Permanent Exclusion with Statement of Educational Needs

[Hawthorn1000]

My 8 year old son has just been excluded due to behaviour issues. The statement he has was for this poor behaviour and he was on maximum support from the local authority. The exclusion decision was made by the head and the lad was given a 3.5 day exclusion, followed without warning by a permanent exclusion without him having returned to school. Just wondered if anyone had experience of this as it seems to be just a little knee jerk and will do nothing for the boy who has attachment and anger issues dating back from before he was adopted. We have always been very support of the school and feel let down that they have just dropped him without even an attempt at a planned move.

Thanks One in eight, that's useful information.

I get what you say but actually the local LA is very uncomfortable about the fact the lad has been forced into the PRU - it is not what they would have done ( as an update of previous posts, the lad was in a school in Derbyshire who we feel has dealt with this very badly and thus the IPR but the SEN support was from Tameside MBC who to give them their due have fought alongside us in this. TMBC do not PE children with a Statement into a PRU(.

It may be that the LA would support some home tuition but to be honest I wouldn't want to put them in a position that they are clearing up the mess left by Derbyshire CC if we as a family can manage things.

A very odd position to be in (ie having some respect for the LA in TMBC and their efforts) but it perhaps highlights why we as a family are pursuing the IPR and will take things further.

It just is not right what Derbyshire CC have allowed to happen - they were given a number of opportunities to remind the head teacher of how best to handle this and they chose to follow the lead from the school.

It is annoying to me that the school and DCC had no resources to support the lad but they now have to contest this for as long as it will take................

Hello. I do understand why you feel aggrieved about Derbyshire but legally a Head can PE and it is the decision of the Head alone. It may be that he/she should have taken all facts into account and they didn't, but I believe it is their right to exclude and Heads, sadly, do ignore best advice from a LA. They shouldn't but they do because they think parents won't take it further and they expect to get away with it. Hopefully they won't.

Yes Bojorojo, I get that it is the Heads decision but it did seem that DCC closed ranks and supported this decision despite another LA taking a view that was entirely the opposite. I get that an LA would back a head but equally I would have thought that a more formal contact might have taken place between the two LA's and the head teacher. Instead of this we had the rather odd sight of an SEN Manager from one LA criticising the head teacher at the Governors appeal with no-one present from DCC to observe or comment.
Seems an odd way to operate.............

So that was the Independent Review Panel which decided to uphold the Governors decision.

I fail to see why the DfE bothers to have Guidelines for children who have a Statement of educational needs if the whole appeals and review process does not support them.

Nobody argued that the school did not have to protect staff and other pupils and to allow learning not to be disrupted but surely the duty of the school was to manage the behaviour of the lad to a point where they felt that it was beyond them and to then put in place a managed move to a more able school. This didn't happen and nobody seems to see this as unfair. Nobody even seems to see the lack of humanity in the decisions by the Head, the Governors and now the Review Panel. Maybe I am just far too close to the issue but even when I try to step back a little I don't get it.

Adopted child with severe attachment issues that show themselves in difficult behaviour which has been managed by the school since 2013 and which has been additionally addressed by therapy is permanently excluded for exactly the same challenging behaviour without any discussion with the family of the SEN professionals. I don't get it.

It seems that this is just discrimination.

Looks like I need to start reading up on First Tier Tribunals........

Anybody had any experience of these and there effectiveness?