Son has been excluded help!!!

[charco]

My son (4) was excluded from school today. I’ve been expecting it he been struggling with his behaviour and learning since his last year in nursery. They said he was a year behind both developmentally and academically and he’s made no improvement since. I applied for a ehcp just before he moved up to reception and he was denied it a few months ago for not having enough evidence as the nursery never sent the primary school the paperwork on his struggles and behaviour. I have opened up another request and it’s just gone through, but until that’s looked over and hopefully accepted I’m stuck.
He was tested for autism at the beginning of the year he hasn’t got that but they said he’s showing signs of ADHD but they can’t test him until he’s 5/6 years old. Where do I go from here? His primary school haven’t given me a return date from what I’ve seen he can’t go to a sen school unless he has a ehcp and meets certain criteria. Do I try another mainstream while I wait for this ehcp to maybe get accepted? I haven’t got the money to homeschool him and to be fair I haven’t got the knowledge and education either. I feel stuck and like I’m failing him.

Is it a permanent exclusion? What happened?

Do you mean a suspension/fixed term exclusion or a permanent exclusion? And do you have formal paperwork? Because the answers to those questions will affect the advice given.

When does DS turn 5?

What support has the school provided to date? What have they tried, but it hasn’t worked? Who have they asked for advice?

He is a big climber and he climbed out of the glass room garden and tried climbing the christmas tree in the playground. But this and the last three months of running out of class,climbing, throwing things playing with wires and unfortunately hitting teachers I can see why he has been excluded. They didn’t tell me anything until I picked my daughter up after school. He is excluded until Wednesday and we will have a meeting about where we go next. There is a new teacher who already seems more into helping him than just letting him do what he wants.he hasn’t don’t any work since staring in september because they just let him crack on and then complaining about his behaviour so I guess we’ll see

He is back in on Wednesday they didn’t tell me until I picked up my daughter and gave me the letter. He is 5 the end of January. He has 1-1 with the senco teacher atm but he doesn’t like her and says she isn’t nice to him so think that may be a reason why he isn’t behaving at school. They tried for extra funding to get him his own 1-1 but they weren’t granted it and other than that all they do is make him wear a vest because he is a flight risk and headphones because he has told them it’s too loud but I’m not sure if he really does have noise issues because if it’s something he is interested in it can be as loud as anything and then he complains about noise if he’s not enjoying something .they were supposed to get a higher fence and gate for their outdoor area of the class room so he can’t climb out onto the play ground before he started but still haven’t done it . Hoping this new teacher is the beginning of a turn around as he says he wants to keep son in mainstream if can be helped and they are now going to dull his class work down to a lower grade as like I said he is really behind. He can barely count to ten and doesn’t know his abc’s . I just feel so bad and like I am failing him

It may not seem it now but this could actually be a good thing as it's evidence of unmet needs. Are you still within the appeal window for the EHCP? If so you should appeal as they quite often refuse in the hope you'll go away.
In my daughter's case the suspension also triggered a referral to the LA's inclusion team which opened up more support (of varying use), team around the child meetings and eventually got her her EHCP and she is now doing a lot better with a full time 1 to 1. I don't know if this is automatic or something the school has to request though.

Since it is a formal suspension, you can challenge it if you want. Request the SENCO is present at the reintegration meeting. The school needs to be providing more support and supervision. I presume when you say DS is receiving 1:1, it isn’t full time 1:1? Because otherwise how did DS escape over the fence and have time to climb the Christmas tree?

Request an EHCNA again. Appeal if refused.

Did the school appeal the high needs top up funding refusal?

If your LA still has them, has the school requested input from the specialist teaching service?

I wouldn’t move schools right now. It could be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire and the LA may well use it as an unlawful excuse to refuse to assess by unlawfully saying DS needs time to settle.

Exclusion has to be for one specific incident, not a culmination of things. You can't exclude a five year old for climbing. You can appeal against the exclusion.

They have put it down as a health and safety issue for him and others around due to the climbing so not sure how an appeal would go down. We have his reintegration meeting today so see how that goes with his head teacher and this new guy who seems very keen to keep him at this school

Sometimes suspensions can still be successfully challenged even if the school say it is a health and safety matter.

Just wanted to say you are NOT failing him. Take it from a mum whose (awaiting for assessment) 5 year old (year 1) has been suspended twice since starting school (plus reduced hours in nursery). It is hard and trust me I question myself too. We are fortunate we have a very good relationship with the school in spite of the suspension and we are using it as evidence for his EHCP, DLA etc