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 😊

I've been on at all sorts of people the last few days

The inclusion manager at county told me that until he is excluded there is nothing they can do to help. The responsibility lies with the school to be "creative and flexible" to accommodate our ds

School are saying they don't have the funds to do anything

Apparently all services by county have to be bought in now by the school and they can do nothing until he is excluded

But when I asked what would be done when he is excluded the answer was for county to pay for more home tutoring because everywhere is full

I'm really getting to the point where I only see legal advise as the way and realistically I do not have the funds to do this

The school have MAPA trained two staff to restrain ds 'appropriately' though the two times he was excluded was when he was being restrained and managed to injure the members of staff, while restrained. That was why he was excluded

I am completely aghast at the situation tbh

One final bump

I am afraid that I do not have any practical advice as I have no experience in this area but this sounds like a very difficult situation. If the staff are unable to restrain your son, who is 5, without ensuring that he is not a danger to himself or others, I would unwilling to let him go back to school knowing that he can and does become aggressive when being asked to do things he does not want to do.

If you would be OK with having him tutored at home until you get an EHCP, could you get the tutor to report to the school and the LEA stating that in her opinion, it is inappropriate for him to return to school unless there is a one to one in place and then ask the school to refuse to have him back on that basis.

Can you afford to have him at home until you can work out how to get over this aggression when being asked to do something he doesn't want to do?

Have you asked this on the special needs board, there are posters on there who don't look in other places but are knowledgeable? Also, perhaps on some of the homeschooling forums as there is a proportion of the homeschooling network who do so because their child could not be accommodated in school. I know of one lady who managed to homeschool, did have a tutor and eventually found a place at specialist secondary school that worked for her son.

I've told the headteacher I'm not taking ds in until a proper support plan is in place, we know what is wrong with him or what's causing the outbursts and until I'm happy that enough support is in place to ensure he's not at high risk of being permanently excluded

I am being reported to the EWO

Definitely seek advice from the homeschooling board before seeing the EWO but get your evidence together, incident reports, communication with the school and ask the tutor to write up the incidences at home too.

I am staggered by your last post, op.

Firstly, SEND budgets are delegated to schools. They are not massive amounts of money, but to say they have no money for SEND support for a pupil who hasn’t yet got a statement is untrue. They have the delegated money. They just don’t want to spend it.

In addition, a school that has to buy in services has money devolved to them to buy in the services. They can access services if they wish. They don’t wish to.

It’s clear to me that they want to exclude him and they have no intention of being inclusive. Don’t take the EWO threat too seriously. You need to say to the EWO that your child is being denied a school place because they school refuses to support him. That’s not acceptable. The EWO won’t get round to doing very much and don’t worry about any action being taken against you, that takes forever.

I am wondering what might happen if he was permanently excluded. They would send a tutor in. That’s not satisfactory, but the statement process won’t stop. I assume the HT will support the statement as long as it removes your child from their school. The question is then, what school will be named in the statement, assuming you get one?

I would go and see your GP with him. Ask for further access to relevant child health professionals. I would also ask to see the LA Ed psych. Urgently. Talk through what they are likely to say re their evidence for the statement. They should be able to help you get him into an appropriate school which must be written into the statement. Having said that, they have not much evidence to go on. Can the Ed Psych see him with you? They now won’t see him in school, will they? They often recommend schools and you can go and look. Is there any off site therapy unit he could go to? Some LAs run these. Ask what provision there is, even if it’s full.

I can honestly say this is a mess with no professional taking responsibility. It’s shocking.

GP is a good idea, I'll do that tomorrow, I've nothing to lose.

I'm going to get in touch with all the professionals who have been in contact tomorrow and see if they can give me their opinion on me sending him in school with just a TA to support him.

To me it seems ridiculous but maybe I'm wrong.

