I am so angry at the moment so please excuse my waffling on.
DS is in year 6 and had Verbal Dyspraxia, severe speech delay but made loads of progress and was taken off the SEN services at school in year 3.
Now in year 6 he still has communication problems, he struggles to express his feelings in front of people at school, is very quiet, struggles to make friends, and is now getting bullied about it.
He has always struggled to communicate and make friendship with other kids, especially in a large group.
This week has been hell. There's a school trip, residential trip for 5 days for year 6 and he is the only one in his class not to go. The school has never offered any further support to help him, now they gave him some work to do outside year 4 (it's a one form entry).
He was in tears at drop off as other children keep on asking him why he isn't going to the school trip. They ask him, over and over again, the same kids, even shouting it across the playground in a teasy kind of way. He is literally crumbling. I don't even know why I didn't take him back home this morning.
When I said this to the office manager this morning, her answer was 'well he is the one who decided not to go, so he has to accept that the other children will pick on him.' I could have smacked her. Fortunately I didn't. I said that the school has handled the situation very badly and they should let all the children know that it's OK to be different, to make a decision even if it's a different decision to everyone in the class.
The school does not understand that he has social communication problems. And he is starting to have mental health problems because of it - anxiety, tears at bedtime, not wanting to go to school. He has exceptional behaviour at school, and his academic results are exceptionally good. He is G&T in maths.
I have spoken to his teachers about this many times, every single year, and also the HT. I am in the process of getting an appointmen t with paediatrician again to ask for further assessment. What else should I be doing?