School named in EHCP are saying they cannot meet my son's needs. - advice please

[Havannah]

My 5 year old has a diagnosis of ASD and an EHCP naming the school which he has attended since September, but I learned at a meeting today that they say they cannot meet his needs because of lack of funding to continue pay for a 1 to 1 which they consider he needs. They also say that whilst there has been a TA with him at all times, and that has been funded till Xmas, that he really needs someone who is trained to manage his behaviour, and the TA they've got till Xmas isn't. I got the feeling in the meeting that if the funding was there there wouldn't be a problem. They are saying he should go to a special school, but I want him to stay where he is because he is so happy there. The behaviour they complain of at school (throwing chairs etc) comes as a shock to me because when he is with me he is quite well behaved. They say they need someone with him who is trained to deal with such behaviour. He is a bright boy, but he does need fairly constant bringing back to task.

Lol ovenchips. I am well into the process of selling my soul right now!

brucie Very best of luck to you.

Our DC's part-time home program has just come to an end for a variety of reasons. No ABA schools for hundreds of miles but my DC is in a fantastic SS. ABA is the future though!

I totally understand your frustration at the teachers not using your tactics. However, you do need to understand that in a busy, full on classroom your child may be reacting in a very different way.

it may be that your tactics don't work at school, or that his distress is linked to a sensory overload (reception and Y1 classrooms can be overwhelming for neuro-typical children at the best of times)

I think I will look at the special schools with an open mind, but I must say that the more I think about things and the more I am thinking that home-schooling could be a really positive and enjoyable option. I've been looking at home ed groups and I think I could help my boy socialise quite nicely through those. My ideal would be to maintain contact with the local school with a view to perhaps re-integrating into mainstream later down the line. Having the flexibility to go wherever to encounter the experiences I want for my son is really attractive.

If home ed is an option for you have a serious think about it. It could be the answer to issues.

I have always been quite pro 'integrated schools' but as the funding and specialist services are slipping away with the spending cuts mainstream schools in all honesty are struggling (some of them anyway, we definitely are) to meet the needs of children with additional needs.

It's not bloody right that children with additional needs are shoved into mainstream classes without the funding or support, it is setting them up for a fail or a generally bad education which is so wrong!

The thing is that it shouldn't be the case that you are 'forced' to send him to ss (if you don't want to) just because this particular school is spectacularly useless and unwilling to provide adequate support for him. This school is failing him, is failing to meet his needs not because, from the sound of it, he cannot access the curriculum there, or cannot participate socially, but because they are not providing adequate support for him.

If you want him to remain in mainstream school, this is entirely possible if he has the right kind of support. LAs and ms schools generally are lazy, shortsighted, blinkered and ignorant about what kind of support is possible through expert teaching. For so many children with ASD, teaching requires a different approach to motivate. But it's not that children cannot be motivated, it is just a different approach is required, one which takes a bit more work, and will cost more than a TA who is paid minimum wage and could be just any old person from down the road, with no training. It's insane that the people who are given the most challenging job are paid least of most of the staff in a school.

Like pp, we did ABA which continued as support in mainstream school. We had to go to tribunal of course to get it, like most, as LAs are reluctant (because it challenges their thinking, as above, and because it can cost them more in the short term).

Sorry for rant, you can tell it is a particular issue of mine

What I want, of course, is for my child to be happy, and to learn (both academic and social skills). At home I am able to get him to read, count, and behave in a reasonably acceptable fashion. I know that my son is capable of learning, and in some instances learning very fast. But it seems that whilst I can bring that out in my son, the school cannot. Of course, there is no knowing whether any other school, special school or otherwise, would suit him, but one thing I am not going to do is send him from pillar to post in the vain attempt to find someone else to teach him. As a single parent it will, of course, be financially tough, but I think the best for him, and the least stressful for me, will be to homeschool. I know lots of parents look forward to having time apart from their children, but I am not one of those sorts of parents - frankly I feel like I've lost a limb every time I leave him with anyone but my parents.
I have a meeting with the school in a couple of days and I plan to ask them whether or not my son is permitted to mix at play times even. If it transpires (as I think it will) that he is not, then my son will not be returning to school after half term.

I think you're right to take him out of there.

But I really, really urge caution about calling it HE. Obviously you can ignore the following advice completely - sometimes you just need to go with your gut. But it's advice from someone who has been stuck in the mire of local authority shenanigans for the past 4 years.

If I were in your shoes, I would say that this school is clearly failing to meet need - they acknowledge this themselves. However you have evidence that your DS is perfectly capable of learning and behaving (take some videos of you and him at home). You do not feel he needs a special school at this stage and want to exercise your parental right to express a mainstream preference.

So you would like to line up an alternative mainstream school BUT he will need transition into that setting to be very carefully managed and gradual.

