What do you make of this?

[MrsGolightly]

Wonder if I can get some other opinions on this please - Long story but in a nutshell.... DD is at an independent school in Y5. A few months ago a SENCO at the school suggested to myself and DP that she may be dyspraxic. A couple of weeks ago we had a hospital appt with a specialist who confirmed this to be true. Shortly afterwards (in order to ascertain that the school were fully aware of the diagnosis) I made an appointment to see her headmistress. I also arranged to see the head of the senior school prior to this appt. So for clarity, Senior Head at 9am and Junior Head at 10am last Tuesday. We had a good, positive meeting with the Senior Head and as we were leaving to walk to the Junior dept, were advised that Junior Head was now unable to see us.
(must mention here that DH and I are both f/lance and had taken a day off work to go to these appointments, and if we don't work, don't get paid)

Fast forward three days to last Friday and I still hadn't heard from the PA to the Junior Head so I called her to make another appointment. This was scheduled for yesterday. (Again another day off work for us both but needless to say we are both sufficiently concerned about DD's health and education to accept further loss of pay and time allocated to our work(

On Tuesday afternoon I received an email from PA to the Head to say she was now unable to see us the following day. I called the PA to try and find out why she was unable to see us - she didn't know - I expressed my disappointment at being cancelled for a second time etc. Am I being unreasonable to expect that by now, she would have contacted us to explain and try to re-schedule? We are all going through a pretty difficult time at the moment and I am so upset at the lack of support from the Headmistress.

Sorry this is so long and doubtless disjointed - i'm a bit distressed and anxious at the moment.

Thank you

[poppy70]

Could be a personal issue the school/head don't want to broadcast yet or at all for privacy reasons. The PA knew why she cancelled. They aren't avoiding you or dismissing your daughter. It has nothing to do with you I'm sure.

[Caronaim]

it sounds like an unnecessary meeting anyway, to be honest.

[TeenAndTween]

For a discussion re dyspraxia I would expect to meet with the SENCO and class teacher/SENCO. I wouldn't expect to meet with the head - what do you hope to gain from it?

However, it is pretty poor to cancel twice without being proactive about re-arranging.

I might be getting secretly worried that the independent school didn't want the hassle of a dyspraxic child.


However, well do to you for getting a diagnosis. We have only just achieved this for my y11 daughter. I wish we had had it a few years back, it would have helped so much over the last few years. (Not so much the diagnosis but the information on organisation issues. I hadn't realised quite the wide range of difficulties she has (though I knew she had a lot)).

[TeenAndTween]

Sorry, class teacher / form tutor. Not class teacher / SENCO.

[spanieleyes]

You wouldnt discuss dyspraxia with the Head ( or Deputy either!) of my school but with the SENDCO and with the class teacher, two Head teachers seems like overkill!

[Sunflower123456]

I guess it doesn't matter who you see, as long as the school sets a plan to help your daughter.

[MrsGolightly]

Thanks for the replies all - the reason for seeing the head of the senior school was to discuss the entrance exam, not to discuss her diagnosis. And the reason I wanted to see the head of the Junior school was that I wanted to ensure everyone was 'joined up' in their approach (for example my DD has been told she has to play sport with lower year groups which I wanted to address - it was affecting her self esteem, whilst her class teacher said in her report that she had to play more with her own classmates during break time so we felt she was receiving mixed messages) - which I think is not entirely unreasonable?

[Sunflower123456]

It's perfectly reasonable. The school should have made a plan for your daughter, and everybody should know and follow it.

I hope the head had set a new date to see you now.