working with school to accommodate EBSA

[KeepingTrying]

Hi,

I wondered if I could ask for advice to help me work collaboratively with our secondary school?

DS is ASD and is in crisis and has dropped out of school. It's a long story, but he can't cope with screen-based learning any more, and the school learning is entirely screen based. DS can't cope with emotional material, or pictures or videos except very bland ones, and only if I personally check them first for triggers. Basically he would have been fine in a 1980s school before they had screens and the internet, but 2023 school with screens has finished him.

We're working from CGP textbooks and he is happy with that. DH and I between us have university level education in all the subects he needs except French and Music, in which we are educated to AS level. I don't work and am happy to home school him. DH can teach him physics, maths and computer science by doing lessons before and after work.

The thing is, we would like DS to stay on roll at the school so he can sit his exams there, but the school feel they need to have control of his education in order to allow that. But they can't have control of his education because he is so sensitive, that outside tutors just can't work with his level of need, and he can't engage with online learning.

The person we're talking to at school says she's certain that we can find a way to make it work, and I just wish I could figure out what the options are, so I could talk positively with her about how to do it.

What we need is:

• An idea of how fast to go in order to cover 7 GCSEs in 2.5 years. For this, it would work for us just to have access to the school powerpoint files so I can cover the same topics at home. (We already have this).
• Access to school tests on paper to do at home, so DS can have his progress monitored by the school. (They are already giving us this).
• The knowledge organisers that the school use so we can be sure of covering the right material when we have to diverge from the school lessons a long way, as with reading different books in English.
• Weekly safeguarding teams meeting (We already have this)
• An undertaking from school that DS will be allowed to sit his exams in school without being forced to return. (We do not have this because they say DS can't stay on unless they control the teaching. They also acknowledge that they can't and won't offroll him, so we and the school are in a bind.)

I wondered if anybody might know what the way forward is? I know the school want more control. I'm not sure what more they have when DS cannot currently tolerate being taught by adults other than us, and can't engage with screen-based learning.

We have both school and home ECHP applications submitted. One was turned down and sent to tribunal and one is yet to come to panel. We have a good private MH person working with DS over zoom and he is great. He says DS needs to home school until his GCSEs and ideally we need to stay on roll at the school to get support and access to exams.

I looked into King's interhigh and Wolsley Hall and neither is suitable. King's is screen-based and and the Wolsley is Cambridge exam board. The Cambridge books would not work for DS as they are full of the wrong kind of pictures (it is that bad).

I thought about private access exams but it is hard as DS wants to study two languages and the exam centre that does that is far away. Ds doesn't travel well and going to a completely strange place far away to sit exams would be very hard.

The main thing we need to do is get DS better, and the golden road to that is having a peaceful collaborative relationship with school so we can't get on with helping DS heal.

I would be grateful for any thoughts on it.

Thanks!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow if a BTEC isn’t suitable the School of Stitched Textiles has a City and Guild’s textiles course and the British Academy of Fashion Design have accredited courses. OCAD has general level 3 Art and Design courses, but OCAD has a mixed reputation. Ultimately, with EOTAS it is the responsibility of the LA to ensure provision in the EHCP is provided. Sometimes this can be done by the LA convincing bribing a school to allow them to use them as a provider.

Thank you.

Not keen on OCAD. Seems to be hugely expensive and you have to find your own exam centre

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow I found her because I was so fed up of the dithering from LA. They tried to persuade me to ask dd to reconsider her choice so I went on Tutorful, by chance she lives reasonably nearby, so I contacted her outside of Tutorful and gave LA her details. They then commissioned her directly.

@hiredandsqueak with EOTAS you don’t have to worry about funding.

Just so you know, not all of OCAD’s course require an exam centre.

Try asking the LA if the have a virtual school. They can provide teachers/tutors who come out to you. I am one!
We are well used to meeting a wide variety of needs..this may be accessed by EOTAS, but with an ask...

Get on some of the Facebook groups for SEN support/EOTAS there are lots of parents in your shoes..

@KeepGoingThomas I think that message is for @ArseInTheCoOpWindow as I know LA are going to be funding dd's. She did some OCAD's in her last school.

Ah, yes wrong name, sorry.

Thanks @missy111. Actually my Mum did this too for years. She used to go to people's houses to teach then they were out of school. It's only tricky because DS won't see anyone. He might in time though. I think he needs a long time to just recover and get his mojo back, or possibly to try and find it in the first place.

I don't think I could stop teaching him like @Soontobe60 says because he's very smart and he'd be climbing the walls with boredom. I do think we need to ease off though, so he can have time to concentrate on getting well. I really wouldn't mind at all if we just wrote this year off entirely from an academic point of view. He was very young in his year and I always thought he should have gone in to school a year later. I think it would help a lot to take a year to recover and possibly go into a small private school a year down from where he is now.

Thank you all for listening and thinking about this. It's helping me a lot to just talk it over.

@Soontobe60 I should mention that a lot of the "illness" is down to ASD and isn't going to get better. I mean I don't think he's ever going to be a big traveller, or into exciting dining experiences. No amount of rest and recuperation would change that. The trick is to find DS a life that works with who he is.

You sound like a lovely mum. Mine are in special so I have no useful experience, but you sound like you're doing a brilliant job.

As a super geek and the mum of autistic and dsylexic kids, I also would happily vote for the Bring Textbooks Back Party.

You sound fab. I have a similar dc and have chosen EHE over EOTAS. Partly because we have an LA who just say ‘we don’t do that’ (child has IDP in Wales as we don’t have EHCP here). But mainly, I want to be able to tailor their education to them and not have the pressure of LA involvement. She finds their involvement stressful. And I want to be able to take it at her pace, and decide when she sits exams.

