Senco hates me, wont help my kids, what next? PART 1

[loudmouthmum]

When I first moved here 4 yrs ago, Eldest (10 1/2)was on SA+,SENCO took away all help, had to go to tribunal as she still needed it(she couldn't read or write at 6 1/2).School is LYING about her levels acheived, is refusing to put her in for her SATS,as she won't reach the levels(god forbid it makes the school look bad!).SENCO won't help me get the statement, in fact putting obstacles in my way.Daughter STILL cant add and subtract to 10,can't tell time or work out money,she's 1 year away from secondary!She also has GDD, mild ASD,A heart condition that the school won't take seriously(she will need surgery soon to replace her leaky heart valves,they won't tell supply teachers,she's not allowed to rest during PE),learning difficulties, and she's just been diagnosed with epilepsy, which the SENCO is refusing to believe despite it being her who brought up the seizures in the first place??!!What do I do?

It's the Ed Psych she hasn't been assessed by, she does have a pediatrician, plus the school doctor. She was getting much more support under SA+ at her last school-5 hrs/week individual for English & 4 hrs individual for Maths. This school- 10 mins individual English & 50 mins in group of 4 for Maths. None of which she's had since I put in the ICS complaint about my middle child's school at half term in May.There was no thought of Epilepsy at her last school, that was picked up a year ago, and her heart condition was only picked up 7 months ago. The board of Governers aren't interested, they are believing the teacher assessments,but how are they accurate when the teacher does the work for my daughter if she doesn't understand it, rather than actually explain it to her!

OOPS! I meant middle child's CLASS !

The amount of support a child on SA+ will be able to access really depends on the number of children the school have on the SEN register. Children with Statements will get priority as their entitlement is a legal requirement and whatever is left of the (small) budget has to be shared among all the other children on the register. Wrong and unfair but I'm afraid that's how schools have to juggle things.

mrz - does it vary between early years and school for budgetary purposes? ie early years on SA+ it is allocated by child, school age they fish from the school budget?

I can't think of anything helpful. Put it all in writing once more to the governers and then the LEA, follow up with phone calls, then if their attitude doesn't shift I would go to the local papers - name & shame - what have you got to lose???

As parent I am disgusted at the lack of support your dd is getting but I have little knowledge/experience in this sort of thing.

Romy7 one of the problems is there isn't a national way of allocating SEN budgets so it can vary from LA to LA. If a child on EYA+ attends a school nursery funding is from the school budget but in a pre school or privately funded nursery the money comes from the LA.

ta vm. makes sense.

All I can think of is finding out how the SEN budget has been spent over the time she's been there under the freedom of information act. I know the statemented kids come 1st, but the only reason I can't get her statemented is cos the teachers/ SENCO are lying on their teacher assessments, doing the work FOR her, and refuse to let her have an up-to-date EP report. (Which I believe would show her TRUE levels, therefore giving me ammunition to go for a statement. going by her teacher assessments, she is between level 2c-3c depending on subject). I doubt highly that any child could acheive level 2c in maths without knowing their number bonds to 10, which is STILL a target on her IEP (for the last 5 years!!). The school dont want her statemented as the money will HAVE to be spent on her!

Also, I have just read the prospectus I have been sent, in respect of my youngest due to start reception. It appears that in the end of year 6 SATS, 25 % received a level that was below level 4 in ALL subjects. How is THAT when level 4 is what they are meant to acheive by the end of year 6. That Doesn't include the 1 child who wasn't entered as they were still working towards level 2!! What is the norm for children acheiving level 2/3 at the end of year 6?? I'm sure it's NOT 25%, and they were claiming that there were only 45 children in the year, which I know is a lie, as I had children of my friends in each yr 6 class that year, and there were 30 in one class & 31 in the other!! where did all the other kids go? The table says only 1 (out of the 45!!) was absent??!! Like they are claiming (as are the LEA) that there are only 60 children in my daughter's year when in July, there were 36 in one class and 37 in my daughter's! Do they fish their figures out of a hat??!!

Published capacity number is 420. Next year they will be running at R:90, Y1:61, Y2:34, Y3:63, Y4:61, Y5:67, Y6:73.They have had to take sinks and cupboards out of the yr 6 classrooms over the holidays (I know one of the builders, and my boyfriend re-fitted the flooring!) in order to have more space under H&S regs to accommodate the huge class sizes. To my mind, there will be 449 pupils attending the school in September, making it 29 over maximum capacity, AND there are new houses in catchment being moved into RIGHT NOW where the only LEA run school in the area (that has to accept pupil overflow as the others WONT) is my children's school!

