Views on this please before I send e-mail to school

[Stillfighting]

Ds (11) probable AS is only in school part-time at the moment (statement hours). He does do one full day a week and came home today all excited about a 'trip' he was going on and said he was the only one from school going . Apparently one of the SEN Team told him that there is a girls dance competition in a couple of weeks but a TA is needed to go along. He was told that the school wants his TA 'Miss X' to attend but she can't go if he doesn't go too!.They've said he can take photos and then write a report about it.
Dh and I are rather annoyed because :

1. She is employed to support him in his learning and we are concerned that he is not in school enough as it is.

2.His TA helped out on an international day a couple of weeks ago (again on his full day) and he spent the day taking photo's then rather than attending lessons. 3.He is now all excited about a day off even though we haven't agreed to this. 4.I think he will get bored watching girls dance all day long and then require supervision.

1. On his full day he has school dinners and no doubt we will have to provide a packed lunch or something.

I am assuming that he can't go if we don't sign the consent form but am concerned that if he does go into school we will get a phone call early on to take him home following an incident or suchlike. We could obviously agree to this visit with the proviso they make up the whole day he's missed across the rest of the week but not sure they would do this. Any views on this and the legalities would be appreciated. Thanks, fighting.

I think you definitely need to send an email if for no other reason than to demonstrate that you are noticing what is going on. Whatever the needs of the school, the priority should be your son's needs, not 'international day' or 'dance competition day', unless your son is actually very interested in dancing or has a huge personal interest in the culture of other countries.

I am not sure of the legality of the situation, but would hope that your son's right to an education outweighs some girls' right to go dancing?

Is he up to speed academically? If he is then I guess a one day jolly isn't the end of the world. But I agree you need to remind school of their responsibility to tour son, so yes send an email along those lines.

Definitely email them.

My ds aged 11 has 26 hrs TA but it's on the understanding, there are 3 ladies in the mix. The TA isn't HIS so, he doesn't have sole rights to anyone's time. He has asd (HF).

I guess if your son is now looking forward tout, then it'd be tough changing the arrangement but they ought to have consulted you, before speaking to him. And if you'd said, "that's not really appropriate" they have had to cover your son's statement hours some other way.

Wrong, IMO.