Disruptive child in DS class

[Mummynextdoor]

New child joined DS Y4 class when they returned on Monday. DS came home and said that the child had been disruptive all day - refusing to do anything, shouting, trying to hit the teacher - I walked past the classroom and could hear the teacher shouting - he said it had ruined his first day back. It seemed to be much of the same Tuesday and Wednesday.

When I asked him about his day today he didn't mention it but later when I commented that it sounded like the child had settled down my son said his behaviour was just the same but said "it's just the way it is Mummy'. He's also commented how shouty his teacher is with them all because she's so wound up.

I feel so sad for him as he was so looking forward to going back after 6 months.

I feel like I should say something but can't speak to the teachers at present so I would have to email but what do I say. The teacher clearly knows it's an issue and am sure her week has been difficult enough already.

I hope ypi all take the time to write to upur MPs highlighting The Education Select Committees findings about SEND funding and support and asking they hold the goverment to account on making the improvements recommended. There were lots of fabulous suggestions. Its a cross party committee. The fact is if you support children with SEND you support all children. You shouldnt leave it just to the most vulnerable children to sort out.

IF this child is diagnosed with a severe enough learning difficulty they MAY be awarded an EHCP, which MIGHT come with a tiny bit of funding to support them.

What is most likely though, is that adults will have to be deployed from other children in order to support him/her, thanks to a broken and underfunded system.

@uglyface your post illustrates all the many myths about SEN support in schools that are perpetuated by LA's fed to schools and then in turn to parents.
A child doesn't have to have any learning difficulty to secure an EHCP. Ds and dd are very academically able both have/had EHCPS.
EHCP's should have the provision specified and quantified and so easily costed and schools should not agree to make the provision without ensuring they have the resources to meet it. Our LA stated school needed £2k to meet the EHCP at Tribunal the EHCP was given £49k funding. The school would have been stupid to agree because the EHCP was specified and quantified and had to be provided but it was down to me to appeal.
Schools can and should access funding from the LA should a child need support before or during a needs assessment. Removing support from a child with an EHCP is unlawful if the EHCP specifies the support is needed for that child then a parent should write to the Local Authority regarding failure to make provision and could take legal action. I was once told that my insistence on the school making all the provision in dd's EHCP was removing support from other children. I told them that's not my problem but if you pass on my details to their parents I will help them get the support they should too. Funnily enough SENCo didn't pass on my details.

@hiredandsqueak I agree that my wording of ‘learning difficulty’ was not specific enough - in actual fact the SEND COP refers to children who have not made expected progress despite intervention at school level. It also refers to a variety of other criteria.

In order to support an EHCP application, schools must first prove that what they can provide in terms of intervention and support from their own budget is not sufficient to allow the child to make progress. Their ‘own’ budget is the per head funding that schools receive for each child, which is usually spent on basics such as a class teacher, premises etc. Crucially, schools must use all of the per head budget for a child on intervention and support for that child only, in order to prove that they are not making progress using existing resources. This means that that child’s ‘share’ of the basic running costs must be found elsewhere and schools are not running on sufficient funds as it is.

Equally, in my career I have seen many EHCPs where the entitlement outlined in the plan far exceeds the funds attached. A good school will honour the plan, but something else does have to go in order to balance the books. The headteacher at our school regularly sits on the panel at EHCP tribunals and comes back with the same story again and again.

Regardless of whether this is an LEA ‘myth’ or a central government issue, the fact remains that the system is broken and many schools are left robbing Peter to pay Paul and its only the children - SEND and NT alike - that are losing out. Unless you have been closely involved in the intricacies of school finance, it’s difficult to understand just how much schools are being increasingly forced to cut in order to pay the bills.

When was the system not considered broken? I Rutledge in this area in the 1990s and it wasn’t great then. There’s never been a golden age.

Once again, Local Authorities are obliged to delegate SEN money they previously held to schools. They only keep money to go with the plans or money for dc that go out of area to special schools. They cannot hold back funds to dole out to schools when need arises. This is precisely why the majority of DC that are excluded have SEN. The schools already receive SEN money but spend it on other things. Other things might be TAs. So yes, they have to be diverted to the children with needs. It could be SEN devolved money that’s paying for them in the first place.

Obviously it’s a juggling act in schools to cope with very disruptive children. It certainly is expensive if it continues for a long time. For some DC there might be PP money that could be used effectively. What there won’t be is pots of money held by local authorities to dish out to schools like there used to be. Schools have devolved budgets. Academies run school budgets. Local authorities are largely advisory, responsible for overall financial decisions, or running business services which schools buy in. They no longer run or control the finances in individual schools.

I worked in this area....