SENCO support?

[PeachyClair]

it's Sam's parents evening tomorrow. I have booked a double slot (she didn't seem too keen but ten minutes is way not enough).

What I need to know is, vcan I insist Sam sees a Senco? There is one, she is the other class Teacher in his year, but he never has had any SENCO based support (he did at his last school, but this headmistress said she'd be the one to decide whether he needed it).

He's not 'severe' enough for a statement (at last at school, wish there was a home version!)

Oh visual timetable... does what it says on the tin, surely?

God poor you we had a terrible time with ds last school and he did hit out a few times but nothing like what you've had to deal with.

I think MeerkatsUnite is right - phone IPSEA for advice and ask the LEA to do a statutory assessment. My ds is doing really well at school at the moment but I know that this is only because of getting all the right support - including f/t 1:1 support. The school are great but having the statement makes all the difference.

If he has a dx of AS from a paed why are the school questioning it? Surely the paed is better qualified to make a dx than the school. My ds only has a provisional dx of AS and yet his school are happy to use AS strategies with him.

PC - the school should have an incident log in which they record anytime a child is injured in any way (other than small grazes etc.).

If a child has been injured enough for it to leave marks, then it certainly should have been recorded. Sometimes an incident log can be a really useful way of looking to see whether there is a pattern of behaviour. It could be that if things happen at lunchtime, the lunchtime supervisers are not passing on information to the class teacher. I'm certainly not trying to defend the class teacher, but it is also worth asking whether they have some system of communication between lunchtime supervisers and classteachers (we have a separate log book for urgent items which is kept in the staffroom).

I trained about 9 years ago, and unfortunately, we were only given one 2 hour lecture on behavioural problems and SEN was never even mentioned. Perhaps things have changed now, but I fear not.

Is there any kind of ASD support group in the area who would be willing to come in and talk to the classteacher, or, even better, to the whole staff. All the staff will presumably come into contact with your ds at playtime/lunchtime/ assembly etc and therefore, all need to be aware of any potential difficulties.

I'm fairly stunned that if there is already one child in the school with AS, that no information has been made available to staff already, regardless of the arrival of your ds. This is poor practice in my opinion.

Sorry PC - that was ridiculously long

It's the whole not a welsh Paed thing.

but TBH, I think they just don't believe us.

How dare they just not believe you The NAS will do training in schools, it would be perfect for an Inset Day, but I doubt they'd agree.