SENCO absent during review meetings......is this a problem?

[TICKLETUMBLE]

As a new comer to the special educational needs processes I am sometimes a little surprised at what happens. It may just be that the school is just useless at organising things...... The SENCO at my sons school is also the Head and a part time teacher (his teacher on Thurs and Fri). we have now had two meetings regarding IEP and behaviour support which the other class teacher attended and the outside advisor they called in to assess and provide strategies for him led. on both occasions we were not told there was a meeting until we collected son from school and were asked to stay behind for a meeting (so were not told any kind of review of progress was happeneing). I could not attend yesterday's meeting due to not knowing it was happening at all and it was fortunate that DH was collecting son and not nanny or child minder, so he could go to it an unexpected meeting totally unprepared. Am I being unreasonable to expect a bit of notice for these meetings....do they usually just have meetings and expect you to drop everything and turn up?? perhaps they are used to dealing with stay at home mums mostly?? As the SENCO writes the IEP , I think it very important that she hear the feedback and discussions directly and do not understand why she is not attending - is this common, or are we experiencing a very slap dash approach?

'Is this common or are we experiencing a slap dash approach?'

Both, unfortunately!

Depends a bit. If it's a review meeting, then yes, it should have the date set in advance and chance for you to make arrangements to be there and prepare yourself a bit. What might happen though, is the outside advisor happened to be there, and agreed to have a word with you directly rather than telling the teacher to then share with you later, as a 'spur of the moment' thing.
Presumably if the HT is also the SENCo and also a PT class teacher, this must be a pretty small school, so I wouldn't have a problem with the SENCo not necessarily being at the meeting. If the HT/SENCo had to be there, then the class teacher probably couldn't be covered as well, so you wouldn't have had the class teacher there, who presumably knows your ds better ?
You'd be absolutely sensible to go in and ask now if you can get a date in your diary for the nesxt meeting though.

It isn't good practice, that's for sure, but as Star said, it happens.
You could try writing to the Head and asking to be given notice of meetings, explaining your position.
You will learn as time goes on that you have to take a fairly robust approach. Keep on this board and you will learn a lot!

We're advised in writing by the senco of the upcoming IEP review about a month in advance, and if for some reason we can't make it, they are happy to reschedule it. The letter requests a response so that they will know if we are attending, which we always do. The SENCO is always present at the meeting, as is class teacher, head teacher, and sometimes (depending on particular issues we've wanted to discuss) the OT, SALT, and/or paed.

When my Ds was in mainstream the HT was the SENCO but attended every meeting....We had a lot of meetings!!

I was always given notice of meetings, everyone. As already suggested contact the school about this, maybe an informal email, just explain you work,use child care etc.

My Ds former head teacher was great but not always familiar with the system, before he transfered to a AS school, i was advising her!?

Good luck...

Thanks for the quick replies. Its not good to know its common to have slap dash approach, but good to be aware and can get on top of the situation...I am not going to be their favourite parent (already upset them a few times alreadY).

THis meeting was after school, so no cover for the other teacher was required. It is a small school (60 children only), so maybe I wont get so hung up on the Senco attending, as long as the Class teacher attends who we rate very highly. The advisor was there specifically to observe our son yesterday, and wanted to feed back to us her findings as she had last time....the school knew she would be there today, and just did not tell us. I was annoyed and disappointed as I wanted to discuss/challenge some of the assumptions and innaccuracies we feel are being made regarding son's abilities.

For example, I know he can hold a pencil/pen and write his name clearly, he knows how to write all the alphabet, he can write numbers clearly (as clearly as the other 5 year olds in any case) - thi sis at home with someone sat with him and nothing else is going on in the house...but if there are distractions of any kind he doesn't look at the paper when he is writing or colouring in and it all goes to pot ( have you tried writing your name without looking and see what you get!!)
They say he is not able to make meaningful marks on paper, needs exercises to build the muscle strength to hold a pencil and go back to basics with writing letters. These are the wrong solutions to a real problem in my opinion. THis approach in this instance wont do any harm, and will reinforce what he knows , but I dont want him to feel like he's going backwards or get bored by going back over things and lose interest in school which he loves at the moment.

Fortunately DH took the initiative and requested the date of the next review and meeting so that we can both attend in future.

Apparently he is coming on in leaps and bounds (which is good) but no real detail was given as to what exactly has improved...DH feels its a tick the box exercise and as long as they look like they are doing the right things that is good enough.
:(

Tickle, it is very hard to be 'liked' as a parent of a child with SNs. Some manage it but even they can have variable experiences from year to year. Your child will be effected by each year of his education whereas his current teacher will probably not remember his name in a couple of years. It is important to get it right.

'Coming on leaps and bounds' is an unhelpful thing to be told. What you need to know is where he WAS wrt measurable skill acquisition, where he is now, and where he will be in a specified period of time, plus the strategies that are to get him there'.

Well had some good news today....the HT will no longer be spreading herself too thin doing teaching after septemeber so son will no thave to suffer her bumbling, inconsistant and antagonistic approach to him. Yay!!! She is still HT and senco though, but her replacement is a very experienced teacher who has also need an early years advisor to schools. Excellent news.

At least we now have dates for next review meeting and can prepare and voice our conserns and thoughts about what is working and what is not next time, and have hopefully now have two teachers for his Year 1 that are fully competent and able to deal with attention deficit and the problems that go with that.

They should be giving you the date/times for meetings ahead of time, so you can respond. I would send them a letter stating that you need them to advise you in advance of any meetings in writing so that you may schedule to attend them, and that if anyone comes in to assess your child, you need prior notice as well, so that if you have any questions or need to meet with that person, you have time to arrange to be there.