To loose my cool with the SENCO?

[Larrythecatforpm]

Wondering if I can have some other SEN parents advice please.

DS10 is a fairly complex case, he has type one diabetes & high functioning autism along with a few other things.
It can really hinder him in school with the combination. Most of the time he refuses to do work unless it’s maths (maths he’s top 5 % in the country) as he thinks literally.
English he’s okay at SPAG and has good reading skills but when it comes to writing and answering questions they said he just cannot do it due to not being able to think abstractly.He sits and zones out this happens in other subjects too. He also requires adult help for his diabetes in terms of injections & keeping a eye on his numbers.

He’s had sen plans all through school and has a lot of adjustments. Now going into year 6 his teacher has said he needs an echp as he’s not going to manage in a mainstream senior (also backed up by a autism specialist & diabetes team who don’t think he will be able to self inject by year 7 which is required.)

So I put in for an echp and it’s come back while they agree he has significant SEN and medical needs the SENCO failed to put in sen plans so they couldn’t agree.
Spoke to the SENCO who said she hasn’t bothered to do one this year even though he has a lot of adjustments etc! She said she would get it done back in June.
2 weeks later still wasn’t done so I requested a SAR which they managed to speak me out of doing stupidly on the promise they would do it as a matter of urgency as I need to do mediation.
Well you guessed it the SENCO is now ignoring my emails regarding the evidence I need.

What do I do now? i’m really upset.

YABU to lose your cool. The SENCO is probably snowed under with other children's needs as well and probably has her own class too (they did at my school). It shouldn't be a case of who shouts loudest gets seen first. Blame successive governments for underfunding schools.

Well you don’t “lose your cool” as that suggests you plan to be agressive and abusive to a member of school staff.

I don’t mean loose my cool, but she’s been promising to do it for months now and still hasn’t. I have been made aware by other parents that she’s not sorted out sen plans etc for their children too. I get being snowed under but she’s promised mutiple times to do it and hasn’t. We even sat in a meeting while she wrote it all down in April and it literally just needs to be finalised! I don’t know wether to sit in reception and ask for it to be done, I am on a very small time limit and if it’s not done in time my son won’t have a school to go to in year 7 and she knows how serious this is. I applied for the echp myself to help her, all she has to do is hand over the evidence! Assuming you do not know how serious this is, to think I have all the time in the world to wait around while she types it up it literally takes twenty minutes the support is there already it just needs to be typed onto paper!

I would move this to the SEN boards. You are going to get lots of opinions off people who have no idea how frustrating it is to try and get support for your child and just how much energy is needed to manage the school and prepare for meetings so you don't just sit and moan about the things that they said they would do and didn't. That said, you really need SENCO on side.

In my experience, primary schools want to do as little as possible. I'd imagine its mainly based on lack of resource so having to prioritise children who are violent and disruptive. I would imagine that zoning out is not considered disruptive and that he is still working at the expected level.

I have a ND and diagnosed dyslexic child, she struggled to get her words and ideas onto paper. She had a brilliant teacher who was able to teach her lots of strategies to help, can you focus on this in the short term.

I would go down the formal complaint route if they have missed another deadline and it sounds like you already have the paperwork done. It may make them support better going forward.

I’ll ask to move to sen boards thank you. It’s actually very disruptive his teachers get really frustrated with it as it takes him a week to just write two sentences! They said if they could grade his writing/comprehension ability it would be a F so fail. They give him a scribe and alternative recording methods and get the same result. We had a brilliant senco beforehand but sadly left and now left with someone whose unfortunately not very good at their job. I will go ahead with a formal complaint to the headteacher then and see where we go from there.

Just put the SAR in.

presumably there are past Sen plans? Or do you need specifically one for this year?

And yes she said she had to priporituse the violent children, however they are in a completely separate sen class. Theres 3 of them so no reason why she cannot meet the needs of other sen children its only a school of 90 kids with around 15 having sen so its not like she’s overloaded! She’s even admitted my son has very high needs, i imagine as when he gets the echp it wont benefit the primary school money wise so she simply doesn’t care.

This is really hard
I would probably aak for this thread to be to be moved to special needs
As you are just going to get a lot of unhelpful replies
I would also contact your local sendias for support and arrange a meeeting wuth them and the SENCO although thats highly likely to be spetember now.

Needs to be this year. They want a recent one to see if things have improved which they haven’t he requires even more support. Going to put the complaint in with the headteacher and SAR alongside, they made me feel bad about the SAR request saying it was a lot of paperwork and would be a lot of work… I should of gone with my gut instinct and said I still wanted it in hindsight.

Sendiass are livid with the senco saying it’s highly unprofessional and have urged me to put in a complaint also. They also said they shouldn’t of talked me out of the SAR request.

Have you ever posted in the Facebook Group T1 children - Rights at School? The lady that runs the group is able to offer excellent advice on support for children with T1, as well as those with additional needs.

Yes posted in there, she was the one who suggested an ECHP to cover his diabetes support. The diabetes team have written a really good letter backing the ECHP with all the support he needs, it’s literally the lack of SEN plan letting me down.

Go over her head, speak (calmly!) to the Head making clear the urgency of this. If the head is ineffective then go to the governors.

While the school should have provided evidence, the LA is fobbing you off. Having a certain amount of SEN plans (or any) is not one of the legal requirements for an EHCP.

Was it a refusal to assess or refusal to issue? I presume the former.

Just so you are aware, you don’t have to actively partake in mediation. You only have to consider it. You can request the certificate and submit straight to SENDIST if you want.

Okay, this will be frowned upon but I went to the school and sat in reception and didn’t leave till I got the evidence. Within twenty minutes, I had all the historic plans & current SEN plan. They have now offered to sit in on mediation as help if needed but I don’t think thats advisable.

I have sent mediation a email requesting to go to mediation as they advised me to do, now what? This is a refusal to asses.

Should I get a fresh letter off the diabetes team stating he is not independent with care needs and will not be independent in time for year 7? I see them this week and I know they will be happy to do so.

Do i send this new evidence to the SEN team or do I keep to show at mediation?

Yes i would it shows his level of need..

Brilliant will get that done this week. Would a letter off his teacher explaining his needs help too? She has taught him mutiple years and has said his needs are getting more & more. Can’t even get him to wear school uniform anymore due to his sensory needs.

You can share the evidence with the LA now.

If you are going to mediation, make sure the LA send someone with decision making authority.

Yes, evidence of need and support DS requires will help.

For refusal to assess, you only have to show DS has or may have SEN and b) may need special educational provision to be made via an EHCP. Any other test is unlawful.

With the evidence I have he meets both of those. How do I make sure they send someone with decision making authority? Mediatelegal said they will arrange it all from their side.

Once you know when mediation will be, contact the LA yourself to make sure they are sending someone who can make a decision.

Great will do. Thank you.

You need to appeal within the time limits.

A refuse to issue appeal isn't too bad. I am pretty sure you will have enough evidence to convince SENDIST.

Do you know which secondary he's likely to go to? Try to get hold of the SENCO there. Time is of the essence as they may only have 10 days or so till summer break. They won't have capacity to talk to you in September!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/5484488-ehcp-support-thread-no-6?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

You’re right that the LA can’t demand a certain number of SEN plans or APDR cycles but it’s an evidence based decision so they do need some information from the school to show what’s been tried and what hasn’t worked.