the head teacher. Yet still they wouldn't help us.

@fabulous40s

Get there for 7.50 ready to drop her off at 8. Then you have 15 mins to walk back home with your son to get his taxi

That assumes that OP can drop and run without any difficulties with transition or settling her child in. For a child with SEN, that really isn't an assumption you can validly make.

This is why I came off the SEN board and changed my name.

Some things never change.

Google ipsea. You dont have to just suck it up or show your child that they must bend to fit in.

You dont file down the edges of a square peg to fit a round hole, you change the shape of the hole.

If only life was as simple as just bending to fit in. We wouldnt need disabled ramps would we 😉

And my son has autism OP I don't mean to be harsh or anything. I understand it but theres probably 29 other kids in that class.

@MayIJustAsk okay I’m being unreasonable so what’s the solution please?

@emmapemma91 how long is she spending at school? Are they sticking to the agreed times or are you still having to pick up earlier!

@MayIJustAsk

If it takes her that long to settle and they are not able to start teaching the other children until she settles so the first hour of every day is totally disrupted, YABU.

But simple measures can ensure that doesn’t happen.

Have a member of support staff meet her in the office or other quieter area, go somewhere quiet in school to transition from home to school in a quiet calm way and then when ready go to class ready to learn.

OP cannot ask for a taxi for her DD, she has no Ehcp, goes to a local mainstream school, where would the funding come from?

She could in practice, because the right to school transport relates to children who are eligible for a number of reasons including disability (and OP's daughter's difficulties put her in that category) and it is not dependent on having an EHCP. However, it's questionable whether it would be helpful with a 6 year old child, and it would be particular struggle getting transport at 8 a.m.

@Harleyisme I’ve wanted to just totally pull her out so many times but if I do that then she isn’t entitled to help from the LA, it’s just one less child for them to deal with.

@MayIJustAsk

And my son has autism OP I don't mean to be harsh or anything. I understand it but theres probably 29 other kids in that class.

And aren’t those 29 lucky if they don’t have issues with transitioning into school like the ops child does.

Schools need to use their resources to support pupils when they need them as best as they can. Fair doesn’t mean everyone gets the same all the time

allNailsNeedDoing - whilst i agree that schools are on their knees financially - some schools really do manage to do much better than others when it comes to inclusion despite them all struggling with money.

@MillieEpple precisely. Mine even before her EHCP had her morning transition needs met within the school day.

[quote emmapemma91]@Harleyisme I’ve wanted to just totally pull her out so many times but if I do that then she isn’t entitled to help from the LA, it’s just one less child for them to deal with.[/quote]
Thats not true. I got ds ehcp during home educating. I have had more help and support since home educating than i have ever done while he was in education. They say that you get no help but honestly thats not true.

Are you sure the taxi time can’t be changed OP? One of my siblings used to get a taxi from a rural area to a city school... she would be often late.

I understand it but theres probably 29 other kids in that class.

Absolutely nowhere in the Education Act, the Equality Act, or the SEN Code of Practice does it state that a child with SEN is entitled to adjustments so long as those adjustments don't inconvenience the 29 other children in the class. The code of practice focuses on the individual needs of the individual child.

I think you need to prioratise your son getting in his taxi and getting to school, then work out what time you can reasonably get your daughter to school and work with the school on what they can do to help her. If you can't get her there for 8am, be firm and say its not possible. Keep on with the Ehcp, I hope your daughter gets the help she needs.

If the school can't meet her needs, then they need to be supportive with the Ehcp application, it must be so frustrating that they're not.

Good luck with everything and I'm sorry that you've had some horrible responses on here.

My son had school transport and I have two younger children, it's hard going juggling it all.

But funding is so tight, the chances of the LA funding transport for a child with no diagnosis to go to her local mainstream school is nearly impossible.

Just say, it's impossible, please stop going on about it.