What are my rights

[Kerrylou92]

Ok sorry for the long post.

My first born is almost 4 so he should be going into reception in September. So back in October I filled out the primary selection thing (can't remember what it's actually called) in January we had our paediatric appointment and confirmed he is pre-diagnosed autistic. (This should be confirmed during the summer holidays) well we getting get our choice in primary school. His nursery said he would be a good idea to defer this placement as they left he wasn't ready for reception emotionally (in his head he is 2 and has the language of an 18-20 months old)

We began the defer application, they refused it. Health Visitor said they shouldn't off. We asked why we got fobbed off with he was giving an place in a different school and we said we have rejected that as he was being deferred her eyes hided went to say something then stopped and asked where we live. We told her, her reply was oh your not in the catchment area....that's funny since a other child comes to this school who lives on the same road as me. Her response is just all about his place with the other school and we would have to reapply for him to go back into there nursery and she said, and. I quote 'I'll be honest with you, we haven't accepted a defer for nursery, as we believe it won't sit well with the children as he will be the oldest in the class'

The school has been open less then a year. My son has had 3 teachers already. The first head teacher left at may half term, and a whole bunch are leaving in the summer.

Me and my partner have talked and we have gave up the fight to keep in there as we don't want our son somewhere where he isn't wanted. But we do however want to complain. The OH wants to find a lawyer and get some advice. I don't know what to do

I can’t give you specific advice on this as I haven’t been in your exact situation but I have an autistic son (he’s 18 now) and when he was younger the decision was made to keep him in mainstream school which at the time we all thought would be best for him not to make him feel different by going to a special academy, anyway by year 9 he was behind in all his classes and bullied daily by his classmates and even the teachers showed signs of despair and he was extremely unhappy so we took him out of the school and he went to the specialist academy where he met other lads similar to himself who he connected with and made loads of friends and worked at his own tailored pace and did well in his exams and went to college.
I was wrong to let him struggle to fit in and get left behind and can see now that a special school wasn’t singling him out to feel different, making him try to fit in when he was unable to made him feel different, Your right he doesn’t need to go to a school or nursery where they don’t want him he will thrive with likeminded kids in a setting that understands and cares about his learning requirements and has time and experience to give him the best start and happy memories. X

Thank you for your insight. I do wonder about a special school I have look to see if there is one near us. Thankfully there is one in the next town.

I giving him until next September and if I don't feel he will cope in mainstream school I'll look into the special school. Although I personally feel we might end up there anyway, but I have nothing to lose by letting him try mainstream first.

I don't quite follow what has happened with the schools, but it sounds as if you're right not to send your son to a school that doesn't want him. If you were given a place in a school and they took it away because of the deferral application they acted unlawfully. If it's an Academy you should complain to them and, if that doesn't resolve matters, the Department for Education. If it's a state school, complain to the local authority and then, if necessary, to the Local Government Ombudsman.

However, it sounds as if you need to start the process for applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan. There's information about how to do it on the IPSEA website.

Ok so basically his currently place (school a )has noticed he is a reception placement with an other school(school b) . I have stressed I don't want that placement. I want him to stay in the in class he is in for an other year. Everytime I have a meeting with the school, this certain woman comes out and just repeats herself. As in I'm advice take school b offer don't reject it as he won't have anywhere to go in September. She said this with horror on her face (My son is 4 this July so he legal doesn't have to be in school until next September) and has even gone to say 'I'm going to be honest with you we haven't accepted any deferrals as it messes with the kids not being in there age group' although school b doesn't understand where issues as go them if I defer his reception please his nursery place should be safe. Health Visitor is pissed as she believe this woman hasn't followed the correct rights and this school is less then a year old so many staff have left/leaving the head who opened the school has gone. So it makes you wonder 🤔🤔