I'm a teacher and happy to answer any questions

[DellaF83]

Hi, I'm an experienced primary school teacher and happy to answer any questions anyone may have.

[OutedUnderOldName]

Starlight message does seem to come across as if she obsessed with the idea of the one-to-one assistant, superglued to the child and no one else is what SEN inclusion is all about. That this magical adult is the solution to all problems and gold standard to of what EVERY child with a SEN needs.

I do hope that this is just her opinion due to it working for her family, after what seems like a determined fight on her side. But please don't make such assumptions about what is best for my child and probably many other parents children.

[soapboxqueen]

Starlight not once have I known a statement to be reviewed and hours cut. If I brought it up with head or senco they would tell me to use my professional judgement in what is best for the child. If that meant allowing the child to take part in activities without their ta glued to them. Then so be it.

If statements were these well written Road maps of how best to support a particular child, I would have no problem following them to a T. It would save me a hell of a lot of work. But they aren't. They simply state a warm body needs to sit next to child x for z number of hours. I have to use my judgement to best serve the child. Nobody else is doing it. They've done their job and allocated hours. How they are used is down to me.

I'll be damned if I'm going to have an expensive resource such as another adult sitting mute next to a statemented child who doesn't need them for that activity or is being supported in other ways.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Mrz, there are some really excellent teachers of MN. My posts are not aimed at all teachers.

However, my ds had been in no less than 6 schools by the age of 6 and from 5 of those I removed him because of the school and classroom teachers overrode the provision in the statement whilst pretending it was all going ahead.

They deemed his needs not to merit the provision in his statement and that was their argument after a very stressful number of months with me wondering if I was going crazy with suspicion, until they finally admitted that they felt there were other children in their school more needy and worthy of the support I had SOLD MY HOUSE to fund to prove and win at tribunal.

That is a substantial enough number of schools for me to believe the problem is wide-ranging, and having been on the MN boards for 4 years now I know that it wasn't simply our bad luck.

[Inclusionist]

I'm sorry starlight it is all about the money. I read statements day in, day out and they are not at all specific in the way you suggest. They do NOT detail the exact way provision should be delivered- just what the outcomes of the provision should be.

And yes- a choice has to be made between expensive, specialist provision or cheap blanket provision- there isn't enough money for both. At the moment parents do not get to make that decision. Under the new model you might have more choice, but that idea didn't work terribly well in the pathfinder authorities.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

'Starlight not once have I known a statement to be reviewed and hours cut. If I brought it up with head or senco they would tell me to use my professional judgement in what is best for the child. If that meant allowing the child to take part in activities without their ta glued to them. Then so be it.'

But that is illegal, and you have no business doing this at your or the senco or HTs say so. I would like to suggest that it might be okay if the parent agreed it, but unfortunately they are not outside of the law either. If the statement says it, it MUST happen.

If you don't like the statement, address that through the formal channels. The reason statements aren't cut ime is because no school wants to lose the hours, ESPECIALLY if the child doesn't need them, because they can then use that for other things without having to fund their own TA. That is abuse of tax payers money and failing the child.

[soapboxqueen]

Nurture groups have worked incredibly well for a group of children in my school. There is an issue to do with people using the name 'nurture group' when it isn't really that at all. Allowing some children to access normalised relationships with adults and children can be immensely useful.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

'I read statements day in, day out and they are not at all specific in the way you suggest.'

Well I don't deny that. I read a lot of statements too. And I do understand that woolly statements (which are usually the draft statements finalised because parents don't realise how crap they are) need interpretation. But where they ARE specified, they must not be 'interpreted'.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

'there isn't enough money for both'

There is plenty of money. It's just all gone on legitimising LA Advisory Services, defending tribunals against parents who know they're shit and don't feel that their service will make any difference in school, when it could and should be spend on skilling-up the very people who will actually WORK with the children, the TAs.

[soapboxqueen]

No Starlight it's because I've never known a child who was needy enough to need a statement, make that much progress that removing the statement or reducing the hours was in their best interests. The odd lesson where other strategies are better for that child does not mean they should have their hours cut. They aren't handing statements out like confetti. Plenty of children who could do with them don't get them so if they are given one, they're problems ain't gonna be fixed over night.

The issues that you have had are about schools not providing allocated support at all or allocating it to other children. Which I know does happen. What I am talking about is, over time if the needs of the child warrant it, moving a ta to the next table along.

I find it amusing that you are telling me I can't make judgements about children I know very well but you can make them about every child with sen.

What you are suggesting is that I plonk a person next to a child and let them get on with it. I obviously can't direct them as I'm not the expert who hasn't given any details of what support should be anyway.

[soapboxqueen]

I've never had a statement that mentioned anything other than a number of hours. The exception being children with a medical need.

[insanityscratching]

Ds and dd have been to six different primary schools, in all six, when the school could get away with it they would and have appropriated their support to the difficult to manage children or used it to boost their SATs results.
Ds and dd's statements are tight statements but to get the schools to meet those statements means that parents are put in the impossible position of trying to police the schools.
I know dd's support is used elsewhere at least the teacher has the good grace not to lie to my face and realises it's in the school's best interests to ensure that dd continues to thrive there if they want me to continue to turn a blind eye.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I'm not making judgements about any child. I am just directing you to the law. And however wonderful your 'professional opinion' might be the only available avenue to you to change a child's statemented provision, is to make recommendations at their annual review, or recommend the annual review be brought forward if you feel the changes are urgent.

[NeedtoFightSmarter]

OK, new question:
Does ASD have a genetic link? Do teachers see traits in the parents of children diagnosed with this condition?

[mrz]

Estimated 20% genetic link Sometimes see traits in parents and siblings

[insanityscratching]

Soapbox that is shocking that every statement you have seen doesn't specify how those hours are to be used. Ds and dd's quantify everything from 20 minute session 3x per week with the physical literacy TA following X programme designed by the OT to ds's 1 x 45 minute session weekly with a SALT to address...... etc etc. If schools followed them to the letter they wouldn't have time to use their TA support for photocopying or booster groups so you can see why parents feel aggrieved.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

ASD is unlikely to be one thing or have one cause. It's simply a list of observable behaviours that are consistent over time and context.

Hope that helps

[NeedtoFightSmarter]

Just thinking about a meeting we had with DSD's teacher and her mother! Wondering if the teacher was going "Ahh, now I see ..." as it is usually me or DH that has school contact.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Excellent point zzzzz. I have a friend who is a teacher with a husband who is a paediatrician and their child was diagnosed at age 14 though merited imo further investigation for red flags from the age of 2.

It really is a specialist thing.

[soapboxqueen]

The system doesn't work because it is not properly funded and the people making the assessments are pressured by the people who are their employers and who will ultimately have to fund the hours stated, to not provide enough hours or the right type of support.

A pool of sen trained teachers and ta's who can go out for a length of time to properly assess a child and give real advice about how a child should be supported will make more of an impact.

I think most parents want their child to be properly supported and to make progress, than have a.n.other person plonked next to them for the required number of minutes. That's all that's in a statement gives. The rest is down to me.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

That's not what my ds' statement said, though the CTs still felt they had a right to ignore it AS IF that was what it said.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

The law doesn't say 'Do what the statement says unless you don't think you have enough money to'.

[soapboxqueen]

Exactly insanity. I wouldn't care but we have a mld unit attached to our school.

Generally the information I get is, child x is joining your class, they get x number of hours of support which Mrs Smith is going to cover. That's it. The exception being children with medical needs.