please help, they say he needs to be independant. I say he needs to read

[reahead]

advice needed please.

have a child who is 9 and will be starting yr 5 in sept. At present he is supported up to 8 hours 1-1 with TA out of the class room for literacy & numeracy as he has difficulty concentrating and very easily distracted, struggles to follow instruction and has poor memory/recall (working at reception/yr1 level). Problem is school say he must go back into classroom of 30 children to be 'integrated' and to enhance 'the learning experience'. I argue he won't learn and is making small progress with his 1-1 out of classroom and numeracy & literacy are what he must learn. School say I have no right to request this despite telling them when he's in class he doesn't complete any tasks, becomes passive and teacher states he learns best out of the class.

What are my rights as a parent and are the school right or just looking after their funding. They have told me some children are worse than my son recieving less help.
ps son has general learning difficulties with specific difficulty with language

Hi

A key point here is does he have a Statement?

Sorry - I 've now seen your earlier post and that his Statement says 5 hours.

If you don't feel 5 hours is sufficient then ask the LA for more time to be written into his Statement. You'll be unlikely to get them to agree that all his learning should be outside the main classroom on a 1:1 basis as he heeds the social interaction with other children however you could ask for 1:1 continous supprt from an LSA while he is in the main classroom.

Hi, I cannot help with advice, but was interested to read your post. This sounds like a funding issue to me, your son clearly needs the 1:1 help out of classroom.

My son sounds very similar to yours, he also has learning difficuties with specific language difficulties and his attention and concentration is extremely poor.

He is in reception and has a 1:1 90% of the time (otherwise he disrupts class too much), I am really concerned about how much he has learnt this year, very little. And I wonder if they applying the right teaching methodology with him.

Is it the 1:1 that helps him, or the being outside the class, or the focus?

If it is the environment rather than the 1:1 perse, you could ask them to trial a 'low distraction workspace' that he can use within the classroom.

thank you for the advice. He was taken out of the class by his TA because he couldn't concentrate in it and was not concentrating /producing any work. He is also aware other childrens work is different to his and he is ashamed of his work and tries to hide it.

Have been reading about the benefits of learning out of the classroom on a web site and might use this as further evidence.

I only want him out of the class for the essential numeracy & literacy, for science, geography, art etc he will be in the classroom (unsupported) although I know he will not be completing any tasks (as he doesn't now).

" They have told me some children are worse than my son recieving less help." - this is absolutely irrelevant to you. Their parents need to fight for their children. You need to fight for yours.

If your child is in Year 5 and working at a reception / year 1 level then there are obviously serious problems - i would hazzard a guess that the problem is with the way he is being taught

This just doesn't sound like the right learning environment for him. Not sure what your options are. Home schooling? A different school? A special school? But based on his progress so far there's just no reason to think that if you keep him at this school for another 2 years he'll make any progress.

He clearly needs a better statement.

Good luck, and keep posting here for advice

mmm thankyou, trouble is this is the second school and the 5 hour statement (1st was worse than this)is rather non specific (had less experience then).

The only special school is for severe learning/physical difficulties and he doesn't seem to fit the criteria for this.

Love the idea of home school but have financial obligations and have to work. Would like a micheal steiner school but can't afford it

Dreading having to ask for an re-assesment, I hated it the first time round. Emotionally its so draining, I wonder if parents of talented & gifted children have to fight so hard to get the education system to stretch/challenge their children.

thanks for looking at my post. I noticed problems in reception but it got worse in yr 1 as it was less play based. yr2 I asked for assesment for statement as their was no progress, everyone dug their heels in. when it came to yr 2 sats my son was placed in reception as the yr1 work was to challenging for him. Don't hesitate to summon help if your worried.

With my daughters school they get 18 hours access to a learning assistant on school action plus after that it is a statement where they would have say 22 hours of access to learning assistant. That would mean they would be taught in small groups 2to2 or one to one. I would really have a look again at what your son is being given ie does he have access to one to one all day and just has 5 hours out of the classroom with one to one. This is quite a lot of one to one out of the classroom. My dd has a statment of 28 hours access to one to one she only goes out of the classroom for one to one about an hour in total a day, that is for OT and SaLT and maybe two hours a week with a specialist SEN teacher and then maths in a small group. The rest of the time she is in the classroom. My dd is very much boarderline special school.

One of the main reasons she has been able to stay in mainstream is that she is able to read and this makes a massive difference to their learning experience.

I would re look at what he is actually getting ie access to learning assistant all day or is it just during those nine hours. If only during 9 hours I think you are going to have to fight for a better statement. The school should be collecting proof that the statement isn't working and that more help is needed. I would also look at other special school out of the area as you would qualify for free transport ie taxi or minibus. Especially looking towards mainstream.

Surely the nine hours must cover one to one for an hour of literacy and an hour of maths a day.

Look at the recommendations of the Rose Report [2009].
The last government accepted its recommendations
The report stated that for some children with severe and persistent literacy difficulties they should be given an individualised programme delivered by a qualified teacher.
Ask for this to be included in the statement - get help constructing the request for statement.
Good luck

Thank you, he is entitled to 15 hours a week shared TA in class of 30 but misses some of this when he is having 5 hours 1-1 a week for SALT (he doesnt actually need this now but has it for memory/recall). The 1-1 also covers literacy but whats been happening is when the work in class has been to challenging the TA has taken him out of class thus increasing his 1-1 hours and decreasing the 15 hours shared TA hours in class. It is this that has shown some progress which is why I,m keen for numeracy/literacy to be out of class and 1-1. However the school view being out of a classroom as a reward and said some work they believe he can do and wont so they will not reward him with being out of class (son doesnt see this as reward (rather be in class) as he has to work harder (plus he says other kids help him with his work!).

I will take a look a Rose report plus have just heard from ACE that from 1st Sept no need for reassesment as this is to be done at statenment annual review then if authority refuse to amend statement I have to appeal.