In the meantime you will begin tutoring him at home but you will need to agree a personal budget in order to find some other tutors and perhaps someone in an advisory role at a later date (e.g. to advise on school integration).

Then just start HE as you were planning. You can take your time about visiting schools, researching home tutors (it is good that he can generalise his good behaviour to other people - this is best started at home before transition into a school imo). It could take you years while you are happily home schooling.

But at least this way you haven't let the local authority totally wash their hands of any responsibility. And the effect is exactly the same but called 'education otherwise than in school' rather than 'home schooling'.

At any point in the future, if you have just had enough of the whole thing, you can then say, forget it I'm home schooling. So you have lost nothing. But you might gain valuable resources and support for the future if you do it this way.

Thank you Brucietheshark - that is really helpful - I will look into it. - What's the bet that my son won't behave as soon as a video recorder is running?!

Lol yes! But if you keep doing it he will get used to it and forget it's there hopefully.

Maybe a part time time table might suit? Mornings only or two days a week?

I spoke to a friend over the weekend who asked me what I do when I need to cope with stressful situations - I said I organise my way out of it - I make plans and lists. Before this I had not seen my son's behaviour of repeating over his personal timetable as an indicator that he is anxious and stressed. Now I can see that I know what I have to do - I need to get him out of school altogether and perhaps, somewhere down the line, re-introduce him gradually. His academic education will not suffer (I knew that doing 2 Masters degrees would come in handy sometime!) but I can see that he has too many issues to work through at the moment to deal with any school.

I don't want to bang on about special schools, but they do excel at taking the anxiety out of the school day. They would have his timetable as an intrinsic part of the structure and use it with him to create security.

I hear what you are saying Iougle, but I think some of the anxiety has come about because of a recent house move. I think for the moment he needs to have the time to feel secure at home.

I hope find the right solution, OP. What I would say is that SEN provision at secondary level has really gone downhill due to terrible funding cuts. So you really need to plan ahead and realise that what may work in primary will probably be completely different at secondary. Secondary is a whole new kettle of fish - bigger, rowdier, generally more behaviour issues amongst the NT population as hormones and peer pressure start raging. Teachers have their hands full just keeping rowdy teens on task. A pupil with SEN can really struggle with the social side of things especially in a large school, whereas they might have just about managed in primary.

Unfortunately it's not a case of pointing accusatory fingers at a school and saying they are not providing the right support for your particular child. School budgets have been cut and cut and TAs are the first to go. Unless a child has a statement that specifically brings along with it funding for a one-to-one TA, then that child will in all likelihood get next to no TA support. Blame the government. Mainstream Schools know EXACTLY what individual pupils need and can request it from the local authority till they're blue in the face but a child has to be at the extreme of failing academically these days for any funding to be approved. It's extemely sad for all concerned, most of all the pupils.

And I actually get very cross at accusations from parents that school staff aren't doing enough or trying hard enough. They can only work with the resources they've got. They do care immensely that they cannot provide adequate support for pupils with more demanding behaviours. I know staff who are nearly having nervous breakdowns trying to support certain pupils with no resources whatsoever. When it comes down to it, mainstream education for some SEN kids is, in my view, no longer a good idea. If I had a child who was struggling in mainstream I would fight tooth and nail to get them into a special school with better staff/pupil ratios and specialist training.

I know funding is the main issue for the school, but they could have been a bit more upfront about what was going on rather than telling me everything was going well and then calling a meeting to say he'd be out after Xmas. At the moment I am picking him up at 12.00 each day and I do think the teacher and TAs who deal with my son are trying to do their best for him - however, there are others at the school who seem to try to set him up to fail - this morning before school, for example - the playground is supervised (by the headmistress this morning). The gate through to the classrooms is usually shut, and I stand at the only other exit to the playground so my son can run but not run amok around the rest of the school. This morning the headmistress left the gate open and my son ran through it. Then the head said that we may need to rethink things. - I know that what she is angling for is getting him out of her school altogether, as quickly as possible. When she is not there other teachers manage to close the gate and do not obviously set him up to fail.
At the moment I am taking each day as it comes - but exploring alternatives. I'm certainly not going to make any hasty decisions, and if he is excluded then that isn't the end of the world.

If the school is asking you to pick him up at 12 they are acting illegally. I would suggest you ask for an early annual review so that you can discuss in depth giving your son extra support and the possibility of flexi schooling.

Did your son have a speech and language or occupational therapy assessment for the purposes of his EHCP? If not, it could be worth asking for one with a view to checking whether he needs help with social communication and understanding, and whether he has sensory difficulties. Addressing those may well help a lot.

How are they acting illegally? If the child is not coping and up till midday is proving just about manageable then it is a short-term adjustment, taking into account his SEN and recent upheaval with the house move
isn't it?