How about trying your local mp? Are you able to support her learning at home?

I'm trying to, but she has medical problems I have to address at home, ds2 has LOTS of different medical&educational needs, I have to do his OT excersises, his Proprioception excercises and try to teach him to recognise his name written down before he starts school in 2 weeks! Plus I am registered disabled with refractory epilepsy (I have daily seizures myself), I'm trying hard, but I'm finding that I need 48 hours in a day to everyone else's 24! Plus ds1 is 3 years ahead, school WONT differentiate for him until yr 3 (he goes into yr2 in Sept), so am trying to do that as well. With science, if we do it verbally, rather than written, dd can do work a year ahead, but maths is 3-4 yrs behind, still working on number bonds to 10 with her. After 5 years. Getting a little stressed that nothing is working for her maths. English we are doing some work at home, but yr 3/4 work when she is in yr 6 in September.

surely if she was statemented she would attract additional LEA funding for the school, freeing up their existing resource to a certain extent. that's why dd2's school was so keen to get her statemented, they couldn't afford her support without a statement.

if you are drafting a letter to the LEA requesting stat assessment again, i suggest you include the 4 years worth of IEPs that contain the same targets. this can be used as proof that she is not making progress under SA+ and therefore a valid reason to request statementing.

have you spoken to ipsea?

I'm sorry but it isn't possible for schools to lie about the number of pupils they have on role a year group. All children have an admission number which remains with them when they move schools it's all rigorously checked and if a single child is unaccounted for the school is contacted.
As I said before you don't need the school's cooperation for an EP referral this can come from your doctor and you can apply for statutory assessment yourself.

Well Mrz how is it that even the LEA are saying there are only 60 in my daughter's year group, when I KNOW for a FACT that there are 73, as I have to help her write the xmas cards AND i know the other parents. Or is it that twins and triplets are only counting as one child now?. There is a set of triplets & 2 set of twins in her year. School are claiming that as well, only 60 pupils, if so, why are the adjustments needed to the classrooms on H&S grounds (according to the builders)? And I WILL be speaking about an EP referral with my daughter's pediatrician at her next appointment, thank you for that bit of info, didn't know I could go that way round it. Romy7, I did that last time I went for statementing, put her IEP's in as evidence, LEA refused to even assess her, saying they needed up-to-date additional information (they wanted an EP report rather newer than 4 1/2 years old!). Thought at the time that I couldn't appeal if they'd refused to assess. Now know that's not true!

It just isn't possible in the system to hide 13 children and nothing to be gained. They would be in fact losing funding for the additional pupils. I can't comment why builders are saying H&S because there is no requirement of extra space to accommodate extra pupils of this age.

I also agree with Romy7 the school would gain extra funding if your daughter had a statement so it would be to their advantage to apply.

lmm, is it that their PAN is 60? they are allowed to go over their PAN for multiples... maybe they have adjusted their records in line with their PAN?

the whole point about the assessment process is that it is exactly that, an up to date assessment of her current capability. they can not refuse to assess on the grounds that they do not have up to date information.

ipsea have a template letter on their website to request statutory assessment. i don't know if this is the format you used last time? it is extremely difficult for an LEA to weasel out of statutory assessment if this format is used. plenty of ways for them to weasel out of statementing, but not actually assessing. the statutory assessment will include an assessment by the EP, so it is a total nonsense for them to say they can't assess because they haven't got one. some parents have already had EP asessments done, of course, and this can be used as additional evidence that stat assess is necessary (added to your template letter), but it is a chicken and egg situation - not a reason to turn your request down.
are you on reasonably good terms with the staff at the LEA? i think you need to start building bridges tbh - i always find that flattering them and ringing to ask a few questions 'because i am worried about my daughter and don't quite understand how the system works' usually gets me all the information i need. i would try really hard not to start blaming school (just whilst you are talking to them lol) - stick with 'i don't understand and i am really worried about her'... you may find that this approach gives you all you need to write your letter requesting assessment, and to get it through this time.

Firstly follow your school's complaints procedure - usually HT then Chair of Governors. If you haven't approached the HT then I would do this first or the Governors will just bounce you back to HT as you haven't followed the process. However if you are not satisfied with HT's response then follow on to Chair of Governors and ask them to investigate. You will have a person at your local Education Authority responsible for SEN - write to them so that you have alerted them to the situation, copy to the Head of Education at the LA. Keep copies of all correspondence.

The main thing to do is contact your local Parent Partnership - the school or LA should be able to get you the number, or you may be able to google them. They are specifically there to mediate for parents in such situations. Take their advice.

