refused parents' meeting

[molcat]

My 7 yr old dd was sent home at the beginning of the week with her monthly newsletter which stated that meetings for all parents would be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and again on Wednesday evening next week. I waited until today for a letter inviting us to come to a meeting and as no letter was sent home I sent a note to the teacher asking if perhaps the letter had been lost or whether it had not been issued yet to which the teacher replied that she would discuss my daughter's progress at her annual review in 3 weeks. I am so frustrated with this school and their attitude and treatment of myself and husband. My daughter is now in yr 2 and we have always had 2 Parents meetings as well as the annual review. I have tried to move my daughter from this school but she is afraid of the umknown (she is aprofoundly deaf implanted child), and will not move. She has started to display some very worrying behaviour- hand biting. It has got so bad that she has now little bruises and today when I collected her from school there were very recent bite marks on both hands. The schools behaviour towards us stems from the fact that two of their teachers stood against us at SENDIST, when we appealed against a decision by the Local authority to grant our dd a FT 1-1 LSA with BSL LEVEL 2. Unfortunately our dd has made very little progress (she shares an lsa with another child who has quite significant needs himself). I am very sorry for the long winded message but I am now at the end of my tether!

Thanks for listening,

Molcatxx

This sounds like an awful position to be in. The attitudes of educational "professionals" never ceases to concern me.

Have you asked for the marks to be investigated as a safeguarding matter or do you know the origins of the marks?

We as parents have the same rights as any other parents and our children have the same rights as their non disabled peer group, including the right to be safe and have their needs met. It doesn't sound like this is happenning for your child.

have you tried the Ipsea helpline? I find them hard to get through to but when you do they are usually really helpful.

Stay strong

Why on earth would teachers stand against you if you wanted extra help for your daughter?! The hand biting sounds like anxiety possibly? I do feel for you, it's so worrying, and the refusal of the parents meeting must make you feel really excluded. In spite of the review in 3wks time you are still entitled to a parents meeting surely, especially if you want one. Treating your daughter differently in this respect is discrimination.

molcat, have you got support from an ndcs regional officer? If not I would suggest you get on to the helpline and ask for some support, they've been fantastic with the trouble we've had with dd3s school. I hope you can sort something out for her it sounds awful.

We live in n. Ireland and we have found that the education authorities are a law onto themselves and what's worse is they actually get away with it! They had a barrister and solicitor on their team at tribunal and as for the teacher, who went against us, she will likely be vice principal soon. That is how it works over here. We were represented by an NDCS caseworker who did a marvellous job, but even they are challenged when they come here. It would appear that we committed a terrible offence- we asked for sign language to be used with our dd! We have one deaf school in the whole of n.Ireland which is 70 miles of away, and when our children don't fit into the square-shaped boxes provided, there is something wrong with them- " they need to learn to listen" , " your daughter is working to the best of her ability". It is a disgrace. I am monitoring the hand biting situation, she wasn't at school today and we talked to her at the weekend, so fingers crossed we have got through to her. Thanks Charlie06, Kissingfrogs and Bigcar.