Who looks after Academies?

[SENnerd]

Does anyone know how to find details of the Academy chain relating to a secondary school? Have exhausted School complaints procedure and Governors - is partly a personal issue with SEN but also as an SEN teacher and tutor.

If after following the complaints policy you aren't happy wth the governors response you can complain to the ESFA. They can't overturn the school's decision, but look at whether the complaint was handled correctly and can ask the school to reconsider their processes and decision.

The ESFA will only investigate certain circumstances and usually only where the response to your complaint is within the last year. Complaints about EHCPs isn't within the ESFA's remit, if that's what it is if you post more information someone may be able to advise of the best avenue.

thanks 10brokengreenbottles (incredible user name) This is quite complex - our local secondary school which prides itself as being really good has systematically over the years failed a number of SEN students, one of them being my youngest offspring. I tutor SEN and don't take students from there but have recently worked with two who failed there - one wasn't allowed access to the 6th form and the other one was so low set she just didn't see the point anymore. The school deny it and governors gave a 'what is it to do with us' response - I've been a school governor and have seen that among my colleagues. This is happening now and previously and I intend to take it as high as I can. I'm retired as an SEN teacher and now tutor mainly dyslexics. The school ticks all the boxes but won't look at any talents and strengths and so keep SEN children in low sets. In my daughter's time they referred to her as 'average' despite a lot of evidence to the contrary, kept her low (I was told that was their policy) and despite nearly all 'A's at GCSE still wouldn't accept it. At university she got a First, Outstanding student award, dissertation prize and has just gained a Distinction at MA. She has a top 2% IQ (pre-university Dyslexia assessment). Another older situation came with a boy who was told he wasn't good enough for 6th form and has just gained a First in Engineering. These talents were documented in reports and assessments but this school won't look at them. Much more recently I worked with a boy whose assessment suggested exactly how he should be allowed to learn but no one pursued it. In some cases, young people have been very demoralised because of the way they're treated. It is possible to get the most from SEN students as my older daughter found - her strengths were English and Creative subjects - her school (not the same, we moved) was so encouraging and she got good GCSE's and 'A' levels and a Creative degree despite her dyslexia. This problem with this school seems to be growing as I find more and more children who've only been viewed as SEN, as I've become known as a SEN student advocate. But, as the Chair of Governors told me in a letter a while back 'my teachers know the students far better than any report'. Just would like to know what options are open to me. It's personal, but far more than that!

You would be better supporting individual parents to fight for appropriate support for their DC by where appropriate supporting parents to:
-apply for EHCNAs
-make disability discrimination claims
-apply for other schools where the relationship has irreversibly broken down and DC would be better elsewhere.
-enforce specific and quantified EHCPs where they have one via Judicial Review.
-make their DC's EHCP specific and quantified, and therefore enforceable, going to tribunal if necessary.
-ask for a reassessment of needs.

You can complain to the ESFA too, but the above is likely to be a better option.

In addition, you can complain to OFSTED, not about individual cases, but general concerns over the handling of SEN provision. And they won't deal with the sixth form admission complaint as that could have been challenged at the time via appeal.

But, you need to make it much less personal. You won't get anywhere if your complaint is like your posts.

10brokengreenbottles, Thanks so much for your comments. I work with my tutee's parents to try and get the understanding they deserve - finding a number of schools who help the 'problem' but don't look at anything else. I also work on student's self-esteem and understanding as well as helping them learn. Since West (2014), this has been part of normal dyslexic thinking. I know I can be too personal when explaining and am less so when dealing directly - but my daughter and the other examples are symptomatic of extremes - there are lots of other students who are less bright or talented but still have strengths that need bringing out and aren't. Thanks for the response. I tried our MP a while back, couching it in more general terms and got a reply from Damian Hinds, again more general. I had a letter published in the NEU magazine (I got money for that). But thanks again for your respnse, it has been very helpful!