Exclusions / Appeals / Just help!!!

[TheMonkeysAreMine]

I’ll try and be as brief and precise as possible.

Our son is in reception and since September has been displaying difficult and violent behaviour at school which has become increasingly difficult to manage.

He is currently under assessment through CYPS, he has had a behaviour support worker working with him in school. He has had a reduced timetable since January 30th and has only been in school the equivalent to one week since this date.

He has been given 2 fixed term exclusions. Both result from him being restrained in school and him trying to free himself. As he has been trying to free himself he has headbutted a member of staff, resulting in the exclusion. The first exclusion was for just 1 day. The second for 5.

I would like to appeal the exclusion as I feel that excluding him is unfair on the grounds that as we don’t know what’s causing this behaviour, ultimately he doesn’t have the correct support in place at school. I also feel it’s an inappropriate punishment for a five year old who was very stressed, anxious and angry at the time of the incidents. I have been told though that regardless of any diagnosis/non diagnosis an exclusion would have taken place regardless.

I am by no means suggesting the school have not been supportive of our son so far as they have been .

An EHCP has been applied for and we’re awaiting the assessment.

Our sons support worker has finished her time allowed with our son so he is no longer in school with a support worker.

In fact he is no longer in school at all. Next week we start the private tuition that school is paying for to be carried out outside of school premises. This is for 6 hours a week, initially until May half term.

I have been told that if my son has an outburst in a similar way to what has happened the last two times we’re looking at a permanent exclusion.

A managed move isn’t available as the local schools are full.

Quite frankly, I don’t know what to do. 6 hours of tuition a week is not enough or viable long term. I don’t know if I can appeal the exclusions he has had. I’m extremely worried he is going to be permanently expelled from school on his next outburst....which will happen, I’ve no doubt he will have an outburst again.

I don’t know where to turn as my son is entitled to have a full time education provided for him and we are getting very very little education at all at the moment.

Any help would be very very appreciated 😊

And yes, local schools are full. We looked into it this week when we considered a managed move

Schools can (indeed must) go over numbers if the school is named in the child’s EHCP and that goes for specialist and mainstream settings. But he needs the plan.

The school need to get the Ed psych in NOW, they can’t exclude and then send a tutor without attempting to identify his needs and then meet them. That’s practically the definition of discrimination.

Cross posted. The behavioural support team should not be over ruling the Ed psych unless especially qualified to do so. Did the EP throw any light at all on what’s causing this behaviour? Sensory? Anxiety?

what did the behavioural team suggest that was different to the EP? And why?

The EP was only observing for two hours. She said nothing positive in any way. They were her only suggestions as mentioned previously.

The Behavioural support was intended as a support for ds to start to feel more relaxed and less anxious, explaining things like 'the red beast', teaching coping mechanisms, encouraging discussions about anything positive/negative ds wants to talk about. She wanted to show him that school is actually a great place to be and wanted to make him feel safe and happy there. Her view is that he's showing done autistic traits (as a lot of people do) but admittedly she's not a professional.

The EP gave no advice on what might be causing his anxieties or how to cope with them

If he is showing autistic traits then it’s quite possible that School isnt a great place, and is really painful for him! It also sounds as though she thinks that at least some of his behaviour is a choice when it may well be a reaction.

I’d email the EP and ask for more direct answers on suspected cause and remedies, but also seeyour GP for an urgent community paediatric referral, and get to the bottom of this. What week is your EHCP on now?

Where I used to work, the EP was there, in the first instance, at the request of the school. Also paid for by the school. Did you say a charity was also involved or have I misunderstood that?

Did the EP not give the school staff any feedback regarding advice on how to help him to settle? 2 hours is a perfectly reasonable visit lenth. They probably have huge waiting lists.

From a previous job, I know our LA EPs advised class teachers and so did our Behavioural support team, who were all teachers with SEN qualifications. At the moment, it is down to the school to support him, but they should be accessing qualified advice and following it. EPs do not necessarily advise parents or diagnose with pin point accuracy because they are not clinicians but they should work with the school to ensure a classroom strategy is established. The work regarding the Statement/plan will be separate from a first visit and will elicit a formal report that you will see. Other professionals will also report although how they will observe him in clsss is another matter! Your EP service should have a web site which will tell you what they do to support children and schools.

However, it just seems to me that this has come to a head pretty quickly with insufficient strategies being put in place. Many LAs would baulk at that and not agree to a EHC plan. I would also contact the LA at his lack of school attendance. Ask them what they intend to do about it.

No the EP didn't give any suggestions on how to settle him, was literally what was mentioned above.

The charity we went to at a crisis point because it just snowballed so quickly and we didn't know where to turn. We have no regular involvement with them at the moment.

