School pushing to be part of Drs apts!

[FletchingStraight]

Without going into a the full history which will take several paragraphs. How much access to Consultant clinic letters, the Consultant's themselves or other medical professionals (think MH support) are school entitled to?

I'll also post on the SEN board, wasn't sure which would be the best one

None but it’s great that they want to be involved

They are only 'entitled' to whatever you want to share.

However it is generally in the child's best interest for school to have the full picture. They can't just take your word for things, they need documentation from professionals.

They will also use these as evidence if needing to apply for further support for your child.

Thank you @Missiing
You'd think it was good but we have reason to question their intentions. They've already tried to refer her out of school to a council tutoring service, we were able to refuse as her grades are being maintained. They don't want to continue with the online set up with a very minimal in person attendance. It's what she needs until Drs can stabilise her rare disease which has been flaring for almost 2 years now. It is a private school!

@QuietDragon of course we have been sharing clinic letters. Not every single one as we actually experienced a lot of gaslighting, it's a rare disease so often poorly understood. We've arranged a discussion & meeting with our GP in the past, we've even just offered them to join our session with our psychologist so she can go through the plan. They want to exclude us from discussions. I do not trust they have DDs best interest at heart

If it’s a private school then why don’t you just remove her and find another school? I wouldn’t be paying a private school that I didn’t believe had my daughters best interest at heart

If it’s a private school then why are you paying for this nonsense for your daughter to be unsupportive? Remove her and find somewhere else.

Unsupported

Just find another school.
I never understand why parents keep their kids in schools that they clearly don’t have any trust in or respect for.
You are choosing this for her. Move her.

The council tutoring is likely to be something like EOTAS or home and hospital tuition, which is specifically for pupils who can't access education.

I don't know enough about private schools and attendance, but I'd not be surprised that they'd want medical evidence to have a child hardly attending school or having a substantially different offer.

All of that is irrelevant though if you don't believe that the school have your child's best interests at heart. Why pay a fortune for limited education from a school you don't think is looking out for your child?

The problem you have here is that they aren’t obliged to continue with the online provision and they could stop that whenever they wanted. The council tutoring is probably the ‘correct’ provision for being referred to.

If you want the school to keep her as a pupil you may have to weigh that up with how comfortable your DD is with the level of evidence they are asking for. They don’t really have a right to any of it but the conclusion to doing that might be that online provision stops.

It doesn't sound like the right school for her. Private schools aren't typically known for the SEND support.

So to those that are saying just move her it is not that simple. She has gone through so much with this disease she has lost friends, lost confidence, her MH has been tested & she has battled hard to maintain her education. We have a raft of support mechanisms in place. She is very happy in the school, she is comfortable there (when she's well enough), she has established friendship groups there. She could not cope with a move.

They haven't asked us to provide anything specific, we are meeting their medical policy. We have provided & are offering them evidence & they are wanting to exclude us from conversations with medics - this is something none of our medics would ever do. They have an agenda which they do not wish to share with us, of course.

The council tutoring is a temporary 6 week programme intended to get a child back up to speed educationally after a period of illness/absence so they can get back into mainstream education. This is not our daughter. She is not behind. She just cannot attend in person currently.

Also to push her out will be disability discrimination, they are required by law to make reasonable adjustments. That is all we are asking for. Plus we are hoping it is temporary as the Drs come up with a treatment plan to improve her health. It's a complex disease so this takes time. They've been informed of this countless times.

Also to push her out will be disability discrimination, they are required by law to make reasonable adjustments. That is all we are asking for.

The school may argue that offering hybrid teaching is an unreasonable burden as a second staff member is required to facilitate it. That is a significant difference from working with a student who needs specific support such as a screen reader (and appropriately formatted resources).

I have every sympathy with you OP. It's a very difficult situation.

Ultimately it will come down to whether the expectation of an indefinitely online provision with the staffing implications falls under 'reasonable adjustments'. That's the million dollar question.

