Very bad IEP review. HT has no sympathy

[saraz]

Hi everybody. I'm new to mums net. First timer so plz ignore any mistakes. Last week i went to my sons IEP review. My son has ADHD and has been statemented. His teacher is also the school SENCO. I arrived exactly on time but no sign of senco or his TA. I waited 15 mins outside the room where i was told to wait and then phoned the school reception from my mobile. They said she is on her way now. She comes another 5 mins late with no evidence of my child's work and still no sign of the t.a.

She tells me the t.a has gone to swimming with another class. She was huffing and puffing and quickly writes down his last targets and tell me he still hasn't achieved them so what does she want me to do? I said what ever you think is best and she says ok then we still keep the old targets.

She shows me another child's yr5 work and says my son is really struggling. This the kind of work my child should be doing. ( How can he? His special needs his got learning difficulties). Then some pupils just walk in for a lesson and she tells them to get out and tells me well that's it! I can go. On the way out she tells me to wait outside another classroom and starts to talk to another teacher. By this time I was so upset and was in tears :(. I left the school crying.

Next day I spoke to the HT and got no sympathy. Instead I got well your child cannot do anything on his own he needs support all the time. Just have another meeting with his teacher and why are you telling me this. You should be talking to the SENCO. I was devastated. Is this the way to talk to a parent who is concerned about why their child is not making progress and the way the SENCO treated them.

I want my child out of that school as soon as possible. Does anyone know what the process is and how long could it take to have school changed. My child is in a mainstream school and I want him to go to another mainstream school. Any ideas please reply. Thanks

Are you happy with the statement provision - if not that may need looking at and idea to try and do with a school move if possible. I presume the current school is the one named on the statement? I'm not sure how you stand with changing schools with a statement already in place, so you maybe should call someone like IPSEA for advice about this. I would start looking at other local schools and going to visit them and meet the HT and SENCO to see if you feel they will be better suited to his needs. If you can get the statement ammended there should be no problems getting a place, but if that can't be done easily (you may have to prove why a new school can meet his needs when the current one cant) you may have to rely on a place being available meantime pending any appeal.

Thank you for your reply. Up to last year he used to get full time t.a support. The school changed that last year saying to me that your son is too dependent on the t.a. Now he only gets support in the morning. His statement does say the name of his current school. It doesn't say how many hours but it says adult support should be given to him with all his school work. On one hand the school says he cant do anything by himself and on the other they are saying he is too dependant on his t.a. I have looked on the websites of other local schools in the area, and will make appointments to meet the senco once the school starts again. The only thing I can say to LEA is that his support has been taken away and he has made no progress in the last year at all. When he was in year 1 he was at level one. He is in year 5 and he is still on level one. I hope that will convince them to change his school. I can prove all this with his reports and other professionals that have been coming down to see him at school.

It sounds to me like the statement is not worded well and you need to get that changed to quantify provision clearly. IPSEA are also good at helping with this sort of thing too so definitely get onto them - though they may well be closed over Xmas time. Be warned too they can be hard to get through to - be persistant and just keep trying. All their details of when they are available will be on their website. If at all possible I would look to get the whole statement re-written and a different school named on it, once you know where you would like him to attend. Keep a diary at this point of everything that happens and anything the school tell you ask them to put in writing, or write to them to confirm what has been discussed so you leave a paper trail of proof of his issues and their failings to deal with it.

Hello Saraz, no wonder you feel upset. If your son did not achieve his IEP targets then they need to be broken down into smaller steps. Hopefully the SENCO is basing the targets on advice from specialist outside agencies e.g. SLT? You could contact your Parent Partnership Officer? Awful stuff, you have my sympathy.

Hi Saraz,

Sorry you are feeling so upset - I am not surprised in view of the way you have been treated.

It seems that the HT has been dismissive of your concerns - she is right that you should ask for another meeting with his teacher/senco but she should not have given tou the impression that you are bothering her unnecessarily . Unfortunately, I have found that sometimes you have to show that you will not go away unless and until your concerns are properly handled before the school takes you seriously.

It might be a good idea to write a letter to the HT and cc the Senco detailing what happened, and what your concerns are etc. You might want to bring up the points they brought up re: his needing support all the time and how that conflicts with the reduction of hours. Ask what they intend to do wrt the conflict between the reduction and his need for support. Say why you want another meeting. I find it is a good idea to number your concerns as if there are too many, they tend to just deal with a couple of easy ones and give the impression of dealing with all the issues. If the situation does not improve, then you might want to copy the chair of governors and/or the sen governors in your next correspondence. Writing tends to make people take the situation more seriously - especially if you involve outsiders. You also want to start creating a paper trial.

The IEPs - are you happy with them? They should be SMART (Specifc, Measurable, Achieveable, Relevant and Time-bound. Have a look at www.sossen.org.uk/reports/IEP.pdf for examples of good IEPs.

Remember that you might need to use this letter to support your request to the LA (or even Sendist) for more hours of support, especially as your ds is not making adequate progress.

Changing schools - I was told that if you have not been to tribunal and they did not rule on Part 4, it would be easier to change schools. Just write to the LA and ask them to amend the statement. They will have to make enquiries of the school as to whether the school is appropriate and can take the child but I think there are limited grounds for refusal.

Agree with above advice on calling Parent Partnership and maybe bringing them in for future meetings. It helps to have someone else on your side.