The EHCP assessment has been granted, I've been told it will be up to 20 weeks from last Wednesday. So still early days.

We have the tutor coming to our home on Tuesday to start his 3 x a week sessions, we'll see how that goes.

I've emailed the local MP, her assistant has emailed back a couple of times and she's looking into it so I'm just hoping we get somewhere soon

Thank you for all your replies

That’s great that the EHCP assessment is going through. Last Wednesday will probably have been week 6 so things will now get moving quite quickly. Do make sure that the EP that assesses him for this, is different to the one you had before, obviously. There is a checklist from
IPSEA regarding how the Plan must look, ie specified and quantified.

Every need in section B must be met by a corresponding provision in section F. This is essential. And make sure that every one of his needs is listed in B. It’s arduous but doable.

Start scoping out schools right now. Doesn’t matter if they are full, the EHCP trumps that. In my experience the school Sen provision will only be as good as the senco so do meet them too.

It’s hard, you have to become “that” parent but it’s the only way to get things done.

www.ipsea.org.uk/file-manager/resources/ipsea-ehc-plan-checklist-2014-sept.pdf

Have a look around the IPSEA site. It is heavy but essential and hopefully you only have to do this once.

Thanks very much, appreciate it 😊

What was the outcome of the hearing test?

No problems with his hearing

Your situation is very familiar as my DS was excluded from primary school aged 6. His exclusion came following a series of incidents where he displayed challenging behaviour. This was despite a move to a another school with much smaller classes, and extra provision made (1 to 1).

DS was later diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, ADHD and ODD. He's thrived at an Autism specific school BUT it took 18 months and a tribunal battle to get him there. For much of that he was without education.

If your child is ND I am pretty certain that head butting a teacher is due to sensory issues because of the restraint; DS was the same and his SN school practised a no restraint policy.

Despite not having a diagnosis yet in my experience strategies should be out in place AS IF he is autistic. This may sound controversial however it cannot hurt to begin to consider sensory processing difficulties( managing auditory, visual and environmental stimulation) and to use visual timetables and clear instructions. Your poor little boy is clearly distressed and he has had a horrible time, so anything that helps to keep his environment calm and predictable should help with meltdowns.

Re his education contact IPSEA as they are fantastic but you really need the involvement of Information and Support Services (formerly Parent Partnership) who were my DS's champions. They were there all through the process and even represented us at tribunal. They helped us get a place for DS at a private Independent school paid for by the LEA as it was the only school that could cater for his needs. They are brilliant.

I am so so sorry this is happening to your family. It's traumatic and distressing for you all and I wish you the very best. PM me if it will help.

If your son doesn't like sitting down to do "work" then how is a private tutor going to help? I don't think the school has really thought this through....

Thanks v much glycerine and it's great to hear you've managed to get your son to the right place 😊

As far as a tutor goes idk sticky. Tuesday is our first session. We've spoken on the phone and she's asked about his likes/dislikes. Her grandson has been recently diagnosed with autism apparently so she's sympathetic and said she's going to spend this week getting to know DS a little rather than just sitting him down immediately and expecting him to work.

We'll have to wait and see I guess!

My options are so limited rn until we get a diagnosis or not

So I'm after some advice again please......

We're in week 3 of the tutor. I have had to restrain my ds 3 times so far when the tutor has been here because he has started to be aggressive towards the tutor.

Only 1 more week of tutoring and then he is supposed to go to school on a reduced timetable with a view of building up his timetable to full time by the end of the summer term.

There will be no additional support in place. If he is restrained in school, he will fight back the restraint. If he hurts another member of staff again as on the two previous occasions he has been restrained he will be permanently excluded.

If he is permanently excluded the Inclusion manager at County has told me that the only thing they can offer ds is a home based tutor, not a school.

Can I refuse to take ds into school until appropriate support is there?

Can I offer to go in school with him and restrain him/remove him from the situation if one occurs?

I just don't know what to do

Can I refuse to send him in

Can I request him not to be restrained?

What triggered his aggressive behaviour towards the tutor?

She was trying to get him to do work he didn't want to do

Bump

I think you need to be telling the LA that they need to do better than a home tutor for your child. Child has got to be in an environment that experts can see the issues and try to work out how to improve the behaviour. That is never going to happen if he is at home with home tutoring for a couple of hours a week. The LA need to be finding some kind of more secure provision where he can be monitored.Their answer at the moment is to move him out of sight which is going to do nobody any good in the long run, especially your child.

Agree , they need to expedite the ehcp and put appropriate support in place. One to one home tutoring may be too intense. Are those restraining him trained to do so, it seems very extreme for such a young child. Have you spoken to Parent Partnership (they may have been renamed recently) to help advocate for you.