"DD can't be taken out of school because she is statemented"

[CaisleanDraiochta]

A quote from the extremely long text I received from DD's keyworker today after I deliberately missed her call. i have another thread with details but for background info i have deregistered both DD and DS as of today, in writing to the head at their former school.

Really don't know where she is getting her information from (I can guess) but surely she should check her facts before sending stuff like this, especially when DD (and me to a certain extent) is the person she is supposed to be supporting. Full text is as follows:

"Trying to ring you to see if you want help sorting the procedure to educate DS at home? DD can't be taken out of school because she is statemented. she must have an emergency review first. Until thats booked she must stay in school. You must contact ESBAS [education support, attendance and behaviour service at the LA] ASAP tomorrow to start this process off. Until then both kids could have unauthorised absences. If you want my help to do all this you need to answer your phone so we can talk. Its not as simple as you taking them out of school as you have."

Quite simply no I don't want here help, particularly as she appears to know even less than I do. Yes it is as simple as taking them out of school, like i have done.Its a mainstream school, so DD's statement makes no difference and I have put the deregistration in writing. they should be off the school's roll now so no their absence is not unauthorised. I'm also happy to keep everything in writing (or text) with her and everyone else due to past bad experiences when things i have said in confidence were twisted and repeated to the class teacher, leading to some very poor treatment of DD.

So what should I (if anything) send in reply? Am I correct that I have done evrything i need to? I just know if I don't do as I am being told by her, I'm going to open the flood gates to a whole load more trouble. But i'm going to stand my ground- BOTH my Dc are now being educated otherwise than in school as of todays date!

Did you manage to ring op? School sound like they are beig deliberately difficult!

If you're sending them a letter about deregisteting again, I would also add a paragraph to the effect that you are finding their attitude unhelpful, unsupportive and ignorant of your rights to deregister your dc and the process as set out by law however this is not a surprise given the way you have always been treated by the school and indeed is a key element in removing your dc from the school. I would then say that as they are aware, dd is statemented and the school received funds that were supposed to be used to support your dd, that you believe they have used the funds for other things within the school as well as supporting your dd and that they are now being deliberately obstructive in trying to stop you from deregistering for as long as possible in order to maximise the amount of money they receive as a result of your dd's statement.

So long as you don't flatly accuse them of doing this but couch it in terms of I think/the evidence you've provided appears to show/found no evidence to the contrary although happy to be proved wrong/etc they are going to have to make sure that they really are squeaky clean (although I'm not a lawyer so don't take my word on this).

And then sit back and watch the rockets fly. Because if they are obstructing your departure (deliberately or because they don't know the right procedure - not sure which is worse!) then they should be suffering a lot more than just the loss of two pupils and some extra funding through a statement.

They may, indeed, be ignorant of the process of deregistering. I've worked in one school for the past 16 years and we've had not one instance of any children being deregistered for home-schooling.

Not saying it doesn't happen, just that your children's (soon to be previous) school may not have had any experience of it.

Perhaps pointing them in the direction of some of the guidelines that you are aware of might help.

Yes I spoke to FLESS, thay are the people who oversea home ed round here. The person I spoke to was fine, just took names/address etc. and said she'd send us out an info pack and pass the details onto the area co-ordinator who will contact me by phone to arrange a visit at some point. I did mention that the school seemed to think they couldn't dereg the DC until I had registered with them instead she just said 'hmm, well I won't make any comment on that' then took the name of the school and said she'd would speak to them.

I also spoke to DD's SEN caseworker at the LA to check whether anything needs doing regards her statement as the AR is due next month. She did make some noises about 'liking DD to go back into school at some point' as she will 'need to learn to deal with groups of other children at some point' and that it 'wouldn't be possible to shelter her from things she finds difficult forever' I just let it go for now as there will be plenty of opportunity at a later date to show how home ed is the right thing for DD right now and I haven't ruled out either of them going back to school some time in the future anyway. To be fair she did also say that it might be a good time to return to school around a natural transition point, such as secondary. That's more than 3 years away so no rush to start thinking about it at the moment. We both agreed to put off the AR for a while until we get going properly with home ed and also that it would be beneficial to DD to keep the statement going for the time being.