The legislation is quite clear that PANs only apply to the intake group and other year groups can exceed the PAN limit for a number of reasons quite legally. The fact that the capacity of a school has been reached does not permit applications to be refused if the PAN has not been reached so again schools can legally exceed the overall capacity. I just want to repeat they have nothing to gain by lying about numbers and a great deal to lose financially.

I understand what you are saying, mrz, but, the capacity of the school has not only been reached, but exceeded, and as there are no regulations governing junior class sizes, why won't either the LEA OR the school admit that there are 36 + 37 in their 2 year 6 classes for next year? To the point where both the LEA and the school MUST know, as there are works going on on the basis of H&S, making the floorspace in the 2 classrooms used by these classes larger, due to the sq.mt per child rule that is used? So they both know, but are telling me that there are only 60 in the year group. Is this due to the fact that due to ICS regs, the school is already overrunning my son's yr2 class next year by 4 pupils? And that means that the school already has 14 classrooms for what should be (as my son's year was in 2 classes last year) 15 classes due to the reception intake of 90 in September? Splitting the year 6 classes into 3 would compound this problem, as there would then be 16 classes. No room on land for demountables, school was actually built to hald max 420 pupils. Only way to go is UP, but nothing's happened yet, with 1 week to go.73 kids in 2 classes in their SATS year? 34 kids in an infants class, again in their SATS year?

What I am saying loudmouthmum is that the school is legally allowed to go beyond it's stated capacity IF there are years where the intake was below the PAN which appears to be the case with the Y1/2 class numbers you gave. There is no limit to how many children there can be in a KS2 class. We have had Y6 classes of 39 with very good SAT results. Is there full or part support in the classes?

LOL support in a junior class? part time and mostly for the one child that has a statement. The yr 2 class has 34, the year 1 classes have 30 & 31. The school has less TA's/LSA's than they have YEAR groups. And all are working with the ONE statemented child per year. If there is already 1 statemented child in a year, it seems like they won't help (and actively try to dissuade/ put up barriers/ lie about levels acheived so that the LEA refuses to even assess), you to get a statement, to the point of telling you that "There's no point, we won't help you to do it, it's too much paperwork, and there's already a statemented child in her year" (Said by the SENCO last time I DID see her). Essex seems to work on this poxy 2% rule, which in a year of 60, equates to only the lowest ONE child per year. Hence me trying to get the school/LEA to admit to the 73 kids in her year, as then it would be the TWO lowest acheiving children in her year on the 2% 'rule'/criteria. (she is the SECOND lowest in english, which seems to be all that's taken into account, even though she is at least 4 years behind in real terms with her maths, compared to the statemented child's 3 years behind, making her the lowest acheiver in maths. Maths counts for nothing in essex!)

Hi,

re your comment:-
"Essex seems to work on this poxy 2% rule, which in a year of 60, equates to only the lowest ONE child per year".

I'm in Essex too but where I am there is more than one child in each year group who have a Statement. The 2% ruling is actually illegal; this is a blanket policy. They know its illegal.

Whereabouts in Essex are you?. I think you need to get your MP on side.

Thank you atilla. Update is, I must have contacted the right person at some point over the holidays, as although my daughter is not being statemented, the school have suddenly found another 4 HOURS a week help for her. Which was NOT in their plans when they last communicated with me. Even after just one week back, my DD has told me that she is enjoying her maths lessons for the first time, as she is getting the things that she doesn't understand explained to her, she says she now understands MOST of what is being taught to her (the school have differentiated her work more), and she doesn't feel stupid with maths any more. We had none of the usual frustration when she did her maths homework tonight, after a short explanation, she completed it (mostly correct) in 25 minutes (only 5 mins longer than it should take), and she seems much happier and more settled. With the class size problems, nothing is going to happen until the summer holidays next year, when 2 extra classrooms will be built as a second storey. The school are still refusing to give out a number for children in my daughter's class, even telling the class that there was only 30 pupils in there, when the pupils could quite obviously count 36 ( the extra 1 is in the other yr 6 class this year). The reasons behind this are now intriguing some of the other parents, though I have chosen to stay out of the playground discussions. The medical problems my ds2 has have had an emergency protocol put in place and a meeting over routine meds will be held 'soon'. (The proverbial 'how long is a piece of string' debate)...

Definately go to GP too, we did, got to paed (who was useless) asked for second opinion, got a different pead within a month and got an immediate diagnosis of ASD. Went on to get a Statement for dd. Good luck