Multiple primary school exclusions

[Whysomanyfoxes]

My son is 6 and has had multiple fixed term exclusions from school for angry and dangerous outbursts.

We don’t know where to go next, so advice gratefully received. School have been as supportive as they can be, but feel their patience may wane soon.

Here’s a list of where we’re at:
•no “diagnosis” at this stage
•SNAP-B reports suggest extremely high anxiety and anger levels
•waiting for SALT screenings
•waiting for sensory processing screenings
•bright boy, not behind at school
•not dry at night
•receives weekly ELSA sessions
•has been offered opportunity of once weekly nurture sessions at local PRU
•someone also asked if he crawled as a baby - he didn’t.
•we tend to see big outbursts about once a week a home, but most of the time he is calm and gentle.
•he’s a very deep sleeper and eats well.
•average working memory
•he says he just has huge feelings and can’t control them when he has an outburst at school. There’s
obviously a trigger, but we can’t identify it and he goes from hero to zero in a matter of seconds.

The SNAP report suggests intervention by Ed psych - should I ask school to organise this or just tell school we will get this done privately?

Should we apply for EHC Assessment - I know IPSEA have good templates.

Am I missing anything “medical” that I should ask our GP about - epilepsy, coeliacs?

CAMHS - what am I asking them for support with?

At this stage I’m not trying to rule anything in or out - we’re just really really struggling as a family and would value some
advice and ideas. Thanks.

Are all the exclusions formal exclusions with paperwork? No illegal, informal exclusions? And when you say many are keeping a track of how many days as the school can only exclude for 45 days per year.

Yes, apply for an EHCNA ASAP. The easiest and quickest way to get an EP assessment (and SALT, OT and psychiatrist &/or clinical psychologist is via an EHCNA.

Other than the support you mention what support are the school currently providing? Have you/school tried keeping a detailed diary and ABC charts to try to spot triggers? Have the school applied for high needs top up funding in order to provide more support?

One thing to rule out is constipation, some DC can have challenging behaviour due to that.

That’s 45 days in an academic year, not a rolling year.

Yes all legal fixed term exclusions and thankfully we’re not near the 45 days mark yet.

school offered some 121 and Elsa sessions, but have been I feel relying on the services of the PRU who are currently giving Elsa and have offered nurture. I’m not terribly keen on the nurture sessions at a PRU. He has attended nurture sessions, albeit it in another school and it wasn't terribly helpful.

do indeed support of school to apply for ECHN assessment?

no, I don’t believe school have applied for top up funding. Can I ask them and be prescriptive with them about what top up funding should provide for my son?

I can spot triggers at home, or if we are out. School not able to, so things escalate quickly whereas at home I can nip it in the bud. Not constipation, but I do worry about how little water he drinks and feel that may be impacting to an extent.

You don’t need the school’s support to apply for an EHCNA.

You can ask the school to apply for high needs top up funding and suggest support it could fund, but you can’t force the school to apply nor force the school to spend it how you want. The only way to guarantee specific provision is via an EHCP.

The school should be providing more support, and they need to be keeping a detailed diary to help them spot triggers.

What support does he have in class? My DD was very similar and it took a while to find the right support (it's not perfect but her behaviour has improved to the extent we've not had a suspension for a while). We're also still waiting on diagnosis but suspect autism/PDA so they tried the autism/PDA strategies to see what worked. She actually doesn't like having a 1-2-1 and this just tended to make her behaviour worse. What did help:
Own table which she can go under if she wants
Box of calming tools (fidget toys and colouring)
Zones of regulation with duplo blocks so she can show what zone she's in quietly (they tried a time out card but she didn't want to draw attention to herself by using it)
Ear defenders
Visual timetable
10 minutes at the end of the day to do what she wants if she's had a good day/made good choices
Movement breaks if she comes out of the green zone (though sometimes they do struggle to find someone to take her)
A den she can go to but see above
ELSA sessions/check in
TA support in PE
Sticker chart
She's just started some draw and talk outreach sessions with someone from the PRU, no idea if they'll help but I did check they had autism experience first.

We have noticed both at home and school she responds a lot better to rewards than punishments. We haven't yet gone for the EHCNA as with the improvement in behaviour she's unlikely to get one, but school are trying to get the EP to assess her.

CAMHS were absolutely useless for us, they said she didn't meet the threshold for an autism assessment and her anxiety wasn't sever enough to be referred for that!

We haven't yet gone for the EHCNA as with the improvement in behaviour she's unlikely to get one, but school are trying to get the EP to assess her.

This isn’t correct. You can still get an EHCP without behavioural difficulties. An EHCP could guarantee there was always someone available to ensure DD gets movement breaks when she needs them and someone to take her to the den. It could also ensure she receives more therapies than she currently is. An EHCNA would also ensure DD was assessed by an EP.