IEP & Rant about SENco!!!!!!!!!!

[littlelegsmum]

OK, I am not a happy bunny and need to get this off my chest.

PPS called me for an update on situation last week. I said DD is finally being referred to LASC and EP but said I hadn't been sent a copy of her (so called) IEP and I certainly hadn't signed anything! So lovely PPS lady called me last Thursday and said they'd spoke to SENco who was going to send it out to me.

Fast forward to today and still no sign of so-called IEP so I called PPS, who contacted school, who said they wold not be sending it out and she would "explain" it to me tomorrow.

Now is it me or are they being purposely unhelpful - they never wanted to refer DD in the first place until I complained to LEA about them and now they are being bloody awkward!!

I'm getting myself worked up about what I should ask them anyway, as they're not going to re-do anything she's already been tested on privately. . I suppose it's good that they're going to work with private reports but I don't even know what to ask for.

Sorry for the rant

Dear SeNCO,

Please can you have a copy of DS' IEP ready for me to collect from school at pick up tomorrow as I have not yet seen a copy. If I need any aspect of it explaining I will contact you.

Kind regards

Lgm

Thank you star

I needed it before tomorrow as I'm going into school, which she knew! I'm just really annoyed at her lack of professionalism and when she needs to confirm I'm going to be at meetings, the office staff phone me.

Thanks zzzzz, I don't even think there's even been one in place. There certainly wasn't at the last meeting, and they made it clear she wouldn't be getting one either. I've forced the issue and she doesn't like it.

Write the letter anyway. Meeting or not, you wanna have the piece of paper in your hands by tomorrow after school, even if she has to make one up in her lunch time!

I'll definitely still put it in writing that they said I would be sent it but still not received it. At least there's a paper trail.

Zzzzz great idea ;)

Why is it that there is always at least one idiot who finds it more appealing to be a complete arse hole than to assist us to help our Dc???

Request it from the board of governors(mentioning the failed attempts before) you'll find it will get to you faster than shit off a shovel :)

Thanks feelin. Couldn't have worded it better myself useless is over qualified and I'm not exactly expecting miracles!!

I have been given a copy of DD's IEP but how do I know if it's appropriate or not? There are 3 targets to be achieved.

Area of concern: Numeracy
Support by: 2 x TA's

Targets to be achieved

1. To divide a number by 10, 100 and 1000

1. To decide what information is relevant in a problem

1. To feel confident to talk through any worries she may have

Achievement Criteria

1. Answered correctly on 5 separate occasions

1. Achieved on 5 separate occasions

1. DD feels confident to talk through any worries

Possible resources/techniques

1. Verbal questions. Textbooks & worksheets. Base 10 blocks. Abacus. Numbers arranged as patterns

1. Verbal and written problems. Computer programmes

1. Time to talk with a named person

Possible class strategies

1. Make sure DD has understood the concept of place value and she records results correctly

1. Allocate time for DD to discuss the meaning of the problem

1. Making sure that DD knows who she can talk to and when during the day

Ideas for support / assistant

1. Encourage DD to observe the digits move to the right when divided by 10, 100 & 1000

1. Read through the task with DD. Help her decide what info is needed and what is known

1. Checking with DD regularly that she is fine. X to be named staff member

Outcome

Nothing in this section

Thanks zzzzz, there seems to be 'something' not quite there, IYKWIM but i'm not sure what. This looks just like what has happened - it's been thrown together

I'll check SMART details this afternoon. Hopefully, iit will highlight something i've missed.

I just wasn't sure if they had to refer to her S&L difficulties and dyslexia (so far)

Google ACE - they have guidance on IEPs.

Criteria 3 is subjective - can't be measured.

Only deals with numercy - don't accept bollocks about over-loading.

Interventions should follow Wave 1, 2, 3 etc. Google.

Bar too low - criteria for success - can make adequate progress on IEP target review despite overall inadequate progress. Sock, horror, ime interventions did not actually happen or there was a token effort 2 days before review. Will you see 'evidence' of progress, wrt success criteria, do they mean during the intervention or independent work in the classroom?

Should include objective measures of progress - ie standarised tests. Google Rose Review on dyslexia. Need at least ratio gain of 0.5 - ie six months per calendar year progress in reading and spelling. Test easy to administer and only takes a couple of minutes.

Time needs to be specified eg X mins per day/week, whole class, small group, 1:1, teacher, TA etc. How many hours per week?

That's brill keepon. Thanks, I'll distract the little darlings later and get some quotes ready for taking back to school.

What year group? What NC level is she at?

Multiply and divide numbers to 1000 by 10 and then 100 (whole-number answers), understanding the effect; relate to scaling up or down is the year 4 objective;

Use understanding of place value to multiply and divide whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100 or 1000 is the year 5 objective

So To divide a number by 10, 100 and 1000 sounds like more than the year 4 one, but less than the year 5 one, if you see what I mean. Using the West Sussex progression through the sublevels document (google for it), you can see on page 11 that "use understanding of place value to multiply and divide whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000" is judged to be a level 5c skill. Now of course you'll get discrepancies between different documents produced by different people, but is she already working at a high level 4?

