Urgent advice needed. Meeting tomorrow.

[Devsmum13]

Hello,

My son is not enjoying T Levels. Not enough people signed up for his original IT course, so sixth form put on a coding course in September. (He should have been told on results day but they forgot). He has moaned non stop to his sixth form tutor and at home. Sixth form have asked me to go in for a meeting with the council tomorrow afternoon. I know they will ask for him to leave immediately.

It is a specialist Technical Sixth form.
The council suggested it because it is small and has the academic.

He would have loved the original course. No where else can meet need, and he hasn't got the grades for a school sixth form. He will be placed at a college for autistic students that requires improvement possibly without the IT element.

Things would have been different if his original course has run.

I understand why we need to have this meeting. My son is very bright. He will not learn if he doesn't buckle down and work but If he doesn't like the course and it isn't something he wants to do, he isn't going to try.

He passed all his GCSEs but with much lower grades due to the crappy Senco not understanding the EHCP at his secondary school. He only got in to sixth form because of his EHCP. He won't be able to cope with a school sixth form, and hasn't got the grades anyway..

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel like a failure.

Many thanks.

OP won't answer 🙄

Oh dear.

No it isn't. It's an essential part of the EHCP process. Legally mandated. So why are parents being encouraged to pay, especially when the LA will unlawfully refuse to use it anyway?

Why? Sadly so many of them are.

But you aren't replying with anything meaningful to the posters who are acting in good faith by asking you Qs.

I no longer think this is a good faith post by you. You ignore everyone and don't seem to take any responsibility in identifying suitable options yourself, it's all on the LA.

Why? Some Sendcos are crap.

What does 'not have the academic' mean? Not do the subject/qualification he wants?

Have you had a look at colleges to see if they do an IT/Computing BTEC? A full time extended diploma is equivalent to 3 A Levels if he wants to go on to a degree.

I am not encouraging anyone to pay. I want a proper functioning targeted SEND service.

It's 19 if a young person is in college.

25 if they have an EHCP.

SENCOs don't have to have done SENCO training until three years after their appointment. Many SENCOs are juggling a teaching timetable as well. At DD2/DD3's old school, the SENCO was juggling a 50% teaching timetable, the SEN needs of the school, plus providing remote training for other schools and network conferencing, etc., all as part of her role. The school has 1300 children.

SENCOs often take the role reluctantly, then resign it long before they were required to have their qualification. They are given 'guidance' by LAs that does not reflect the law. Then they assert this guidance to parents who trust that they know what they're doing.

DD2's SENCO point blank refused a direct instruction from her manager to help me apply for an EHC Needs Assessment because she was so convinced that DD2 didn't meet the criteria. I looked at the manager and said 'She absolutely meets the criteria. I'll do it myself.' I put in a Subject Access Request for all the data, all the emails that showed she was getting minimal support. The email that said 'oh dear, I've deleted her form F, but I'll try to recreate it for the SAR...', the email that said 'these kids are getting their heads down and doing their best, so shall we remove their support?'. I sent it all to the LA and said "Do not say that the school should provide evidence of APDR cycles. The fact that they haven't been doing so is evidence that they can't meet her needs." The LA agreed, gave her an EHCP and a place in an independent special school. This being the child that 'wouldn't qualify'.

The professionals who make assessments often don't understand the SEN CoP either. A SALT told me that I was making life really hard for her because DD2 wasn't attending school, so how could she know what resources were available so she could make appropriate suggestions. When I told her that she needed to assess DD2's needs, then make appropriate recommendations, and that it was the LA's job to decide where could meet them, she was astounded. When I asked her 'Have you actually read the SEN Code of Practice??' she replied 'What's the publisher's name?' 'The Government, it's a statutory document!'

How can people give SEN advice if they don't even know the law and regulations that underpins it? But that's the SALT the LA commissioned to advise them on DD2's needs.

So no, it isn't just a lack of resources. It's a lack of due diligence.

If this country invested money in Quality First Provision, and I mean actually doing it, not just writing a list of 'things' that can be done, then half the EHCPs just wouldn't even be necessary. It's because schools and LAs won't use QFP that many pupils with less significant SEN become pupils who need significant support. I have 3 with SEN. 1 of them should have been fine with QFP. 1 of them should have needed school based SEN support. 1 of them was always going to need specialist provision. All 3 have specialist provision because they were destroyed by their educational provider.

Calling the SENCo crap didn’t incline me to give advice based on the benefit of my 26 years” SENCO experience.

Let me guess - the college is crap, the local authority is crao, the SEN caseworkers are all crap:

I’ve heard it all before.

They looked at his EHCP then said that they couldn't meet need mainly for the academic.

OP I'm struggling to understand what you mean in a few of your posts. The one I have quoted does not make sense.

Does he want to study Computer Science or IT? They are different subjects.

There are good SENCOs. But there are a lot of SENCOs that are doing the job reluctantly and either haven't got a good grasp of the SEN CoP, or believes that it's optional and that LA rules and guidelines supercede it.

SENCOs shouldn’t be teaching more than 5 hours. Some teachers want the job because they think it’s easy. It was a vocation for me and I did the NASENCo although I didn’t legally need it. I have additional postgraduate SEND qualifications.

