to think that if a child has an IEP the school should manage it properly

[Reallytired]

I went to parent's evening and the teacher could not tell me whether my son had met his targets or not. He has a stupid target ie. "To form his letters neatly". How on earth can you tell if he has met such a vargue target. Our GP would fail such a target.

What I found sickening was that a target he had been given in reception was still on there. The teacher could not tell me whether he had met this target or not. Frankly I think its a pity that I could not see the LSA instead of the teacher. Maybe the LSA would have more clue about how he is doing.

I think the excuse that 40% of the kids are on the SEN register is lame. They need to decide who really needs the extra help and do their IEPs properly. Ie. with specific targets and the targets should assessed once a term.

YANBU, Have they said if they are now going to address the situation?

Agree the excuse of 40% of children on SEN register is lame, they just need to deal with it.

My little boy's teacher calls me in once a term to go over his IEP and how he's doing. He does have a statement though so perhaps that makes the difference in communication.

I don't think that's a stupid target to be honest, and it would be measureable - ie shape, form, size,. Maybe they could have outlined if was uppercase or lowercase, ir indeed - specific letters to work on.

But I would have an issue with teacher not knowing if he had met target, that's pretty bad. Can you request a meeting to discuss this?

I don't think my son needs an IEP anymore. I think his school needs to prune the IEP list to make it more achievable. In every school in the country the 10% of children are on the gifted and talented list. Prehaps the should restrict the SEN register to be 10 to 20% most needy kids. Then something could actually be done to do help.

My son gets help for his writing every day in a group of 10 to 12 kids. He is gaining nothing from his IEP as the group is so big. Surely such a group is normal differentiation. It hardly catering for a special need.

The special needs register at his school is nothing but a list of underachieving children. There is no proper help as its been spread too thinly.

"I don't think that's a stupid target to be honest, and it would be measureable - ie shape, form, size,. Maybe they could have outlined if was uppercase or lowercase, ir indeed - specific letters to work on."

But they haven't specified anything because they have not assessed him. If they were more specific then it would not be stupid target.

that sounds right ( your middle para about normal differentiation ) maybe the school has .
crap management and /or senco

Not sure if schools should restrict SEN register to certain %, but get your point about G&T being a 'set' percentage when in fact it's probably nothing like that at all

if he hasn't been assessed, why does he have an IEP? gotta do baths, but hope you get it sorted.

The whole thing sounds like a bit of a mess, the working group of 10 or 12 is massive.

DS1 is 8 and has no SN. He does however struggle with his writing and spelling. He gets taken to do extra work on these things in a group of 5. There are 33 in his class, with a teacher and one lsa.

It must be very frustrating for you.

Reallytired on Thu 06-Nov-08 18:39:35
"I don't think my son needs an IEP anymore. I think his school needs to prune the IEP list to make it more achievable. In every school in the country the 10% of children are on the gifted and talented list. Prehaps the should restrict the SEN register to be 10 to 20% most needy kids. Then something could actually be done to do help."

I do understand your annoyance, but if the class contained three autistic children (like my nephew's class did last year), would that mean that someone like ds with gross motor problems and pain got no help at all because the quota was full? Or if a child with Downs joined the class, would one of the autistic kids be dropped from the SEN register. Wouldn't really work in RL, would it?

Well a child with Downs or moderate to severe autism would have a statement which would bring its own funding. Anyway if they decided to restrict IEPs to the top 10% of kids, the chances of every class in the school having more than 3 children whose needs that cannot be catered through normal differentiation is low.

The reality cory is that if your son went to my son's school he would get b*gger all help. The handwriting withdraw group would just have 13 children instead of 12.

You ds does not sound any different to my son. My son did have an nhs occupational theraphist, but was a waste of time as the school did not bother to follow up her advice.

Severe autism, yes you are right. And you are right about Downs being a bad example. But Aspergers not necessarily. And physical disabilities- in our LEA no children with mere physical disabilities are statemented, so an IEP is the only way you can get any help if you have a physical disability (as both my children do).

Cory what is the point of an IEP if there is no resources to match it. Otherwise there is just the stigma of being on the special needs register without the help. The help is just not there.

Some children are on the special needs register for just being a bit slower than average. When there are a lot of slow children is it really a special need.

Surely if your children have physical disablites then they would be in the the top 10 to 20% of most needy children. I still maintain its a farce having 40% of kids on the speical needs register.

Ask to have a special appointment with the SENCO.

I thought a child should only be on the register now if there was help over and above ordinary classroom differentiation. Because that's what 'school action' means.

I agree with you really, Really. Of course there is no point in having massive SN groups and nothing getting done. Just that 10% seems very small; I can well imagine a situation where there would be 3 children in a class with disabilities similar to those of mine. Rather than an artificial cut-off number, it would be better perhaps to discuss how severely limited you need to be to be on the SEN register.

You say my boy does not sound any different to yours, but if you think yours can cope anyway, then I think they must be quite different. Ds's condition means he cannot manage simple actions, like cutting a piece of potato. I asked him recently why he'd never told me that holding a knife and fork hurts, and he explained quite innocently that he thought these things hurt everybody.

What an IEP has meant for my children is the teacher focusing a bit more on their particular needs. And it has helped to provide us with a focus too.

I think the real problem in Reallytired's case is that this teacher is so vague about targets. I wouldn't have been impressed either.

This has not been our experience at all; ds's teacher is very much on the ball and has done a lot to learn to understand ds's specific problems. I was impressed. But then she is a very good teacher.

For ds, there is no stigma attached to being on the special needs register; on the contrary, it means he won't get teased for being stupid. And his is a very invisible disability, so otherwise they might just think he was being stupid or deliberately awkward.

Does the IEP actually state what needs to be done to achieve the targets?

I'm a bit gobsmacked that the teacher doesn't know whether or not he has met his target, because it is a basic skill that she should be aware of his ability at regardless of sn.

I think ours get reassesed 2/3 times a year so not every term. But it states what the target is, how it is going to be achieved, and what criteria ds has to meet for it to be achieved. So even with fairly vague targets there is something specific to aim for.

It really doesn't sound like ths school is handing it well at all.

I wouldn't attempt to throw away the IEP too quicxkly neither. It is such a battle most of the time to get any support, I'd keep going and insist that it is followed. Can you ask for a meeting with the senco?

cory, my son is lucky that he had a lot of intervention quite early on. He had 18 months of nhs physio as a toddler, to help him walk and he was under an nhs occupational theraphist.

He is almost seven years old and can now form his letters. He has had problems with his tendons, but its not as bad as it was.

It does still hurt him to use a pencil, but I have never asked him about cultery. I am guilty of letting my son get away with using fingers!

we found the nhs occupational theraphist really helpful. My son was able to experiment with pencil grips. She saw him once in school and twice at clinic. What is infuriating is that the school will not provide him with the pencil grip he needs.
She also visited him at school and advised them on exercises. But frankly it was been a waste of time as the school has not given time to implement her advice. We have followed the advice at home though.

A lot of special needs are transitory. For example glue ear and my son's fine and gross motor skills have developed considerably. He is not as behind as he was. I think some children get stuck on the special needs register. If a child catches up with their age group then the school should take them off the SEN register.