Uninterested SENCO

[fivegomadindorset]

Had a meeting this evening with DD's school Senco. DD recently diagnosed with borderline Aspergers and a possible gender identity disorder. The child psych has recommended that ed psych gets involved now to get a heads up if the gender disorder continues and can help with DD and children in her class, all SENCO seemed interested in was that DD is fine academically. I know she is fine academically but concerned taht I have to send her in with clean spare clothes everyday just incase has somehow escaped them, and that she does strugle socially, and this doesn't appear on the form anywhere.

It seems to be common that SENCos and schools think of SEN as being academic only, and forget that Aspergers affects those with average to high IQ, but can be very disabling. Dig out the SEN code of practice (google) and check for social and interaction issues. My DS has a statement, but has average IQ. SEN isn't just for academic problems!

SEN COP link on right hand side of page.

Hi five my dds senco was nightmare! She has ADHD and when I asked for support he looked shocked and said 'she excels at reading' errrrr yes but her social skills won't get her far in life!! Thankfully her new school that she starts in sept are far more clued up! It seems in some schools unless your child can't read or do Maths they don't want to know sadly

Adequate progress is the key. If DD isnt making adequate progress in social aspects, you can argue for a statement on those grounds alone.

My DD1 is in Y2 with 3s in every area except language - she has HFA. She just got a statement in March - we're still arguing over the wording, but it is purely for social and language targets - not academic.

Be prepared to argue argue argue. The best thing that happened to us regarding SENCOs was for DD1 to get out of infants, sadly. The senco there was just crap. But as she openly admitted to me yesterday, she's (young) had a learning experience these last 4 years with DD1 in her school too - and they've not always gotten it right.

I was so pleased to hear her admit that!!

OMG sounds just like my DD SENCO!!! As far as she is concerned because DD is doing OK academically she doesn't need any extra support. We had a meeting last week because DD is having a hard time with friends at the moment and she has become very withdrawn and upset and has the perception that she is hated. Despite her dx she was not even on School Action. But she is now. We had to argue our case and we came up with ALL the strategies that the school has now put into place. It makes me SO CROSS that schools do not take into consideration how much our DC struggle on a daily basis with social and sensory issues, and are reactive rather than proactive when it comes to their needs.

'reactive rather than proactive'
You've hit the nail on the head there! I have said this to the school until I'm blue in the face and in various complaint letters, but they won't admit it. I've found that school won't do anything until they really have to. I was told that we wouldn't get ds a sm but we did (22 hours). Senco then said they couldn't do any strategies until Sats were over which would have been 7 months after sm was finalised . We have had to really complain and still nothing effective has been done. So glad that ds is leaving and going to a school where Senco is on the ball.

She won't get a statement, just needs a bit of support in her social skills which needs to come from school as well, i.e. what is appropriate in a friendship, she has friends but sometimes she can behave oddly which makes them back off.

ask pointblank if they do any social skills support like a lunchtime social skills/conversation group or circle of friends etc, these seem to be quite standard interventions that schools use.

I have an uninterested senco, for a recently diagnosed AS Ds1(7). Provide nothing other than some emotional literacy. MN'ers frequently tell me that I will need to change schools, because a senco and a headteacher never change. And sadly, I think we all know that this is indeed true.

"procactive rather than reactive" I used this phrase with SENCO and HT, I requested a home school diary and was told she didn't have time to fill one in and what exactly would I want her to write in it. She is also his class teacher.

At the beginning of the year she was like well just wait and see (we have no dx yet) after a year of teaching him she now has changed her tune.

The home school diary was requested during his first IEP meeting, two months, it has been sent home three times

*ago

my daughter has Aspergers and needs help every day navigating/negotiating social situations. the school SENCO has been rubbish. DD was getting badly bullied all of last year and at one point the SENCO rang me to say she'd gone for someone in breakfast club with a knife because they had been tormenting her so badly and told me: "She brings it on herself." at this point i decided to take matters into my own hands. had meeting with headteacher and class teacher, then helped DD do a 'show and tell' with the class about Aspergers. The teachers got it, the kids got it and life got a lot easier. We're hugely helped by the fact that DD's teacher is a superstar and has gone to great lengths to look after her, sorted out IEP and the rest (DD doesn't have a statement - we are still fighting that front). in the end we just had to circumvent the SENCO.