ASD in mainstream secondary

[Verbena37]

Hi,
DS yr 7 diagnosed HFASD last winter and has started at secondary two weeks ago.
On a positive note, I think he prefers having lots of new subjects to learn but from a pastoral side of things, I'm just not sure what to expect, and at what level, from staff.

I already met with the SENCo last term so they know his issues and needs yet since he started, and I realise it's only early days, I've been having to email school to point out issues that I would think staff would be more thoughtful about. Stuff like organising his time and not being able to remember noting down homework and not remembering to go to the loo before lessons start etc.

To the staff, I'm pretty sure they think me overprotective but for DS, who has had late night meltdowns for the past two weeks, it's not trivial but things that would enable him to feel less anxious.

Am I hoping for too much? I almost feel apologetic that I have to raise things with them.

Having said all that, schools can't win. DD's school has an exceptionally high %ge of SEN and particularly dyslexic pupils because it has the reputation for being sympathetic (I think 44% entered the school with a reading age below 9 years at the last stats I saw, and anecdotally there are an awful lot like dd with borderline / undiagnosed other issues). Unsurprisingly, that means it's results aren't as good as others, and then it gets judged on that, when actually a lot of the dc are doing really well in the circumstances :(

That's very sad Error418 because those children are the ones who have probably made the most progress.

I had all this too in Y7 and it was a disaster. DS basically floundered and nothing got done which was promised. At the end of Y7 I pulled DS from school following a blazing row with the HT (who was an arrogant pig of a man) and fought tooth and nail to get DS moved to a special school. His grades and learning difficulties were enough to get him moved. Best decision I ever made.
Tellingly the mainstream school in question couldn't see what the problem was.

If your child is academically on a par with his peers it is much more of an issue because whether the Govt decides to acknowledge this or not there is a MASSIVE gap in provision for children at the upper end of the spectrum who struggle with mainstream school but do not meet the criteria for a special school because academically they are deemed too able. To give an idea of "academically able" the LEA deemed my son (level 2 in English and Level 3 in Maths at end of Y7) as "academically able".
I would have laughed if it wasn't so outrageous.

Keep on and on at the SENCO as you know your child better than they do. Too many SEN staff have bugger all experience of autism and adopt a "one size fits all" approach.

I am a secondary teacher of a non-core subject and I see KS3 classes once a week at my school we also received ASD training every other year.

With currently 4 year 8 and 3 year 7 classes that's close to 210 children I see for 50 minutes a week. Of these, I get forwarded the information and emails sent out by the SENCO with regards to specific issues for reminder but at the moment I can't even recall my year 7s (and a lot of the year 8s as I didn't teach them last year) unless I have their seating plan with photos in front of me.
As others have stated each child will have their own particular needs - my DS for instance has his set of needs whereas his friend has another set of needs but both are ASD

As Noble has pointed out there are of course going to be times that we end up just being human rather than a machine and yes, we will forget on occasion if a student who needs to be able to go to the toilet, have their homework written in their planners for them therefore as pointed out reminder cards etc are very helpful.

Like PP have pointed out, secondary with the number of teachers/students is vastly different from primary in terms of the personal feel and therefore the form tutor/senco/key worker is the point of contact and if there are issues they are the ones to discuss it with and they will forward the information.

In terms of the toilets; yes long ago there might not have been issues, but as other teachers have said in this day of age there are. I am not allowed to just go the toilet when I please as per workers in countless professions; the human right argument is not applicable to this situation as there are toilets available for students at the times when it is appropriate unless there is a specific need (see earlier about cards). It is also school policy to not allow students to go the toilet unless it is an emergency or they have a pass.

We can never be perfect to every child we teach, we can never be perfect to every child in our care; but neither are parents, doctors, support workers as at the end of the day but we try our hardest to be there 100% for every child we teach for both their academic achievement and their personal lives.

There are lots of advantages of secondary over primary, though. Just the fact that teachers see so many more pupils means that they are much more likely to have come into contact with someone similar to your dc before.

Also, there's likely to be a dedicated SENCO - as opposed to the situation in dd's primary where the HT was the SENCO, and said to us on one occasion that she'd never had a pupil on the SEN & high ability lists before (and she was just a couple of years off retirement, so not new to the profession).

And realistically, while some teachers will be sympathetic and others not so much, at least you aren't stuck with the latter every lesson for 2 years!

Yes I'll agree that SEN staff don't have enough training which comes down to funding again. BUT even when you have funding and have been on training unless you are a 1:1 you simply don't have time to try and work out strategies and adapt them when you only see a child a couple of hours a fortnight and you often end up back at step 1 each lesson which is frustrating.

Hmmm, because going to school after a morning melt down because your school shoes are uncomfy and spending the morning sat in classes with the seams of your clothes feeling like someone is stabbing you or not liking the smell of school lunches being cooked freaks you out or because the crowded playground feels like your inside a barrel being squashed......is really frustrating too.

Princess then TA support should be allocated in such a way that best suits the needs of the child. Dd's TAs do half her lessons each, that way they have a chance of building a relationship with her and dd stands a chance of them building some sort of understanding of her needs.
Tbh the vast majority of support dd receives is inadequate, the TA's have limited understanding, the training they receive is basic and dd's TA's are the ones I chose from a pathetic bunch. Dd's key TA is the "specialist" ASD TA , she has no specialist knowledge, she still hasn't grasped the difference between a physiologist and a psychologist but she's supposedly the best they have got.
Our children are constantly short changed, often saddled with TA's that are more a hindrance than a help which removes them from the direct support and teaching of the teacher who will at least have a teaching qualification.

