Requesting a SA - How do I go about it?

[rebl]

Some background. My ds(4) currently attends local village ms school. He is deaf, bilaterally aided, has a radio aid, has significant dietary needs, has some medical issues. Since starting school he has displayed some worrying behaviour which the school are not dealing with very well. He gets a twice termly visit from a specialist teacher of the deaf.

The school have him on school action and are refusing to move him onto school action plus and do IEP's. My understanding of the code of practice is that given he has specialist intervention from an outside agency and that he has to use specialist equipment to access the ciriculum he should be on SA+. The school say he doesn't because he's not got a statement .

DH and I have argued ALOT about this and the way forward (I want to move schools, DH doesn't) but Lougle has managed to persuade dh that maybe the way forward is for us to apply for a statory assessment. So now we are agreeing on something how do I go about actually doing it? Who do I write to and what do I put in my letter? Can I write that the school aren't meeting his needs and are refusing to put him on SA+ and provide IEPS even though he clearly meets the criteria for this? Do I mention all his problems? Or do I just write a one liner that says Please can you do a statotory assessment on DS?

Who do I send the letter to? Do I need to tell the school?

rebl, I would suggest you make a DPA request to the school for your DS's educational records. If they're not passing information to you, who knows what other incidents might be in there?

If you can get your friend C to write a description of the incident, that will be helpful too. It's written evidence that will be helpful in your SA request, so try to get as much in writing as you can.

When you have your meeting, make sure someone is taking notes and writes up the minutes (or do it yourself and ensure they're agreed by all present).

Sorry for pronouns. Have engaged brain now & see you've got a ds not a dd!

Another mum spoke to me at drop off this morning . When I took him into class today he's now not sitting next to anyone. There are others on his table but they're a distance away from him, the other end of the table basically. He is all alone . School STILL haven't spoken to me even though they've done this. We have got a few dates for a meeting but its looking like it'll be after half term.

Do I go and ask the class teacher about why he's now sitting alone knowing that that will kick in the conversation about his behaviour away from the meeting where the HT and NDCS are going to be attending or do I ignore it but it could be a couple of weeks where he's sitting alone?

I'd go in this arvo and ask his teacher why it is that your DS is sitting on his own. Treat the other planned meeting completely separate.

If you haven't already sent the request for the Statement to the LEA, you really need to do so asap. Do not delay.

Oh FFS. I've just had a blazing row with O's mother (C) on the phone. C thinks that my parenting is lax and that I should be disciplining ds when he hits. I told her that I did last night and she said that if it was O doing this that she would ensure her child never hit another child ever again. This is so short sighted. She couldn't see that although I told him off yesterday for hitting O I can't very well tell him off every day just in case he hit someone. She couldn't see that I have no idea if my discipline is effective because the school don't tell me. I thought she was a friend, she very clearly is at best ignorant.

rebl She's just protecting her child from harm. Don't take it personally. Tell her to complain to the school. It will help.