Going Gp to try and get ds signed off of school in 30 minutes

[claw4]

any advice?

Is it difficult to get gp to agree to this?

I am taking pictures of the injuries ds has caused himself due to anxiety. I have report from CAMHS saying its school related.

Anything else i should take?

Just wanted to wish you luck and I hope your GP listens to you x

Thanks Wassup

Wishing you luck claw.

I did this with ds1 a couple of years ago. Once the GP had heard about what he was going through and the physical symptoms (in his case, constant diarrhoea and stomach cramps, migraines, reflux and vomiting) she signed him off straight away. She signed him off for a week, just prior to a two week holiday, so he got three weeks at home in all. I think she would have extended it if I had taken him back, but at the time I felt if we kept him off any longer we'd never get him back into school and I had the EP crisis team coming in to do observations anyway, so he needed to be there.

She actually did a referral for CAMHS at the same time, but he was refused on the grounds that his symptoms were ASD related, rather than straight mental-health. All CAMHS did was send us a leaflet for a local ASD support group and social club for children - that only took children who were five years older than ds was at the time.

Hope you get a sympathetic and supportive GP. Good luck. x

Back from GP, he did ask whether ds still had autism, so understanding of autism, not great!

But he read the CAMHS report, looked at the pictures and has written a letter along the lines of school environment too stressful, ds engaging in self injurious behaviour resulting from school relating anxiety as per CAMHS report and he has advised ds does not attend school until he has the direction of a statement.

hope it went well - probably I have seen this too late to wish you luck.
Do let us know how it went.

Feels like such a relief and quite daunting at the same time.

What is my next step with regarding to home ed? what is ds entitled to?

Ah claw, your poor DS :(

Unfortunately, I don't have experience (as you're usually advising me) but didn't want to read and run.

Hopefully, this will give the appropriate people a big fat kick up the ass!!

Good luck

Glad he listened and signed him off Claw. I would go to the MN Home Ed section and ask what he's entitled to and how to get started. There are some really experienced home edders over there, some of whom have children who have ASD.

HE Special is a useful site for contacts and ideas as well.

This is the NAS webpage on home edding.

Thanks Littlegem, Im expecting a lot of pressure, from a lot of people, im going to have to prepare and baton down the hatches.

I asked ds if he would like me to take pictures of his sores or whether he would prefer to show the GP, he opted for me taking pictures and showing them to the GP.

I told him after seeing the pictures the GP had said that he should not go to school and needed time at home to recover. He jumped with joy.

He is currently sat here doing work books and making a register for me to call every morning, to make sure he is here!

Shame you didn't get the jumping for joy on camera.

How cruel is the system that I too am jumping for joy that your GP signed off your small boy for anxiety. Thank fuck you have someone listening.

Thanks Moose, i will have a look at those.

Myglad, if ds gets a statement, then i will look at schools, if he doesnt i will home ed. Ds desperately wants to be social and interact with other kids, i would like to encourage that, but just not under the current circumstances.

Star it is so obvious just how much ds relies on routine and doesnt like change, he is currently making himself a timetable of exactly what his day should include, it is identical to his school day, apart from in school he doesnt even get a bloody timetable, he is doing it from memory.

He wants me to call a register everyday, then do literacy, then numeracy, then fruit time etc. He even wants me to come and collect him!

So im going to have focus on following his school routine and make gradual changes to his timetable to avoid causing him too much stress, due to the change.

Claw, it's misguided to say the least that children need to go to school to socialise, whatever daft LAs say.

There is so much available outside school and at his age even the local park around 3:30 will provide opportunities to negotiate on the roundabout. If he takes a unique and interesting toy even better.

You must be very relieved that the GP took you seriously.
(But does he still have autism )
Glad your DS is happy. I hope this means the start of a much more relaxed summer for you now.

Thats true Star, ds attends 'social club' once a week with kids of his own age and he is now running around in the garden with his older brother, playing with the dog and a football.

Alison school do not know yet, i have to pick the letter up from dr's in the morning. Seen as they think that i am responsible for ds's anxiety, i am expecting for them to try and make things difficult for me.

i did this last week - my gp signed my 8 year old off for a week - he went back in yesterday but is now only in school mornings only as only a few weeks to the end of term and afternoons seemed to be the most stressfull. we have a statement but the school placement is wrong and weve had an emergency review - the school have put it in writing that they can no longer meet his needs so a new school placement needed for sept - we are pushing for special school as we had a private ot report done and this was the recommendation as well plus school feel special school is whats needed - lea are now dragging their heels and as it stands there is no hope of anything being sorted for sept so he will be out of school. keep fighting for the statement - with the reports you are getting im sure that you will be fine

Just read your post Claw glad your Gp listened to you and now hopefully your Ds can try to relax. it has come to this for him though as my ds suffers from anxiety too. Shame on your school for being so unsupportive and accusing!
Hope he responds well to HE and good luck to you too.

Claw, am really sorry that the LEA and school are still putting you and DS through this.

Glad your GP understood and signed DS off. You have the evidence to back you up, keep strong. x

Claw

DS was signed of so I do have experience of this.

You need to contact the LA. All LAs are structured differently (it seems) but in our area it's the EOTAS service you would need to speak to (Education Other Than At School). They must send him a home tutor for a minimum of 5 hours per week. It will take time to set this up. Meanwhile school should be supplying him with work he can do at home. You will need to keep on at the LA constantly to get the right level of home tuition.

Don't fall for the 'we have a nice little safe unit he can attend instead of school blah blah'. That's a PRU and you would not want him there.

Best wishes

Thank goodness your GP listened, I feel so much better that your ds is not going back to that school atm as well xxx

That is great I am so glad the pressure is off your DS for the time being :)

And that is a good letter the dr is writing!

If they mention the world "elective" Home Edding (or EHE) make sure you say no that is not your decision. The doctor has agreed he should be signed off from school pending a suitable statement being put in place for him.

That way the school is still responsible to have him on their register and supply work etc which he can do. If you agree to Elective Home Ed then the school is relinquished of all responsibility.

Thank you everyone for all your advice. I will pick up letter tomorrow from dr's and hopefully my laptop will be fixed by then too and i can get writing letters.

Its going to be difficult to start with as ds wants to follow a very rigid timetable which he has created, which doesnt leave me much time to deal with appeal etc, but we will manage and its worth it.

Claw so glad the GP listened.
LGO did a report 'out of school out of mind' which set out expectation that home tuition should be full-time so 5 hours is the minimum and only suitable for a child if their medical condition stops them being able to manage more.
Fulltime was defined in a Circular (referred to in the report) which suggested 23-25 hours etc depending on age.
The only problem is Michael Gove repealed this circular a few weeks ago saying there as now no definition of full-time school as he wanted schools to be free to decide for themselves (his idea being free schools could dream up their own timetables)
David Woole a barrister blogged about this on his anti-academcy blog 'a can of worms'. He pointed out that this circular gave crucial protection to children with SEN who were out of school.
Anyway the LA may not be as informed so I would waive the LGO report at them and ask for whatever level of home tuition you think is suitable - but the starting point should be a full-time education. They may not know the circular has been consign dot the waste bin
Of course there may be tactical reasons not to push this - e.g. if they push you to PRU etc - but as always its good to know your rights as a starting point of negotiation. But don't feel you have to accept 5 hours.
There may also be internet / online schools - not sure if these cover primary but someone on here will know.
If there is a local HE group that can provide social opportunities - often they do meet ups and I am sure some of the other HE children will be equally quirky.
Am sure having some control back over your life will make things a lot better. Its the lack of control that causes much of the stress I find.

wolfe not woole!
here