That's why I can see that you're offended by the general tone. I'd love to be a SENCO. I don't want to be a teacher, so it's out. But someone who truly wants to make school work for all children is worth their weight in gold. It takes a real understanding of the barriers to education that children with SEND face, though, and a willingness to change teaching practice so that education is accessible to the majority without specialist provision, by adding in everything that would benefit all children whilst meeting the additional needs of those with SEN. Then you can add in specialist provision for those who need specific supports that wouldn't benefit all children.

Yeah, well, every job in the world has some crappy people in it. You won't help the OP if you're just going to be defensive about that anyway.

The senco started off very well. When my son was in Y8, I went to parents evening and the Senco threw a wobbler at me. From then on I was called into school every five minutes. I had meetings for the same thing over and over again. Then the Senco asked me to call this department and that department which I willingly did. Every time I spoke to someone the person on the other end said that this was the job of the Senco and round and round we went.

My son was on reduced timetable
(11am start) for two years. I was then told over and over again by the Senco that my son had missed so much education. When I spoke to Leeds Sendiass they asked me to speak to our caseworker at the LA because they didn't think that the Senco was working to the same standard as other school Sencos. The caseworker refused and wouldn't hear a word against him.

When the EHCP was issued it named my son's current school. Within three months of the EHCPs issue I had a call from the Senco to say that the EHCP wasn't working. The LA tried to help the Senco but he just wasn't getting it.

Last year, the Senco asked for my son to attend counselling after an altercation with another student at school. He asked me to organise it, but when I spoke to Mindmate they said it was the job of the Senco. When I emailed the Senco, he replied with the INITIAL Referral that our GP did when my son was 9. (How did he think he was diagnosed?!) I forwarded it onto the Head of Children's Services in a desperate attempt to get help.Thankfully someone higher up at the LA realised what had happened and stepped it.

We only went once. The report came back that my son was board at school, and that it was down to the Senco not doing enough for him due to not understand the EHCP.

Because my son is very bright, he did well in the majority of his GCSEs but failed English. (He did tons of revision). The subject teachers bypassed the Senco and organised the EHCP themselves.

When it came to 16+, the LA only offered this one place which on paper looked like the right fit. It would have been if they had run this course.
I am not hating on anyone. It has been hell.

@Devsmum13 Have you looked at Chestnut Place?

https://widerambition.org/chestnut-place/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=13570463164

OP have you spoken to other colleges in the area yourself?
what are his probalems in school - why was he in reduced hours?
do you mean by 'the academics' that because he doesnt have GCSE English they wont let him progress? There are many students retaking English alongside their courses - he may need to go onto a level 2 course

are you in Leeds? there seem to be several colleges offering a range of IT courses. Most FE colleges now are not like schools, and they have specialist support services that they can access for quiet time, mentoring support, one to one library times etc, irrespective of EHCP status

just that FE college is not like school, and its not up to the LA to offer you a college - you can just go and register at any one you want, unless you are pushing for an independant or one which needs a referral.

no hate here, because negotiating the 16+ we dont get much info. my daughter literally took herself from the FE she was at and walked int a local sixth form herself and asked to go there.

With an EHCP it's slightly more complicated, unfortunately.

OP was your child in mainstream school for his GCSEs, and how many did he pass?

Was he on a reduced timetable during that time or was that just before he got the EHCP?
If he was in mainstream then why has he not gone around all the places that his peers will have gone to to see whats on offer - why have you relied on the LA to tell you where he should go?

my daughter has an EHCP. She had to be withdrawn from mainstream school, and was home educated from age 12. She then went to local FE colleges and took individual GCSEs as an elective HE student, before going, with her EHCP, which was pretty full on as included help for her PDA/autism and complex health needs to school based sixth forms, specialist ASD college, and standalone FE colleges over the next few years to get qualifications to get her to uni, which she started age 22

she had English, but she didnt have maths, which was a requirement, but each place allowed her to enroll, discussed the EHCP, offered support (which she often refused) and got her to redo her maths alongside her timetable. She had a fair amount of time out due to her health from age 16-18, and we never had the LA tell us which schools to go to, although they came for the review of changes to the plan at most of the placements and basically rubber stamped what the placement, my daughter, and I agreed between us.

If he has to work then he will need to get used to doing things he doesn’t want to? Learning to make compromises is an important part of life especially for young people with additional needs. You need to sit down together and work out what the best outcome is based on the options that are actually available.

If the post 16 placement wasn’t your/DS’s preferred placement, did you appeal?

just that FE college is not like school, and its not up to the LA to offer you a college - you can just go and register at any one you want, unless you are pushing for an independant or one which needs a referral.

Parents/Y11 DC can/should look at settings and decide on their preference, but the process isn’t quite as you post. The review process still needs to be followed, the setting still needs consulting and the placement still needs naming in I of the EHCP. The process with an EHCP isn’t the same as for those without.

SENCOs shouldn’t be teaching more than 5 hours.

Yet many do, up and down the country.

Some SENCOs are excellent but equally there are some who are incredibly poor. Similarly, some placements are excellent, others are not. Some caseworkers are excellent, although constraint by their superiors, but some are dire. All LAs act unlawfully sometimes.