Statementing paperwork, essential bits.

[Hethbell]

Starting to panic a bit with the statementing paperwork i have been sent.
Still in the early stages. Have been advised to put examples of behaviours in etc.
Where do i start as my son is 11 now. Obviously don't want to mess it up.

We have got lots of medical reports and assessments etc to support us but would really like him to go to a special school i have been to visit which would appear to be almost made for him and it is near where we live. He has good and bad days. Some days he can be almost "normal" other days are hell on earth and he is unable to do anything independently. Do i pitch things in the middle or put the worse senarios. It feels like a betrayal somehow writing "bad things" about my son.

Any advise from the wise mums out there.

For me I'd be very liberal with the negatives but do put in a few positives because it would be unbelievable to think that there were no positives and personally I needed the positives to make me feel less of traitor tbh.

I would qualify any positive statements about his abilities with details of the support he needs to be able to achieve them but give most weight to his struggles and difficulties. Even though we instinctively want to give a balanced picture, remember that the statement writer will edit things to suit what they want to offer. I'm basing this on the fact that the first draft of our ds' statement picked out the one positive thing we highlighted about ds from our parental contribution and ignored the 5 plus pages of difficulties we described. They were still able to say they had taken our advice into consideration.

I agree it feels like a kind of betrayal to paint their difficulties bleakly. Think instead about your end goal: showing that the school you have in mind is the only one which can meet your ds' needs. Now you need to look up what the criteria are for admission to this school - they may well be available on your county council website - and do your best to show how they match your ds' profile of needs. (You may also need to show how other settings would fail him). Good luck.

Yes every positive should be countered with a levelling measure so for ds we put ds has a good knowledge of letters and numbers BUT it has become an obsessive interest that limits his willingness to explore and expand other play opportunities. Ds is able to run and climb as age appropriate BUT he has no sense of danger and a compulsion to escape.
Our ed psych was brilliant in ds's case so we got the provision he needed.

You need to think about why your son needs a statement.

What are his barriers to learning?
How would support overcome these?

So: X's inattention means that he frequently misses instructions and important information. so that he can understand what to do and achieve, he needs the information repeating and reinterpreting for him. without this support he is unable to keep up with his peers in both educational and social settings.

List your barriers and then think what are the consequences.

If a particular school looks promising, find out what they do that other schools don't and remember to include them as some of your DS's needs.

Eg, 'DS needs SALT, that is given in the context of the classroom, as he has difficulties in generalising therapies learnt in isolation,' if the SS has staff trained in applying speech therapy approaches.

Thank you so much everyone this has really given me some good ideas and the paperwork doesn't seem quite so bad. I will research things a little more before i dive in with both feet.