What's a keyworker in this context? Who should have one?

I do think that mainstream secondary staff do (sadly understandably) perhaps aren't as supportive to students with SEN as they might be with more specialist training.
It's not lack of training, it's time and sheer number of students.

I think ds's school has 3 TAs for a school of about 1000.

Flying a keyworker in dd's school would be the TA who was assigned with the majority of child's hours of support or (if a child didn't have allocated support hours through a statement or EHCP) would be a person usually through the pastoral support team who would have a weekly/fortnightly session with the child so as they would have a named person they could confide in. Dd's keyworker would attend statement reviews/IEP meetings or parent's updates.
Three TAs in a school of a 1000 doesn't sound right to me there were over 30 in dd's primary a school with less than 400 pupils. How are statement and EHCP support hours covered? Even with only 1% of students with a statement 3 TA's couldn't cover 10 students.

As far as I can see there's about 1-2% on sen register. Yes you're right Insan. I've just checked and there appears to be 4

I'm not aware of ds having a keyworker. Surely I would know. Should he have one?

DS has one but he doesn't want to have contact with and any issues will go through me to her from him.
Is your DS diagnosed Flyingfauxpas?
I'm not sure if they have a key worker or not if they're not diagnosed.

1-2% on SEN register?! Is this a grammar school? Or otherwise selective (EG. Very strict religious observance standards?) They often have very low SEN figures.

Flying - do you mean %ge statemented (which was just under 3% in dd's school IIRC at the last inspection) or %ge on the SEN register (over 50%?)

Yes ds diagnosed but no statement or ECHP or whatever they're called now. I know he's on the sen register as he had a nosy. Yes it's a grammar. Is this why so little support, despite their bold and ambitious statements in their policy? I have no idea how many on register. I think that figure must be with statements only surely. ??

Yes ds diagnosed but no statement or ECHP or whatever they're called now. I know he's on the sen register as he had a nosy. Yes it's a grammar. Is this why so little support, despite their bold and ambitious statements in their policy? I have no idea how many on register. I think that figure must be with statements only surely. ??

Ahhhh. Ok, it's all beginning to make sense now. Right, he's a clever kid but, just by nature of the type of school the teachers will have seen fewer students with SEN (although many of the SEN students in grammars have ASCs). They won't have much experience and they are used to very articulate and organised students. From day one they will expect students to be able to regulate their own timetables, understand the school day, go to the toilet at breaks etc. Because for the most part that's the nature of the children they teach. Rather than getting angry, ask to meet with the SENCO and discuss some of the suggestions made on this post. The school will want to help but probably don't have as much experience as others - think of yourself as an advocate and guide for your DS and future students with ASC there. Grammars offer a lot to clever kids but they just don't have the strategies used in many comps as they simply don't need them.

It's not my DS who is at grammar fourcorneredcircle .
It's the flyingfauxpas.

I am so sorry Verbena for confusing things by hijacking your thread. There seemed to be a lot of understanding and supportive sorts on here. I wanted to ask about key workers then got a bit distracted.

Year 7 is bloody hard. Not only for children with Asd. You would expect the teachers and support staff to be on it from the start (baring in mind they can see primary schools' reports) but in our experience they didn't. For your ds it's early days in school. Teething problems likely but can cause absolute nightmares especially when they get home from a day of it. I must say I was a bit reluctant to contact school as 'this is big school now' and I didn't want to be one of THOSE parents so I held back and ds had many a problem. When I did contact school I found some staff really helpful, some, really not!! Like yours my ds's diagnosis was pretty recent so feel we're still feeling our feet. I would say - don't assume they know something, don't assume they're doing something, any issues contact the person you have most faith in. It's very wrong that parents of children with asd have to fight for their kids, but from my experience and that of people I talk to in RL and on here (where you can get some fab advice) this is frequently what we need to do to get anywhere.

Sorry! Got confused!

My advice still stands, be your sons advocate. Go to the SENCO, explain the issues. Make suggestions and ask for their suggestions too.

I'm afraid though, that although it may make you sad and frustrated, as others have said, there is no way that a dozen teachers with hundreds of students are going to magically "get" your son. It takes time and patient (on your part) perseverance. The teacher will have to take time to learn his ways too. Just like it took his primary team - but on a larger and more variable scale.

Please try to remember that the vast majority of teachers, SLT and SENCOs want the best for every child. They will listen and they will learn from what you say but they won't just 'jump' in to the right mode automatically, they have to find their way to work with your son based on how they run their subjects, classrooms and the other 20+ people in the room.

Just to illustrate how even when you have a statement and a PITA mother on their back things still go wrong TA didn't turn up because she got muddled up!!! No explanation as to how she didn't know she wasn't in the right lesson seeing as she was supposed to be providing 1 to 1 support but one email later an apology and an agreement that the hour will be made up and so they will be doing dd's homework with her rather than her bringing it home

Oh gosh theflyingfauxpas I didn't mind at all!!
You weren't hijacking.....I was just explaining so fourcornereddidn't get confused .

It is hard. I think it would be so much easier if DS didn't mind taking to staff about issues or having his friends know but having seen how they treat the other kids who leave class or lunch etc to go to the special room, I would worry for DS. Kids can be so cruel.

I'm wondering whether setting up a local informal family support group at the school on a weekday morning might help? Do you think the school might like that idea. Would it be helpful or detrimental? I thought they might have a spare room somewhere where parents of children with ASD could go for mutual support.