Compulsory after school support - is it legal?

[Youarentkiddingme]

If a school offers enrichment activities after school and can detain a child after school as a punishment (detention) - can they insist that a certain population have additional support after school which prevents them having a free choice to enrichment activities?

And can you then remove the item that population uses if they don't attend the compulsory course related to it?

Sen related.

It's not football! Ds would rather do detention than play team sports!

He had a scribe in juniors - this school do not believe in scribes because it's not realistic in real life. I agree. But they also haven't monitored how the laptop is benefitting him and the ability of him to use it against how he was achieving with a scribe. Ds can type quite well now as he's being doing touch typing and using a laptop since he started.

No they can't provide the support out of school hours, meaning he can't attend a club, and threaten to remove his disability aid if he does not attend.
Support needs to be provided in school hours, they can't make this a compulsory session.

Ah - so you've been demanding they monitor how effective his use of the laptop is, and now they are saying OK, we can monitor that but only if he comes to these sessions?

If he's learning to touch-type anyway, I don't see why he would need special sessions to do it, and threatening to take away the laptop is surely totally unnacceptable (unless they are going to replace it with scribes for all lessons...)

Could he not just have his typing speed tested once (maybe again after a term or so) and have done with it?

Not quite demanding! But asking that as having a laptop is on his (non statutory version) statement and touch typing club was added as something he'd do that they monitored this somehow because IEPS no longer officially exist (so the schoo, don't use them).

So he's been touch typing since September. He's recently been tested and falls in average band for speed and accuracy.

But now suddenly all students, not just DS, who use a laptop must attend this course.

I maybe miles off but I feel that they've failed to monitor properly and this is an arse covering exercise.

But they also haven't monitored how the laptop is benefitting him and the ability of him to use it against how he was achieving with a scribe

That would be because regardless of how badly he was doing compared to a scribe they are very unlikely to give him one. There's no money.

So train him up in how to best use the laptop instead. It's going to be your best shot at getting him decent grades.

I don't quite follow the whole touch-typing course thing but if he is only average speed and needs to do it every day I'd have thought a 6 week course aimed at kids who use laptops in lessons would be a good idea? I don't understand what the other club is, but 6 weeks is nothing out of the school year.

It's a minimum of 6 weeks which means that ds has to give up what he's just learnt and cannot do the end of year production having already spent 2 months working on it.

He has been doing touch typing. That's the point. He's been doing it voluntarily (effectively) although I made it part of his support package because they run a club for it.

I'm so torn because I do want the best for DS - I do want him to do the best he can. But it just seems that getting any support is a fight and means he has to give up other opportunities. And there is the money - they get Sen funding for him. The issue is that the money isn't allocated to the student to meet their needs and its allocated to Sen as a whole within a school.

And in fact a scribe is more effective to DS because he has difficulties with writing sentences and his oral communication is better. (Not great but better!). So he's already struggling by losing the 1:1 support he had for written work to learn the skills he lacks. TBH touch typing alone is not beneficial for a child who will just type poorly constructed sentences quicker than if they couldn't touch type! It needs to be part of a bigger package.

However much funding they get for him, I doubt it is enough to hire an extra adult to sit with him 1-1. Schools are having to get rid of support staff due to budget cuts.

Ok, if it's a drama club/choir and they are working towards something then that's different to him missing chess club. Have you actually had a face-to-face meeting with the SENCO to discuss all this?

But now suddenly all students, not just DS, who use a laptop must attend this course.
It is completely unacceptable that a course to monitor his use of a disability aid must be done out of school hours, especially as it clashes with another school activity. It is in effect, excluding him from the other activity.
They cannot make out of hours support compulsory and remove his essential laptop if he doesn't attend.

If it's a case of "you need to come after school, for 6 weeks to learn to use your learning aid, of you don't you can't have it" Yes they can. All kids have an entitlement to their subjects and they shouldn't miss them to learn a new skill. Also if this is the case the new skill he learns will help him tremendously, therefore th sacrifice of 6weeks football is worth it.

What they can't do is say "you have special needs therefore you must attend special needs club on x day or you will lose you learning aid" . In this situation they are being discriminatory and are using the learning aid as a tool to get him to do something he doesn't want to do.

Do you see the subtle difference I'm trying to get at? If the club is related to proficiency with the learning aid it's one thing if it's just a punishment to get him there it's totally different.

If it's the former, then spark up a conversation. My son had similar issue. It clashed with CCF, so we came to an agreement about another time. It may not be possible, but you won't know unless you ask. Also make damn sure your dc has understood properly. The amount of times I've been ready to sound off, but when I ask appropriate questions I found it wasn't quite how the kids reported it!!!! Ask to speak to the SENCO and see what the deal is first.

