Reduced school timetable, afternoon only

[TheLivelyCat]

Hi. My year 5 DD is starting a reduced timetable from Monday, afternoons only for now. She will be missing Maths and English lessons in the mornings, while I understand her mental health (anxiety, ASD, PDA) is what we need to focus on at the moment,

I'm concerned about the impact on her education, she's already working 2 years behind in maths as it is. Its all new to me.

I assume she will be at home with you every morning? You could make a huge amount of progress in maths/english in the mornings and then just let the afternoons at school be for socialisation.

Does your child have any learning disability? If their learning is only impacted by a struggle to focus and anxiety, I'd concentrate on doing little bids at home. Short sessions in maths and readings in a calm and supported environment. 10 minutes 1:1 once or twice daily for each subject can make a great difference. Focusing on mental health is important and pushing for too much academic achievement is damaging. But for a child being aware that they are very low achieving compared to peers is also often damaging to their mental health. It should ideally be a balance of 'not too much pressure' and 'need to experience and celebrate genuine achievements and progress'. You do have the right to push for a full time timetable, but if you are at home and have the time, a hybrid model of basically home ed and socislising in school could work well, at least for a while to allow your child to catch up, if you are happy with that.

She has been on a full timetable up to now, but not coping in class at all, after a meeting with the Head and family support worker, it was decided to reduce her to afternoons only for now, to be reviewed in a few weeks. She's has no EHCP in place at the moment, i brought it up at the meeting. but school are very good with her.

The thinking is to help her cope with shorter days at first and look at slowly moving her back into full time school also looking into more ways to support in in class, mabey a 1 to 1 in Maths ect.

Request an EHCNA. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use.

What support is the school providing? What have they already tried? What outside agencies have they approached?

If the part-time timetable is going to be longer term, alternative provision should be put in place.

She's seeing an OT next month, who will help with an EHCP, its all very early days at the moment, school have been good with her up to now, but year 5 has seen more challenges for her in school.

You don’t need to wait for the OT before requesting an EHCNA. You can do it yourself now.

I agree get on with requesting the EHCPNA.
Surely she shouldn't be on a part time timetable without this happening in parallel, especially as she is y5 which iirc is the year those with EHCPs start transition planning for secondary.
You can apply yourself, there are only 2 things you need to show - SN and school not coping, sounds like a slam dunk.

OT most likely won't help with an EHCP. You should ask school if they will apply ASAP, or else apply yourself.

Are you happy with the reduced timetable? I'm a bit worried about the wording "it was decided". You won't have to agree to it, though you should if you can facilitate it and it's in the best interests of your child.

OT absolutely can help with an EHCP. When needs assessments are undertaken correctly, they often include an OT assessment. When EHCPs are written correctly, they often include OT input (direct &/or indirect). When people have to appeal, OT reports are often helpful. However, an OT report isn’t required before submitting the EHCNA request.