Help! Teacher doesn't understand.

[Dawndonna]

Dd2 is 15. She has been at the school for four years and is doing really well. She has AS, ADHD, ODD and Sensory Processing Disorder. Despite this, she has never been in trouble, in part because of the coping strategies we have in place and in part because the school are fantastic.
However, this year she has a new science teacher, he appears not to be able to handle her, she was given her second detention yesterday.
She should not have done the first detention. He claimed she was chatting, she was, but so were the rest of the class and she was singled out, the other pupils in the class backed up dd. Yesterday, she turned around to look at the clock. He questioned her about what she was doing and when she replied told her not to answer back, she was being rude! She has AS ffs, if questioned, she's going to answer back. Anyway, he kept her behind after the class had left, told her that she had no respect for him, pointing out that as he was talking, she was tapping her fingers on the table and not giving the appropriate facial expressions.

I had a word with him at parents evening last week and he assures me he has read her iep. However, he appears to know nothing about AS. This is incredibly frustrating, for dd and myself and she is the sort that will give in to the 'self fulfilling prophecy' tack. She's already at the point of 'right, if he wants trouble, I'll give it'. Trouble is, she needs the science gcses as she wants to be a vet.
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Thank you.

If it were me I'd be going in to see the senco, especially as you feel dd is being singled out, you've given him a chance to find out about your dd and he hasn't listened/hasn't understood. If the school are generally good then hopefully a quiet word from the senco will get things sorted.

I would also speak to the SENCO at school too. Am glad that this school are supportive but the support now needs more fine tuning so that this sort of situation does not recur.

Is DD on anything like School Action Plus?.

BTW I take it as read your DD does not have a Statement in place. That would help re school and its not too late to apply for one.

Am seeing the head, later. The Senco is an unbelievable piece of work and will hopefully be dismissed in the fairly near future. The guy needs to go on a course and learn about AS.
DD doesn't have a statement, she is on school action plus. Trouble here is, if you can read and write, no statement. Grrrrr!
I know the head will sort it, he's really good and on DDs side, just angry and frustrated with the teacher because I've already been in twice.
I have made it very clear that she will not be doing the detention today, she at least feels that Mum is on her side.

What hacks me off is that having taught, most of the staff know I'm on their side 99% of the time. It has, up until now worked in my favour, they know I'm not an unreasonable parent because I have supported them in decisions to do with DD, against DDs wishes, but I've done it knowing it's the right thing for her.

I thought she would be on SA plus; problem with SA plus is it is not legally binding and support offered on it can be limited in scope. Its really not worth the paper its written on.

Let us know how you get on with the Head. Crap SENCO is not good news for your DD; it will show in the school's overall attitude.

I would apply for a statement asap and ignore the naysayers. IPSEA's website is good www.ipsea.org.uk.

Re this comment below:-
"Trouble here is, if you can read and write, no statement. Grrrrr!"

Such blanket policy if truly applied by the LEA is totally unlawful. Is the above what you've been told, what is the basis for such comment?.

Thanks Attila the website looks interesting and I'll go through it all later.
Apart from the fact that yes, it's what we've been told, we tried for a statement years ago. The lovely ed psych asked dd2 lots of questions, have you got friends, yes. What does a friend mean? Someone who plays with you.
Just couldn't see that although she knows the answers, she can't apply them. The report said that she comes from a high achieving, middle class family and she should be geared to sports and that the parents should accept that not all children are academic. She had, at eleven, an IQ of 127. When I was scraped off the ceiling, we had that particular ed. psych disciplined. To be honest, I haven't tried since, due to having two damn good schools (primary and secondary). But you are right, maybe it's time. She's doing her gcses now and needs something in place for the odd occasion she comes across idiot teachers!
Thank you.

Speak to the SENCo asap.The staff should have been briefed about what to expect from a student with ASD. He may be one of those who think they are all the same (and she isn't like the last one I taught) or it may be that he just doesn't have enough knowledge full stop.

Sorry. Just read your comment about the SENCo. Can you ask for your LA ASD team to become involved?

My ds had a teacher like that when he was in mainstream - determined to give him a detention. The SEnco kept intervening for ds but this teacher seemed to be constantly irritated by ds. We just kept going to the SENCO each time she awarded him a detention for behaviour which was clearly as a result of his difficulties. I think the SENCO was as fed up of it as we were!

Lechildren
I too shall keep going in until it's sorted, or he or she is moved.
I'm a mardy and persistent cow when it comes to the kids.
As I said, just frustrating because I know everybody else in the school apart from this teacher and the senco is brilliant. She had a meltdown in french last week, teacher twigged really fast that it was too much noise, took her out, made her a cuppa, gave her some time, finished the lesson. Took her to her favourite safe space and then told the next teacher she wouldn't be in for the lesson. Next teacher took her work into safe area and topped up her tea!
Can't ask for more than that!