They've stated her area of need is numeracy, yet you say she has S&L difficulties and dyslexia. I always though that the whole point of an IEP is to address a child's primary needs ie not numeracy. I see the second objective about deciding what information is relevant in a word problem as that's incredibly difficult for speech & language children (although the wording could be tweaked to make it SMARTer). Quite what they mean by "computer programmes" as a possible resource of technique??? If they're going to use a specific package, can you let me know what it is please as I'd love something to help children with this! What is the support assistant going to do to help her decide what is relevant? That could be considerably tightened - surely she needs a system to work her way through every time (highlight the key words/numbers, RUCSAC or whatever they think is best).

What do you think her areas of need are? Are these the most important ones for her?

What year group? What NC level is she at?

DD is Year 6 and working at numeracy 3a, writing 3b, reading 3a

So To divide a number by 10, 100 and 1000 sounds like more than the year 4 one, but less than the year 5 one, if you see what I mean. Using the West Sussex progression through the sublevels document (google for it), you can see on page 11 that "use understanding of place value to multiply and divide whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000" is judged to be a level 5c skill. Now of course you'll get discrepancies between different documents produced by different people, but is she already working at a high level 4?

No, definitely nowhere near that level

They've stated her area of need is numeracy, yet you say she has S&L difficulties and dyslexia. I always though that the whole point of an IEP is to address a child's primary needs ie not numeracy. I see the second objective about deciding what information is relevant in a word problem as that's incredibly difficult for speech & language children (although the wording could be tweaked to make it SMARTer). Quite what they mean by "computer programmes" as a possible resource of technique??? If they're going to use a specific package, can you let me know what it is please as I'd love something to help children with this! What is the support assistant going to do to help her decide what is relevant? That could be considerably tightened - surely she needs a system to work her way through every time (highlight the key words/numbers, RUCSAC or whatever they think is best).

What do you think her areas of need are? Are these the most important ones for her?

Well, they've said the area needed is based on one that she is actually better at, is confusing.

She has major issues with receptive & expressive (she needs visual clues to help) language - She's got an age equivalent ability of 6.5

Her memory is shocking - She's only on the 5th %ile

Spelling, word reading, sight word efficiency, phonemic decoding efficiency & total word reading are all things that have been highlighted to me, yet haven't appeared on the rubbish IEP

Does she see a SALT? What are her SALT targets? Can't they be put on her IEP? Or at least have her IEP targets linked to/based on her SALT targets. That's the way to avoid overloading her.

If she's in year 6 presumably she's changing schools in a few weeks? If so, what do you hope to get from this IEP as a secondary school will just write their own when she gets there (or is she in a middle school, in which case ignore this point). Perhaps your energies would be better spent getting to know the secondary SENCO. And post-SATS, not many year 6s will be doing serious, structured lessons now in the way that they do for the rest of the year. If I look in my diary, once I've taken out play rehearsals, induction days, sports days etc etc etc there really aren't that many days left to the end of term so having an IEP might not make that much difference.

I'm speechless that a child with major issues with receptive and expressive language and memory (visual? auditory?) could have an IEP that doesn't even mention them. You SALT needs to be your friend here, because he/she should be able to give you the things they're working on with her, and if they become IEP targets then the school are more likely to work on the things the SALT is asking them to.

Hi toomuch, do you think I should just sign this and send it back then? I was asking for advice based on me thinking this would follow her up to secondary school (sorry, very naive and not used to how these things work). I have made High school aware and apparently the SENco is off long term sick and the deputy head will be meeting with us.

DD was seeing a private SALT but we just couldn't afford to continue. However NHS SALT is due to go into school and see her. They are not going to re-do the assessment as they say it's a really good report, so not sure what they'll do with her?

Do I take all reports and ask them to put things in place for her starting there or will they lead me on this and?

I think DD has slipped through their net as she's only been in current school for year 6 and as the LEA have become involved and told the SENco that DD has to be referred based on private reports, they've just made a quick IEP. Like you say, I will focus all my attention on High School, especially now I know this isn't something that passes there with her

The whole point of standardised testing in these cases is because if the IEP is crap and does not deal with S&L and 'literacy' (check out the Wave interventions - computer programmes like Accelerwrite/read) at the end of the day it does not matter - crap interventions result in inadequate progress. I know it is cynical, but the school will do what it plans to do - measure it!

I'm a big believer in picking your battles so you might want to save your energies for building relationships with the secondary school. But before you give up on this one, check with the primary school/secondary school/parent partnership what the systems are for passing on information. I've dealt with year 6 transitions (to a greater or lesser extent) in 3 different primary schools and am struggling to think of times when more than a verbal message has been handed on (statemented children are different of course, but I'm assuming you haven't got a statement). The year 7 tutor comes into the school, talks to the year 6 teacher and notes down any important information, particularly about friendships, additional needs etc and then meets with the children as a group. SATS levels are passed on too, and perhaps a couple of lines about each child in a box on a pro forma. In my experience, secondary schools ignore much/most of what the primary schools say about children as they prefer to do their own testing at the start of the year and draw their own conclusions. But your area and schools might be completely different so don't rely on what I'm saying.

How much do you want to make life difficult for the primary school? It would stick in my throat to sign something that didn't meet my child's needs, so perhaps you could annotate it with suggestions for improvement and send it back, but not worry too much about chasing it up??