Please talk me down from potentially murdering the SENCO

[UnChartered]

i can't believe her latest pearl

6 weeks ago we had IEP review for DD, in light of SALT and OT reports/results/recommendations highlighting her sensory needs and language skills/gaps.

This is the SENCO who didn't know what vestibular meant

SENCO said an Ed Psych would not be called in to school until she had heard directly from DD's dxing Consultant - which she rc'd a week after meeting

anyhow, fastforward to today and I'm filling in the DLA form which asks for copy of any IEP. I don't have this, so called the SENCO to request one.

She hasn't updated the IEP since the meeting 6 weeks ago. Teachers are too busy writing end of term reports she says.

She also isn't using the social story the SALT wrote for DD re; toilets as there are (and i quote) 'quite enough things going on for DD right now' - at present DD is being prompted and accompanied 5/6 times a day to go to the toilet!

The she asked me what DLA was.. WTAF?

and before anyone says 'SENCOs are teachers with the responsibilty of SN' this SENCO does NOT have a class to teach. She is a SENCO 1st and foremost.

The head of DDs school isn't available right now and I'm ringing 2 other schools in a bit to make appts for a Bit of a Chat about possible place for Sept.

I wish I had some bricks that need breaking - I'm fucking well furious!

Sounds like you need to write a nice therapeutic email to the chair of governors outlining her inability to follow basic legal and organisational policies and procedures relevant to her job.

Less stressful for you than standing trial, and much more slowly painful and tortuous for Madam Incompetent Bitchface...

What an imbecile!! She could at least pretend that she isn't entirely incompetent. If you request the statutory assessment then an ed psych can come and assess DD however you know that things with this bloody woman are never going to improve she will always be an imbecile so do the right thing and get DD into a school with competent teachers who understand her needs and are willing to help..

Thanks all

have made an appt with AN Other school which has designated provision for pupils with language and communication issues - this is sadly over-subscribed.

have also called Parent Partnership who have advised I make an official complaint to the Governors, but i'm not really sure what this will do. I've been struggling to communicate with this person for almost a year now and school is now an academy.

Arses.

An Academy? Easy! Hit them in the pocket!

thing is, it's looking more and more like SENCO is taking and using information personally.

she thinks i'm a neurotic parent whose DD is a bit quirky and i'm making the whole ASD thing up (she actually used the words 'there are a lot more severely autistic children in school you know' today too) so everything is questioned/dissected and dimissed as such.

she has a 'thing' about me, and is unable to push that aside and act in a professional way.

i can't take any more of this - i'm looking for a new school. DD is only in YR, she'll cope

far better to move to a school that will understand her than to stay in a place where staff are trying their best to discredit her dx, surely?

I almost started another thread on the subject of 'Is my child's medical records any business of the SENCO?'

but thought here was probably appropraite.

I really fail to see why SENCO should be involved/asking for Paed dx info. Personal medical recirds are none of her effin business. The COp even states that schools should support (observed) behaviour and not provide stereotypical support for a particular dx. Same for the Ed Pysch - he/she doesn't need to see medical info either. they should be able to suggest strategies based on observered behaviour / assessments.

I am so glad DS is 23 and not at school any longer as I would have told that SENCO to fuck off

Ok, you wanted talking down so here goes:
Basic competence is actually asking a lot.

A senco needs to be able to relate to parents as competent adults. She needs to understand they are her appraisers, and to respect them as senior colleagues and specialist advisers wrt their dc's needs. This is hard for someone trained and experienced in bossing people about (albeit younger ones) they learn only what she deems important.

She has to lose the painfully acquired strategies which work on 85% of children and figure out individual ones on the hoof. She needs a whole new vocabulary and a totally different understanding of children, education, and disability.

The quality of a senco reflects the value a school puts on its sen pupils. A keen, well-organised, insatiably curious, talented teacher in one school will become the senco. In another, she is made numeracy lead, and the teacher they want to get rid of is shifted to sen. The valued senco has the head's ear, comes to senior management and finance meetings and has some hours of admin support. The other is given her salary, and a badly photocopied out-of-date job description.

Then she gets a few days training by a fairly clueless LEA, most of which is misinformation designed to make sure she doesn't blow the budget by getting comprehensive, watertight statements for her pupils.

She is isolated by her colleagues because the children she tries to support are stigmatised. If she ignores this and does well, her professional achievements are ignored and she is criticised for encouraging sharp-elbowed parents of children who are 'just badly behaved, ought to be in a special school or are basically too stupid to learn'.

maria your very detailed and impartial posts (thank you) have raised even more doubts and questions for me

DDs days at her 'outstanding' school are numbered.

i have no confidence in this SENCO, and as she reminded me at the last meeting she's going to follow DD all the way through her time there.

i'm very sad about this, but i cannot see any amount of complaints and talking will change her practice.

Hi unchartered. Yep, when provision is truly dreadful, a crap senco is probably a symptom rather than the cause.

and just to add insult to injury, SENCO has lied about using the social story - she says today it's because there isn't anyone available to do it with her

still, got 2 (possibly) 3 schools to look at next week, there must be something better out of those

Just remember to clean up after yourself!

no, no... the slow painful torture of coplaining about her competency to the governors... once you are assured of a get out to another school of course.

oh we'll get another place - there are schools queing up to discredit DDs current one

It funny reading these stories of sencos...I have never (unless in a specialist school) come across a decent, ethical Senco that has the childs needs at heart.

untill reading some of these threads I really thought I was alone in my anger and hatred for my Senco, especially as my sons Camhs therapist has blamed me for all the schools failings.

I hope you got things sorted x