DS 12 has ADHD meeting SENCO tomorrow and need some advice on what to ask!

[Blewitt]

Hi all,
I would be so grateful for anyones advice. My DS 12 in year 7 has ADHD. He is on medication and has been since age 8. His first year at secondary school has been very up and down academically and so I have arranged to meet the SENCO tomorrow. DS LOVES school, so that is good, he has loads of friends and is popular but the learning side of things just doesn't seem to be going well. He is of average to above average ability and wants to please but struggles so much with focus and is getting endless behaviour points for disruption. To the point that neither he nor we even talk about them anymore. He also gets behaviour points for things like forgetting his biro which to be honest really pisses me off as it is hard enough for him just to get to the right place on time. He had a detention the other day for forgetting his library book. I understand that they can't be having disruptive behaviour (it will be calling out, nothing major) but should they be more lenient on giving him these marks given his condition. At parents evening they basically all say he could do well if he could focus better - isn't this just such a pointless and unsupportive thing to say to us?! A couple of the teachers seem to be a bit more supportive of his needs but I am not convinced the school on the whole are doing much specific stuff to help him.
At his last school, which was independent, classes were very small and they knew him really well and it seemed to work ok so I don't really have much experience of trying to make sure he is getting the support he needs and is entitled to (if any!).
I would just like to have a few ideas of what I can reasonably expect them to be doing for him when I go tomorrow.
Thanks!

I think you just need to say what you have said here.
Start off by saying that I'm sure you are all very much more experienced at supporting children with ADHD cope with the organisational minefield that is secondary school, so we're looking forward to taking on board all advice and strategies that you can give us. Then smile at them.

Do not leave the meeting without a solid plan including rest breaks/time out card, key worker/TA who can see him every week and speak to teachers about what he struggles with. Do not leave without a list of email addresses of all his teachers. After the meeting write an email to all teachers and copy in the senco. Write a long and heartfelt email to all teachers about his struggles and in the last paragraph write all things you agreed with the senco and you will contact them again in two weeks to ask how the strategies work in their lessons. In order for anything to happen, you must make a lot of fuss and don’t let them fob you off. Be positive and say he loves school but also demand strategies to be put in place, and keep in touch to see how they work.

Thanks so much. Sorry it has taken me ages to get back - meeting was pretty good. He basically just let me say everything I think that needs to happen in his lessons and what the teachers should be doing and he is going to add it to the plan. I will then do the emailing once he has new teachers in Year 8 and keep on top of it better. SENCO agreed that the endless behaviour points were ridiculous and should be differentiated for him. He has had 210 so far this year, they "allow" up to 10 a term!

Sounds good, well done and fingers crossed for Year 8!