Hi everyone,
I've name changed for this as some of my other posts, if put together with this one would be very outing! I apologise in advance if this post is long!
DD is 6 and has just started year 2 at school. She has been attending the school since nursery.
It has always been obvious that DD has ADHD or similar - glaringly obvious from a very young age. Once she was in reception at school I believe she started to have some contact with the school SENCO however communication from the school is poor so I'm unsure as to what level this was. Her teachers were fantastic and I know a lot was being done within the school to try to support her - even if I wasn't aware of all of it directly from the SENCO. In the second half of the summer term (reception year) I first had a conversation with SENCO where it was identified that yes, she does definitely present as having ADHD and needs a referral but these are not accepted by the LA in the summer term.
Throughout year 1 things became more and more obvious with my DD. I pushed for further contact with the SENCO and eventually spoke to her again around December of the year where I was told the referral hadn't been done as they're changing their processes. More time passed. DD's behaviour outside of school was becoming more and more problematic and she was starting to exhibit some more extreme behaviours and become violent toward me at home and having massive, uncontrollable outbursts.
I pushed for further support from the school and again, spoke to SENCO around Easter time; explained exactly what was occurring at home, what the issues were and how concerned we were. I was advised that she would be doing the referral (!) but the new process meant she had to have a meeting with the LA in June first and then she would let me know what the outcome was and whether a referral would be accepted for her. In the mean times DD would be added to the SEN register at school. I was also told that SENCO would do a referral over to the School Nursing team as they can open up access routes and potentially help with some of the other issues.
Come the end of summer term I had heard nothing more. Eventually got hold of SENCO who advised that yes, the referral could now be put across after the meeting (6 weeks earlier!) and that I should have heard from school nursing so she'd chase them up.
Over this summer, DD's has continued to spiral (for want of a better word) I am now fairly sure she has ASD alongside ADHD. We are now 3 weeks into the term and I have yet to receive a learning plan for her nor any contact from the SENCO. When I spoke to the lovely class teacher at the start of the year she didn't even know that DD had SENCO involvement.
I had still not heard from School Nursing on Friday just gone so contacted them myself (I was unaware I could do that until last week) and they have never received any form of referral for her. This concerned me so I thought I'd contact the 2 places that deal with referrals in our area (Community Paeds and another place) Neither of them have had any contact from school about my DD.
I am absolutely livid. It's widely spoken about on the QT between the previous class teachers and myself and also between us parents in a similar position that the SENCO is useless however up until now I've always tried to go with the flow.
The issue is, my daughter is spiralling and needs support!!
If you were me how would you proceed?
I've asked for a meeting with the Head Teacher to discuss the issues; she actually said when I asked that 'other parents had said that referrals hadn't been done but SENCO said otherwise so I'm not the first' But this doesn't change the outcome for MY child.
I've self referred to the school nursing service now as they may be able to help.
Right at the beginning of the year, the GP told me she would refer DD herself to community paeds as she believed that DD needed melatonin or similar for night times - this has also not happened so I'm returning to the GP on Weds to ask again as this could also be an in road around the SENCO.
If you've made it this far....thankyou. All input is welcome as I am quite frankly pulling out my hair whilst simultaneously banging my head on a brick wall. I have been trying to get something sorted since DD was 4 and am no further forward today!