Sorry to hear that the school are being unsupportive, it does sound unhelpful for the teacher to be telling you he is behind without giving more info than the IEP targets about what can be done to improve his learning. Agree with the other ladies about looking at getting the statement improved - I would start looking ahead to transition to high school now, given how long it can take to get anything done. I would imagine moving to another m/s school would be reasonably straightforward, it might be worth looking at the ofsted reports of other local schools to get a feel for how they deal with kids with SEN (obviously ofsted is only a snapshot, but it's a starting point). Do you get the chance to talk to other parents with ADHD locally, it can be very isolating (understatement) being a parent to a kid with SN.

Sorry you have been treated so horribly by the HT and teach/senco. :(

Dont let them reduce you to tears. Use that upset you give you the boost to stick to your guns and march back in there after writing a good letter like trying said :) Its really important to have as big a paper trail as possilbe. If you have any meetings, when you get home email a sort of minutes to the head/senco putting clearly in it that it is just to confirm that you understood all that has been discused that particular day.

Time to get stroppy I am afraid to stop them walking all over you and they will given the chance by the looks of it.

Next time HT says "why are you bothering me?" answer swiftly back saying "are you not in charge of this school and your staff?" and keep a straight face with it.

When you have a meeting be strong and dont budge but point out that you consider your son is failing his IEP and still on level 1 four years later is totally due to the fact THEY have failed him. By removing his support and unless he only does work in the mornings they have failed to meet his statement. Furthermore perhaps it is about time they all meet up and review THEIR learning stratagies as obviously what they are doing so far are not helping one bit!

Say it firmly and calmly and KEEP the ball in their court to do something about it. You shouldnt be in tears and subjected to seeing other childrens work like that. Just always remember you havent failed him THEY have. :)

Good luck x

Also get a photocopy of his IEP and his new IEP to show that they are not bothered to alter it.

Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much for every body's support and advice. I have not been on the net for a few days so didn't get a chance to reply to any ones comments. All of your comments are so supportive and brilliant.. I now feel that I have lots of people on my side. I'm not alone. The head teacher made me feel like I'm making all this up and just making a fuss for no reason. She made me feel like my son is dumb so why am i bothering to discuss him. Once again thank you for everyone's support. I have contacted parent parternership and they advised me write to lea. I have written to lea and now waiting for their reply. I explained everything and told them i am just not happy with the school and sent evidence of my child s progress from reception till now. Hopefully they will get back to me after the holidays. I will also take everones advice and stand up to the school. I think the head knows im not the argumentative type of person so she just gave me attitude. I will update everone once i hear from the lea. I will also be arranging a meeting with the senco of the school i want my child to go to. I have checked their website and its a brillinat school. One of the top 12 in the country. I wish i sent my son there first. Its not very far from the current school. Thanks again all, and i hope you all have a very very happy new year. :)

Glad you are feeling more positive and by no means are you alone :)

Sounds like you have got a lot in motion! The new school sounds promising I hope the senco is nice :)

Good for you and good luck! xx

I never get a copy of the IEP. I just get told what his targets are. I told the ht that aswell and she looked at me as if I'm lieing. She says how come you didn't get one? Everone else gets one! I said i don't know but i didn't! I used to couple of years ago but not since they had this new SENCO. She's just all over the place. The sad thing is that she is also my sons class teacher. I expected a lot more from her! I hope she doesn't pick on my son for complaining to the head teacher about her. I'm really worried about that too, because she is just not professional. I have spoke to other parents in the holidays and they have the same views about the school. I'm surprised they passed their Ofsted. One parent told me that her child got hit on the head with a book by the deputy head. I'm just concerned more about my sons safety than anything else now. I heard quite a few children have left the school. Once again Thank you everyone for your great support!

I herd the new school SENCO is excellent. I now a family member who's children go there. Just hope we can change schools asap.

I herd the new school SENCO is excellent. I now a family member who's children go there. Just hope we can change schools asap.

Saraz - glad you are feeling better and more optimistic.

It is dreadful to think that the deputy head has hit a child on the head with a book. Did your friend write to the school and cc the governors? I always wondered how the ht of my child's school got away with slapping a child and finally asked a friend who was a governor. She, the governor, said that the governors knew nothing about it but if it was reported, something would have been done. I think the teaching ethos and the standard of behaviour etc are usually set by the example of the HT and her senior team.

Sorry that is an aside.

IEP - do write/e-mail the SENCO saying that you do not have any copies of the IEPs and could she send them to you. Copy in the head. You input should have been recorded on them (in theory) and also you should have signed and dated them. If they are not there, it does not prove that you were not given a copy but will certainly lend weight to what you said. When we refused to sign ours, it was noted on the IEP itself.

Picking on your son - I used to worry about that but found out in my case that the more queries I made, the more professional they were in their dealings with me. If your son says xxx has happened, you email and said you were told this and may you clarify what had happened. If your son is very unhappy and starts school refusing, email and state the situation and ask if they know why it is so. Don't be afraid to copy in the governors (particularly the Chair and the SEN) if you are not getting the response you want. Create a paper trial and show that you are interested and want to know and help with your ds's situations !

Happy New Year and hope you manage to move your ds to the new school soon

Thank you for your support. I will e-mail the Senco to ask for copies of the IEPs. I did not get to speak to my friend about what exactly happened about the complain. As we were texing to each other and did not get the full story. She did say she complained but i don't know what exactly happened. I also have a friend who is a school governor, i will raise my issues with her as well. This all happened in the last week of holidays so i didn't get to speak to all my friends. I will write again once i hear from the lea. (hopefully soon).
Happy new year to you too.