Need some advice on appeal letter

[BabeRuthless]

Hi, wonder if anyone can give some guidance here. Ds has dx of autism & school (who have been brilliant) have applied for half day support. This has been turned down by the panel on the basis that there's already some support which the school have put in place & also they want to collect further reports & do more assesments of his needs.

We plan to appeal but as its the holidays I haven't been able to get any advice from the school. What do I put in my appeal letter? Do I just tell them that I wish to appeal or do I list the reasons why I think ds needs the statement?

Feeling a bit out of my depth here so any advice is much appreciated!

when you say turned down by the panel - have you applied for a statement or is it that the school have just asked for more help? oh just re read it and you say reasons for statement. if you have applied for a statement and they have refused then you should have a letter which gives you a right to appeal to send tribunal so will need the form from them - if it is just that the panel have refused extra help then that might be more tricky in the sense will be hard for them to just give him extra help at that level without a satement - half days means you are talking about 20 hours per week. seems to be at the moment lea are refusing most things as the new green paper will become law now in 2014 so if you do want a statement i suggest you do appeal or if you have not applied , apply asap. sounds like the lea are delaying for time hoping you dont realise that changes are coming in 2014

Don't trust school advice anyway, they probably don't know much more than you. Call contact a family education helpline to start with and take it from there. And keep posting. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies, some really good tips there. I'll definitely give that helpline a ring. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all the moment.