Council EOTAS is very difficult to get in most areas so the fact school think that this might be appropriate suggests that it might be worth considering it rather than ruling it out completely. Programmes can, at least in every area I've worked, last longer than 6 weeks. They're typically short support to help students bridge back into attending school, but longer term support can also be accessed that way.

DD had a long term health condition, the constant questioning and gaslighting by the school was awful so I feel your pain. Technically they are not entitled to anything, I certainly wouldn’t be giving them consultant letters as these are often very personal. The most I ever gave were vague GP summaries that I’d requested specially in order to be sent to the school + copies of appointment notification letters for scans, consultant reviews etc.

@Cornishmumofone @LolaSmiles
There isn't a need for another member of staff. The teacher sets up a meeting at the beginning of the lesson & then gets on with teaching the class. The better ones check in with her from time to time to make sure she's ok/can hear etc. many of them say Hello & Goodbye. We are not being pushy, we are not complaining. None of it is ideal & there are limitations to the provision but it isn't a massive additional task for the teacher so I cannot see it being unreasonable.

The MH & social impact of moving her to the tutoring service would be substantial - at least currently she still has things in common with her friends & they can talk about the rubbish lesson, too much homework, do you know so & so did...... All the stuff teenagers talk about. If she loses that she loses a connection with them that could be harder to replace. She has it hard enough as it is - as do we trying to keep her balanced & sane with all she has to cope with.

@clipclop5 thank you. I'm sorry you understand because you have 1st hand experience, I hope your DD is now doing well (I'm assuming because your use of past tense)

That's an interesting approach to get the GP to write a brief summary. I may use that. We've shared some of her clinic letters, but only the ones that are supporting her situation. I have blanked some history out in a couple as it wasn't relevant & highly personal for her which they had no need or right to be privy to. They are trying to be very sneaky & backhanded. We'd offered a conversation with our clinical psychologist, including us, they've approached her & said they want a 'professionals only' meeting. She's knocked that on the head.

Professionals only meetings can be useful when education staff can ask questions they are worried might come across as silly in front of parents. You are right that they are also the meetings when concerns are raised.

I totally understand why you don't want to move her if school is her friendship group pool and starting somewhere new would be her starting as the girl who isn't in much as she is ill

@littleducks you're right & our psychologist raised this same point with me which we discussed. We both came to the conclusion that unless she gives some framework/agenda for why she needs to exclude us, given their past behaviour, it appears to have negative connotations for us (I haven't gone into everything they've done)

I have had to do enough battling with medics we really don't need this too

Exactly, she's unlikely to break into friendship groups when she's never/rarely there.

I think that sounds like a sensible plan, if they raise again maybe suggest that they hold a TAC/TAF (team around child/family) meeting

I would never allow a school to exclude me from a meeting with Drs about my child. There's nothing they should be discussing behind your back that they cannot say in front of you. I wouldn't be giving them consultant letters either - they know what the problem is, they just want pupils who are easy, not ones they have to make any extra effort for (despite taking your money)!

Maybe the dr can write a letter saying that dd cannot return to school at present, because that's all the school has a right to know really. They then have to provide suitable support for her.

@littleducks yes that's what our psychologist is going back with. They meet with us together or not at all.

@LadyBird1973 definitely not allowing any meetings without our involvement. I'm also of the mind now to stop sharing clinic letters & just get GP to write what I need - he's really supportive so am sure he'll help.

There are significant risks caused by live-streaming a lesson, which is why the school may be less keen. They have to ensure that only the teacher can be seen, which means the teacher remains tethered to the front which is not good for the pupils in class. They have no way of in knowing whether you are recording the classes.

Hybrid teaching can only be done well with two members of staff. The school may not want to offer hybrid... if they offer it then it may become expected by others and almost certainly the quality of what is on offer will be discussed.

I’m sorry, but online provision by the existing school isn’t a reasonable adjustment for absence. It’s not as simple as ‘just switch the call on’. The teacher would need to ensure that resources are available online, that the technology was set up correctly, would probably need to change screen / share screen at regular intervals. Online teaching is a skill, and not one that can be performed well at the same time as classroom teaching.