High school's poor transition has impacted on my DD and it could have been avoided

[TinaTiaguan]

I’d like to know if I have an avenue of redress, or if it’s just me being overly sensitive.

In January 2023, I contacted the mainstream academy based high school that my daughter (D) was scheduled to start in the September. I asked for a meeting with the SENCO as D was on ASD and ADHD pathway, and I wanted her to transition smoothly and to give them as much info as possible. Her primary school had not been receptive or forthcoming with my concerns.

D is easily overwhelmed and overstimulated. She has had SSH ideation due to her primary school not meeting her needs and her feeling left out and isolated. She’s since been diagnosed as ASD with severe SPD. In total, before she started in the September, from January to July 2023, I contacted the high school’s SENCO a dozen times, always copying in the admin team, asking for a meeting and telling her about D’s learning style, and her SSHI, and I never had a response. I even copied in the head on one of my emails, no response. On 13.07.23, I attended a ‘drop in’ meeting at the school where parents/carers could meet key people in the school, I met the SENCO for 10 minutes and she made limited notes (such as “likes to fidget, wears ear defenders”) (I made a SAR and seen these limited notes). D began their summer school program on 24.07.23 but left after half a day as it was essentially geared towards NTs and no provision in place for her, despite me being very clear on her needs. On the back of this, I had a meeting with two key leaders of the school on 27/07, and a pupil plan was cobbled together. She started year 7 in September and from the get go, she has felt overstimulated every day, and exhausted from masking all day. The teachers were ignoring her pupil plan (eg, asking her to remove her ear defenders, asking her Qs on the spot) and the busy ‘between lesson’ transitions and echoing classrooms are especially triggering. Her MH spiralled back to SSH ideation and I removed her from school in February (she is under CAMHS). She has been attending half days since April and she sits alone accessing an online learning platform (Academy 21) and has some 1:1 during this time, with TAs. This week, the SENCO (who started in September (the previous SENCO stepped back as a SENDCO but still works there)) has said that the school has a smaller set for SEN pupils, and this set might be a better fit for her. This set, the ‘Nurture Set’ has always been there. This is the issue: why was this set option not given to me before she started in September? I gave enough information to the school before D started to warrant her being in this set from the start. This could have made her school journey smoother. She’s lonely with no friends and she’s not getting the same education as her peers and I can’t help but feel really angry at the school. Even when she started to spiral in October 2023, the current SENCO could have optioned this. She’s had such a tumultuous and and difficult start to high school and I believe that if the then-SENCO/school had responded to me/engaged with me/listened to me and recognised D’s needs, much of this may have been avoided.

I put a complaint into the school head in March, and I received an apology from the then-SENCO for failing to respond to me. But no one has ever told me why I was essentially ignored, or has taken accountability for my daughter’s extremely poor transition to the school which has severely impacted on her.

Am I misplaced in my frustration and anger here? Am I overthinking this? Can I complain to the LA even though it is an Academy? Is there any point?

Off topic, I am completing the EHCP application myself as I don’t trust the school to do a good enough job. They failed to complete her ASD school referral forms for two weeks, they ‘forgot’ (I went private for her ASD diagnosis, in the end). Ideally, I’d like her to go to a smaller school for ASD children, in which the teachers transition between lessons. But I know it’ll be an uphill struggle and I have to prove that the school cannot meet her needs.

Rant over. I just feel so lost and angry and feel like my daughter is being failed.

Edit: "They failed to complete her ASD school referral forms for two MONTHS". Not two weeks.

If you aren’t satisfied with the HT’s response to your complaint, you need to follow the next step of the school’s complaints process, which is usually the governors or trustees. Once you have exhausted the school’s complaints procedure, in some circumstances, you can complain to the ESFA.

If by removed from school you don’t mean deregistered and electively home educated and you requested alternative provision from the LA but they refused, you can complain to the LA about that.

How many hours of education a week is DD getting now?

The decision on the makeup of the nurture group initially is likely to have taken into account EHCPs, information from primary schools, SATs results which may explain why DD wasn’t originally given a place in that group. There may not have been a place to move someone else in to that group earlier in the year.

@BrumToTheRescue

Thank you. I will try those steps.

Home Ed isn’t an option, not because I don’t want to, more so because I’m a single parent who works full time, and my teaching skills to a child with SEN are dire 😬

She’s getting 8 hours of online education; English, Science, and ‘Citizenship’, which seems to be about how the UK is run. She gets another 4 hours of one to one in school, bits of maths, history and English. So 12 hours total.

She did not sit the Year 6 SATs due to poor mental health. She didn’t have an ECHP at primary school because that school wouldn’t support an application, they didn’t think she needed one.

There is a ‘spare/open’ place in the Nurture Set, and always has been.

Your final paragraph is my point; the school haven’t taken her needs into consideration because they were not aware of her needs, and there were not aware of her needs because my attempts to make them aware went unanswered/ignored from January 2023 until she started in September, and even after September, they didn’t option the Nurture Set, despite there being a place open. Essentially, they have failed to take her needs into consideration.

Your story has some similarities to mine, except that I fought for an EHCP and got one about half way through primary school. It was exhausting. You might, therefore, want to save your time/money/energy for the EHCP Needs Assessment request. To get a good EHCP that accurately reflects her needs and required provision, you will probably need good private professional Ed Psych, SALT, and OT reports. Many of these professionals have very long waiting lists.IPSEA has some really good sound legal advise on all things SEN education, including the EHC Needs assessment. The only thing a school will care about is what is written in section F and how much money they can get from the LA to not deliver it.Also, it sounds like your relationship with the current school is probably broken and past the point of no return.

If DD can’t attend school full time and is only receiving a 12hrs of education, you should request more alternative provision from the LA because 12hrs isn’t full time. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use. Ultimately, it is the LA’s responsibility to ensure DD receives a suitable full-time education, not the schools.

In case it is relevant in the future, you don’t need the school to support an EHCNA request.

My final paragraph gives a possibility of why DD wasn’t placed in the nurture group. Some schools base that decision on EHCPs, primary school information and SATs results being below ARE rather than on discussions with parents. If DD didn’t have an EHCP, had limited information from the primary school and was disapplied from SATs that could explain the decision not to place DD there. If that’s how the school makes the decision, it wasn’t about ignoring DD’s needs, it was about her not meeting the criteria.

Personally, I wouldn’t deregister and EHE either, I was just wondering when you said “removed her from school in February” whether you had deregistered or if you didn’t mean removed but rather reported her as not able to attend school because of her MH like you would with other illness.