I may have a meeting tomorrow with the HT, senco and the inclusion manager from county. It was mentioned earlier but nothing has been out in place yet

And thank you for your replies of course..... 😊, really do appreciate them

I would have to agree with Bubbles that this looks more and more like a school who would rather you and your child were simply not anything to do with the school. The problem is that you need your son to be in the school so that external services can be accessed so that a proper determination on his issues can be instigated. You really need 6 months plus of "help" from the school to build a case for an EHC Plan, which then might or might not lead to going to another school or a way of improving the behaviour in the current one.
I would suggest that you try and contact the SEN people at the LA in the hope that they can offer advice or at least make it plain to the school that they must play a full part in making suitable adjustments to keep your son in school. Make sure you keep copious notes of all meetings and confirm in writing after any phone call or meeting what your understanding was of what had been agreed to be done. Experience tells me that when and if this gets to a permanent exclusion, your version of events will be very different to the schools. Written evidence at that stage is invaluable.

Is there any scope for me requesting he not be excluded while we await a diagnosis?

I am incredibly aware of what he can be like. I know the school have to keep the other children and their staff safe, completely understand that.

But imo he is 5 and they can't even restrain him in a way that keeps himself and others safe because these were the occasions he was excluded.

I have been in touch with everyone I can think of

Local MP
Director of education at county
Sen manager at county
Director of children's services at county
Inclusion manager at county

All bar the inclusion manager are 'looking into it'

And I never thought of keeping a record of contact. I will do that. I have all the paperwork and copies of eha meetings etc but not a written calendar of discussions/agreements.

Thank you

I'm concerned that if you associate yourself with his education then he will see that as you being part of the problem. He needs you to be separate and his comfort zone

Have you tried to get him to do some work at home? How does he react to you?

Do you work?

There is a Facebook page called Therapeutic Parenting. Ask to join and it gives you all sorts of resources and support. They push you to join the National Association of Therapeutic Parenting as well but then there are letter templates you can download to send to school and a helpline you can call for advice. I'm sure it will help you massively. Good luck x

How about Sendiass /parent partnership? If they exist in your area they're probably the best support for you? Sounds really tricky. Yes, do think which school you would ideally like for him and maybe try and visit the autism specific schools near you in case that's the eventual outcome?

Tulips, he does begrudgingly do work with me at home. Only had 1 major outburst from him. He is quite capable at the work

I don't work atm but financially I do need to get back into work which is 1 reason I don't want to home educate him.

The nearest autism specific school is 20 miles away and they're full with a waiting list

Other primaries in the area are full. Even county have said he'd have to be home tutored if he is permanently excluded

Thanks for the groups info, I'll look into those

There are many children with EHC plans who are given x hours of time each week with a TA. They can be trained to be effective and may have had experiebce before. Don’t write this off.

Bubbles schools have notional SEND budgets. In my school this is already all taken up by children with EHCPs as we have to fund the first £6k of support before any additional funding kicks in. So, yes, schools do get budgets for SEND but you don’t know what other needs this school is having to already support and fund. If a new pupil came to my school tomorrow then we would struggle to magic up the money for more support. It’s not at all that we don’t WANT to spend it, it’s that we really don’t have it to spend.

OP it sounds like a really difficult situation. Have the school done a risk assessment for your son’s return?

Ds has had risk assessments previously. Idk whether a new one has been done for his return.

I appreciate that the TA is a support of sorts but I've been told the TA has lost confidence in dealing with my ds which concerns me

In an emergency situation in YR, the school has to find the money! The child is on roll and statutory school age. It’s not a case of saying last one in gets nothing. If the child had come with a statement naming that school there would be no wriggle room at all. They just have to fund what is needed whilst getting on and agitating for the statement then maybe he will get a place in a special school. SEN support for one child cannot be down to what other children are already getting. They could possibly ask for extra funds from the LA. They don’t want to bother so are not being proactive.

The £6000 expected spend is devolved to schools. It used to be in LA budgets who could target the money appropriately. That used to be my job years ago! Schools now control their own budgets and have the money. They will experience ups and downs with expenditure. This is a down but it is the responsibility of the school. The LA might have a slush fund for emergencies.

If TA has no confidence, then she’s the wrong TA for this particular job. They should have one with a better grasp of behavioural difficulties. This is not a unique situation and I do understand the difficulties the staff are facing. However at every turn they are effectively washing their hands of your DS. He’s only in YR. I do hope you are able to get better support soon.

Tbh these budgets are pathetic. My son is struggling to even get basic equipment and he has a diagnosis.