The pp is correct about funding - at secondary in mainstream a school where I worked used to have 24 TAs. They now have 4. The SEN has gone up.

Schools have to show where they have spent an imaginary £6000 before they can apply for any more. There is zero funding. Absolutely nothing.

I was in the op situation twice.

Very able & high functioning boys but couldn't cope in mainstream even with 1-1.

How my LEA wishes i would H.E...
Both boys attend independent AS schools with transport. Both foing much better. Calmer accessing the curriculum.

My advice always is never ever remove your child. Let them exclude. Put it back on the LEA every single time.

The Education reforms are going to make it even harder for parents & children to access support & help.

An EHC plan doesn't have any worth if the school cant impliment whats in it!

Good luck op.

Thank you all for your advice. My son has remained at school for the time being, for half days. I think (and here I am hoping that the impression his teachers are giving is a correct representation of the general view of the school) that my son is doing much better. Whilst he spends most of his school time with just his TA, with the teacher popping in to check how things are going, they have started, for short periods, to have another, older child work alongside and with him, and from reports that seems to have gone well.
For after Xmas I have made enquiries about an SRB school which would (if they accept him) have him Monday to Thursday, with him returning to his present school on Fridays. That arrangement would be for a max 2 terms, with the aim to be to deal with his problem behaviour in that time so he could manage in the classroom at his present school.
I have a meeting with the school head tomorrow. Hopefully they will tell me that things are going a bit better and everything is set up for the SRB next term, but worst case scenario is that they decide to exclude him, which is far from the end of the world. I feel a lot calmer and less stressed about the whole thing - which has to be a good thing when it comes to bringing up any child!

Iguana, they're acting illegally because OP's son is entitled to be in education on a full time basis, and if they're asking for him to be taken home at midday they are excluding him without any basis in law for doing so. If they can't meet the child's needs on a full time basis they should be taking urgent steps to get advice on how they can meet his needs, not just sending him home. If they haven't got sufficient funding for that purpose they should have been beating on the LA's doors for more funding back in September or even earlier. And I must say, given that we are now well into the second half of the term, this can't conceivably be described as a short-term adjustment.

If this school can demonstrate, as it obviously can, that OP's son needs full time support, then clearly the cost of that on its own is going to be above £6000 per year, even before you start thinking about specialist speech and language and occupational therapy.

If he really can't cope in school full time, then the school should be talking to the LA about home tuition in the afternoons.

OP, I would be really, really concerned about the current school. Your son is entitled to be taught by teachers, not a TA, and he shouldn't be isolated as he is being. I suspect you really need to be looking at longer term permanent provision, not an arrangement whereby he has to cope with a different environment next term and then another radical change next September.

Havannah - good luck in the meeting. How long has the midday pick up arrangement been in place? Does school start at 8:30?

Well the upshot is that the SRB will not take my son. I have mixed views about that, but realising that at the moment the SRB has some very challenging kids there, and that my son could well learn how to behave more badly than he does now - I'm kind of relieved. There is going to be a review of his EHCP, which is great, because I can seek a personal budget. I also think I have now explored what the LEA can offer and have found nothing that will work for my son. His school say that they struggle to get him to work for 5 mins, yet today he worked for me for 50 mins solid quite happily on tasks I chose. From what I have heard my son really pushes the boundaries at school, and the trouble is that, when push comes to shove, there is no discipline available to the school that works with my son. I can threaten to confiscate favourite toys but they cannot. My son laughs at their attempts to call him into line. what has happened to education? Why have teachers been so disempowered that pupils who are inclined to push boundaries become to difficult to handle? There is just no contest - I can achieve in 5 mins more than the school can - because I am not fettered by ludicrous rules acceptable discipline. There is now no question - the LEA surely have got to support my decision to educate my son at home until his behaviour can be brought into line such that he can re-enter mainstream?

". I can threaten to confiscate favourite toys but they cannot. My son laughs at their attempts to call him into line. what has happened to education? Why have teachers been so disempowered that pupils who are inclined to push boundaries become to difficult to handle? "

What would you like the teachers to do?

I would like them to be allowed to threaten to confiscate toys or privileges for bad behaviour. I suggested that the teachers tell my son (when he is behaving badly) that they will ask me to take away his favourite toy - it is a tactic that works for me - but they tell me that they are not allowed to use such tactics. My son does not yet respond to them simply trying to explain that what he is doing is wrong or unsafe - he already knows that his behaviour is wrong, what he is trying to find out is what they can actually do about it, and it seems to him (and indeed me) that there is not much they can. He does not do things which he considers to be unsafe - so using that in an explanation is not effective with him either.
Don't get me wrong - it is not the teachers I am critical of - it is the restrictions they have to try to work within that seem ludicrous to me.