Schools duty to provide work

[ninetofiveeveryday]

My 15 year old son has been off school for two weeks now, with a broken bone. School say they do not provide any school work.
Does anyone know if this is right or if they have any duties? He is diagnosed autistic and bright, and getting very anxious about missing work. We’ve bought some work books which he is doing a bit but he’s concerned about the subjects he’s missing and school have washed their hands of it. He is likely to be off around a month though he’s now saying he wants to go back soon though it’s too early.
any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you!

Why would he be off so long with a broken bone? Isn't it in plaster or braced or whatever necessary to protect it?

Do you mean that the school has refused to provide work? I assume he’s in year10 and doing GCSE courses.

Have you contacted the SENCo at the school? I’d be asking for some clarification from his form tutor, head of year too and SLT if there’s no response.

Which bone has he broken-a month is a long time to be off?

Who have you spoken to at the school?

Speaking as a teacher, it’s a huge amount of work to provide work for one student - it wither has to be done daily, with a detailed explanation of what being taught and how to do the work, or on a block going forward - the teacher may well not have planned that far ahead. In all honesty, it would be incredibly hard to find the time.

Different situation to you as my child was attendance issues due to various things but their school said they couldn't provide work as it would "encourage children to stay home".
Under section 19 of the education act the local authority has a duty to provide alternative provision should a child be off 15 days or more due to health reasons, you would need to do a request to the LA. Depending where you are he might be back at school before anything is put in place though.

If he is year 10 there is a lot of helpful GCSE revision sites he could work through instead

It’s unusual to be off for so long with a broken bone.

generally students who have broken something come back in pretty quickly often with adjustments like leaving lessons early to avoid the large numbers of people in corridors, lift access if possible, a friend to help them move around school etc.

if he’s broken something major then many schools have a hub for students with send/etc where he can work individually supervised by a TA or teacher.

many schools do refuse to send home work these days for students.

Few years back when dsis, fell and fractured her leg. School insisted that she attended school. Most of her classes where on the second or higher floor, so she spent most of her time in the library with lots of different teachers coming and going. She said she read most of the books in the library in those three weeks. As she couldn't climb the stairs safely in case of a fire.

She got random paperwork that didnt fill the time, so she read books.

What bone has he broken? It's not normal to be off school with a broken bone.

Yes, schools have a legal duty to provide work for pupils who are off sick for more than 15 days over the course of a year. They should report the absence to the Local Authority, some of whom will provide home tutoring until the child is well enough to go back to school.

Who is saying he needs to be off for a month? Are the school not prepared to set extra work because they think you are keeping him home unnecessarily?

Thank you for these helpful replies. He disclocated his ankle and broke his leg in three places so is struggling to walk at all. He is desperate to get back, and we are keen to accommodate it, can arrange lifts etc and even shorter days if needed but school have said he would only be able to attend ground floor lessons (3 out of his 10 subjects) as they don’t allow students with a pot on stairs. The pot will be on for 8-12 weeks.

My son was off for a few weeks after surgery before Easter. School said they wouldn’t provide work as would expect him to be recovering. He did keep up on Google classroom and did the homework set. He was in year 9 so not missing GCSE stuff though.
After he went back he did the rounds with the teachers and got the run down of what he’d missed and anything he felt was urgent he cover then he did.

The opposite, we are keen for him to start at least a phased return, they just seem so reluctant to accommodate him at all. We just wondered if we have to just accept it is what it is or whether school are skirting their responsibilities. Interesting re 15 days and their duty which I will look into if they can’t take him back. Half the battle is no one at the school returns calls or emails for a week. They have really disappointed us over this we don’t think they’ve handled it well at all and are surprised at their lack of interest in getting him back.
Re teacher workloads we do have sympathy for that too, but we are still a bit unsure what we are supposed to do. I’ve spent a fortune on the gcse revision guides so he’s going through some of those a bit but he’s only year 10 so not actually at that point yet really

Yes kids are always in with broken something

In which case:

if you//he want to stay at home ask for or look on the school website for the curriculum information.
most schools have a list of sorts that they post online or can give to parents.

at the very least they can tell you what book or play he us doing in English, and what topics for maths/history/geography.

three lessons out of his ten subjects sounds better than nothing - are school happy for him to sit in the library or similar for subjects he can’t physically get to?

if he can’t walk then it’s possible to hire manual or electric wheelchairs from places like this:

https://www.wheelfreedom.com/

They are being incredibly unhelpful if that’s the case! If you can’t get an appointment with the head/senco, I’d ring and speak to someone at the LA for advice

so he can make it to school, but just can’t get up the stairs. Could his teachers live stream their lessons so he could participate remotely from the ground floor using a screen?

At my school if it was a long term problem I’d be room changed into a ground floor classroom for my lessons with that student.

It is the LA with the duty to ensure CSA DC unable to attend school still receive a suitable full-time education. The school doesn’t have to send home work, and the LGO is clear this doesn’t relieve the LA of their duty. Provision should be arranged once it becomes clear 15 days will be missed and provision should begin by the sixth day of absence.

If DS can attend school but can’t go upstairs, can the school not make alternative arrangements for the lessons (or at least most of the lessons. Lessons needing special sit equipment may be harder to sort) that are upstairs? Either by room changes for the whole class or by making other arrangements for DS for those lessons.

When I was a SENCo, there was a boy in yer 10, who had a very complex broken leg, which rendered him immobile for some time. When he recovered enough to come to school, but not use stairs, we allocated him a room in my department and he was able to come into school for a few hours. During that time, GCSE work was provided for him and we were able to liaise with subject teachers.

Given that homework is often online and the lesson content follows a format presumably, I don’t see why he can’t have a space on the ground floor and at least have some indication of what’s being studied and some feedback.

Not ops problem, that’s the schools problem the head of subjects should be sorting this

School should pay for tutors in this circumstance

Can you ask if teachers can set up teams or zooms call so he can watch lessons remotely or ask them to hire an av1 robot

They sound utterly useless op. Whilst technically we aren't meant to set work for short term sickness absence, the idea being that if they are poorly enough to be home they shouldn't be doing work and if they are well enough to be working then they should in theory be well enough for school. However, a broken bone is a slightly different scenario and it sounds like they are being useless at getting him back in.

We would absolutely set some work for him at my school. Or accommodate him on the ground floor. My advice is send him in and insist they bring work to him. And if they make it difficult complain to the governors.