Finding an exam centre is the way forward for us, and I have found one. About an hour away. ATM dd won’t go in there but I hope she may, in time.

I did find though that while she was on roll but unable to attend, they pretty much ignored her. But the pressure to increase attendance was there and so I preferred to deregister.

@WaitingForMojo if it is the exam centre rather than the exam DD is struggling with have you considered home invigilation? This is what will happen for DS1.

Obviously EHE is your choice, but for anyone else reading EOTAS can be tailored to the individual, go at their pace and DC can sit exams if/when they are ready. Some EOTAS packages are essentially EHE but funded.

@Legoroses and @WaitingForMojo thank you very much for saying nice things about me. I don't get a lot of that in the thicket of stress I'm living in and it really helps.

@WaitingForMojo I know exactly what you mean about wanting people off our backs. We were so happy during lockdown. It sounds silly to say it I know, but just having the space to learn and to love learning was great. We studied Mozart operas for Eng Lit and grade 5 music theory to learn roman numerals and DS was so happy. I wouldn't like to have covid again, but the lockdowns were lovely for us in so many ways.

@KeepGoingThomas how do we arrange home invigilation? That would change everything for us and make our situation so much easier.

I read that it was possible through Exams and Tutors, but the website explicitly says that they don't do it for anxiety conditions, since it is assumed that everyone is anxious. I'm not sure if they would understand that some people are diagnosed as being anxious about travel when in fact it is a sensory and food intolerance problem that makes travel and staying away from home immensely difficult.

Thanks so much for all your help, Your advice has been such a godsend to me this last few week, across a number of threads and I really appreciate it.

I also found out that King's Interhigh will arrange for kids to sit the exams at home but they require them to do the online learning which we can't. I wrote to Pearsons who arrange the online exams and asked if there was another way to do it and they said I need to write to king's interhigh, so I'm not sure if there is another school that does that. I will ask Pearsons again.

The LEA have invigilators who will come to your house l think.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow gosh, that sounds good.

I believe the online exams are a trial and not available elsewhere yet.

For home invigilation, what they mean is home invigilation has to be warranted and necessary rather than just preferred and easier. It has to be the normal way of working, too. Your DS’s MH conditions and other SEN sound like they go beyond ‘just’ anxiety. JCQ’s access arrangements guidance and ICE document mention home invigilation and are worth reading. You need an exam centre within 90mins. For T&Es, see whether you can speak to the Operations Manager for the centre, they can help with questions about home invigilation. This is where EOTAS is helpful, because ultimately responsibility lies with the LA and sometimes their PRU, hospital school, or maintained SS is a registered exam centre and can be bribed by the LA to help.

Thank you very much. I will ask about that. I think the exam centre is within 90 minutes drive so that could work.

You say about my DS's problems being more than just anxiety, and I would say that is certainly the case. I have ASD and anxiety just like DS, and I know that my troubles with travel are quite complicated. I struggle with propioreception and visual processing of movement, but generally also my body just goes a bit haywire when I travel. I can do exams, and when I was younger I could do travel, but it would have been totally bonkers to ask me to do both. I would guess that DS is the same, and I do not think that will change. So much seems to be about giving these things a name and getting a certificate to show it, and that is where the hard part comes in, because Ds can't always put it into words.

I had vision problems as a child and it wasn't until I was 28 that I was able to actually tell anyone. Before that I just ground on through. I have a biomedical science PHD and a 1st class degree, so I ground quite effectively, but it was very very hard. I think that it is not always easy to figure out what a SEND child is actually experiencing.

Has DS had a sensory OT assessment?

Having been in a very similar position to you with 2 DC I really think you need to press for EOTAS rather than a hybrid school arrangement. EOTAS is an arrangement that LAs are familiar with, and there is a precedent for. Hybrid arrangements will be harder to get as there is no precedent for it.

You have lots of time. My eldest DC managed the curriculum for 6 GCSEs in a little over 6 months. He accessed through Wolsey Hall which I see you have ruled out, can I ask specifically which pictures were the issue? I thought this was the best suited to demand avoidance because the child can literally control what they do/ see.

The EOTAS, if properly done, will fund GCSEs as a private candidate, for my DS they were invigilated in the home.

Have you looked at what your child wants to do next? Are the number/ kind of GCSEs necessary to achieve that? You mentioned music and French, are they necessary for his next steps? I mention this because my DS just did the number required for the college he wanted to go to. It is not necessary to do more than that, he had an interview at Oxford for his chosen subject a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps look a GCSEs with a more accessible curriculum. Business Studies, psychology and sociology all fit the bill for that imo.

Also are you looking at therapy for your child's needs? This can be funded via EOTAS, I would be considering a good OT / psychologist, as your son will be severely limited in A Level/ other post 16 options if he can't use tech.

@KeepGoingThomas yes he has in ASD and dyspraxia assessment. It's all done via questionnaires. We have letters from both.

@lifeturnsonadime Thank you very much for putting all that information up. I can't respond to it all without giving too much personal information about my DS, but it's really helpful thanks.

The Wolsley Hall problem was that they wanted to choose the books and the exam board without giving any help with accessing exams, so that seemed to just narrow our options. I think I'd be inclined to just hire private tutors to coach me, rather than do that.

DS needs a proper comprehensive sensory OT assessment. An EHCNA can include a sensory OT assessment. An EHCP can also include ongoing therapies.

@KeepGoingThomas thank you very much I will ask about that. I'm making a list. Thanks so much for all this help. :-)

The reason why staying at our local school makes sense is because it is 5 minutes walk away. It would make exams so much more feasible if exams could be five minutes walk away with someone to help set up accessibility issues.