Great news!

That sounds encouraging, Caislean. FLESS will be fine, I'm sure. (Did you get my pm about them, by the way?).

Found a model letter on Mumsnet about requesting school records:

Dear Chair of the Governing Body
(your school will provide the name and address or send it c/o the school)

(Give your child's name and year group here)

I am writing to request a copy of my child's school records. This should include her SEN file and any other file or information held separately from her general file, emails, meetings, phone calls, etc. In short, I would like copies of everything relating to my child.

I understand I am entitled to these within 15 school days under the Pupil Information Regulations and that you may charge the cost of photocopying.

Thank you for your attention to this.

Yours faithfully

(Your name)

Send a special delivery copy of your de-reg letter to the school, and to the director of children's services. Then just switch your phone off and don't respond to this key worker. You've then notified the LA, right up at the top - his/her secretary can pass it down the chain to the right minion. The LA's internal politics isn't your problem and it's not for you to have to be chasing different departments all over the shop.

You'll have to endure an annual review and may have to tolerate a termly monitoring visit. However you can request that the person doing the monitoring be qualified to do so iyswim, you can also request a settling in period of a few months, so that your child can adjust to home ed.

In your shoes I'd specifically request that this key worker NOT attend the annual review, or be any further involved as simply put you no longer need her assistance to help you manage the relationship with the school! Any communication can now go directly between yourself and the LA in order to avoid confusion.

Mine is statemented and I had no problem at all deciding to HE.

Hello OP

Just caught up with your latest and glad its looking a bit more positive for you now.
Just wanted to say, in terms of the visit. If you prefer not to have a visit or for them to meet with your child you are within your rights to refuse and ask for time to settle down to H.ed and provide info through letter or completing one of their forms.
Good luck

Sorry I haven't been back to update sooner, had a couple of non-school related emergencies to deal with and also bee out enjoying the weather and having fun with the DC

So the DC have been out of school for 2 weeks now and so far we have not had any social workers knocking on the door demanding evidence of what I have taught, so I'm inclined to think the person who told me that was talking rubbish.

The school have replied to my dereg letter in writing confirming the DC are off the roll. only problem there is they said it was done from a different date to the one I asked for (3 days later) but I'm not sure whether that is worth bothering about at all. I also had missed call answerphone and text messages from the school demanding I return the DC's musical instruments to the school ASAP. I've just ignored these as the instruments actually belong to the LA's music service and I pay rental for them so they are nothing to do with school. I have also made arrangements for their lesson to be elsewhere (the used to be in school, during class time) and their music teacher is fine with that.

My only other contact with anyone from officialdom has been a rather strange letter from the keyworker person. She has never ever sent letters before but in this one she states that she hasn't heard from me in over a month and do I still want her support! It is dated AFTER the last text she sent me (which I replied to) which was only 1 week ago! not sure what's going on there but as with everything else I'm tending to just think ignore.

Apart from all that everything is going fine with the DC. They are so happy it is obvious this is the right thing for them right now. DS has even started getting up early (6am!) in the mornings when I used to have to drag him out of bed at 7.45am for school. DD has claimed the fridge as her whiteboard and uses it to practise writing and maths on. This is out of choice as I haven't asked either to do any 'school type work' at all. Yesterday she wrote DD is clefer on it this is the same child who, only a month ago, was saying "I'm stupid at everything in school- you should just kill me right now"

Yesterday she wrote DD is clefer on it this is the same child who, only a month ago, was saying "I'm stupid at everything in school- you should just kill me right now"

Wow. What a staggeringly brilliant result. I am SO SO happy for your dd! That's awesome.