I'm a big believer in asking them to explain their policies before I launch an assault so they can't back out later in the conversation.

Good luck.

I understand situation fully - the letter was posted to me!

He is already doing touch typing and has been since September. Everyweek at a club supervised by a staff member. They've been logging his scores etc since January.
They offered him the laptop when we did his transitional annual review - he previously had a scribe.
They were not prepared to discuss the monitoring of its use etc for DS or discuss a transition whereby he still had some support that retreated slowly as DS transitioned into independent working.

Except now, 7 months on they suddenly require him to attend a compulsory course to do what he's already been doing or he may lose the laptop.
But they still won't provide support for him for the writing - that's an issue - his typing is fine and acceptable speed - it's the fact he doesn't type anything grammatically correct or that makes much sense that's the biggest issue.

I've spoken to senco. She is the most difficult person Ive ever come across! When discussing an incident one day in which 2 members of staff assited DS - and I said its behaviours he exhibited before and shows an increased anxiety level and that we need to discuss how to support DS she wanted to get out CCTV and prove to me incident didn't happen.
Why would DS and 2 staff members make it up

So the SENCO has confirmed he needs to do a course which he has already done, thus missing a production he has been working on for months or he will lose a laptop that he absolutely can't function without?

If so, I'd email her, copying in the head, asking her to confirm this in writing.

I get there is a detailed argument here. The SEN system can be very difficult to navigate (yes I have personal experience of it). Over the years I have had to accept things I thought were mad just to get to the goal of the actual help needed. Its not personal its just the system isn't very flexible, boxes have to be ticked. With hind sight I would say fighting for common sense wasn't very productive, manipulating playing the system, for good or ill, was the best way to get results.

Bolognase it's exactly that. Always stuck I. The middle of what's right and what's best.

Noble thanks for all your advice. I've done nothing yet with regards contacting school.

I wanted to get perspective. I'm incredibly tired and over whlemed with the whole set up of secondary and DS reaction to it. Nothing is as I was told it would be and what I believed was going to be a fantastic placement is turning out to be one that's set DS back in terms of emotional statility by 2 years.
I've tried to be patient and accept they've had a change of leadership - which I'd didn't know about until after DS had started.
But I'm just so bogged under and tired and really unable to decide what's best anymore.

I get DS coming home frequently falling apart due to continual changes - he's extremely inflexible in this thinking. I have support I know he needs that he's not getting and won't be getting so have an EHCP application on the go. There's things he is getting the chance to do that home in on his very specific set of skills he's gifted in but that he's having to stop due to other needs he has. I have the school telling me untruths and being aggressive with me for asking questions.. Ds will not sleep in his own bed again so I get a break for about 20 minutes before him falling asleep and me going to bed. He won't let things drop, he won't/can't communicate his needs at school despite me discussing with him how to do it. He then obsesses with me that things haven't changed and I have to risk souring relationship with school again by questioning them or having DS screaming at me because I can't solve it - or rather won't solve it because by solving it I have to question school again.
He's not the only pupil there and I get that. But his needs are very specific and he needs specific input.
The lady who runs student support is incredibly knowledgeable and can support DS but she's only one person with a huge caseload and can't devote the time to DS he needs. There isn't any other supporters for her to delegate DS care to.
Ds cannot communicate for himself. He can't work out for himself what to do and needs strict rules and boundaries to follow.

I honestly wish it was simple. I wish I could send DS to a school where the expectations and rules are clear. Where he could get support during school time as other local schools seem to provide (been looking as want to move him eventually). Where he can focus on learning some subjects alongside the social and emotional needs he has. He is extremely good at stem subjects and I believe perusing these will help him develop skills he can use elsewhere as well.

Ds did ask lady at touch type club if he needed to do other session as well and she confirmed he did as its seperate.
I won't stand in his way from doing it - in fact school can keep any student legally for an hour after school without parents permission (as DS tells me daily so they've obviously been telling students a lot!) - but whatever I decide I'm bad guy with school (which I've been from day 1 when I wanted to work with them - they want me to let them do what they want and told me such ) or bad guy with DS and get the relentless obsessing over it.

Sorry for rant I'm just extremely tired and overwhelmed and just need a break for at least a day without picking DS up from continous changes to their practice.

The trouble is, the world is made up pf grey. If he is unhappy at that school then I really would start looking for alternatives. I must admit though, I have never seen any child have a scribe for every lesson no matter what their special needs were.

He only had scribe for English. He uses laptop for every subject now. hes ok on it - he does need to learn to write better sentences to make the use of laptop fully worthwhile!

The teaching seems pretty good in the school - certainly the lessons seem engaging from what he tells me and they think outside the box.

I'm hoping we can find what it is he needs and get a plan in place for him. These things just take time sadly.