Special needs register

[JustPondering]

My DS has I feel special needs, but he is not on the special needs register at his current school. At his old school he was on the register but when he moved to his new school his teacher didn't put him on the register, she also said she didn't think he needed to go back to speech therapy as she could understand most of what he said.

I took him to speech therapy regardless and he has problems with clusters, receptive language, explaining things, emotional and social use of language and things like turn taking in conversations, listening etc. He is having further assessments, further social communication groups and has been referred back to a peadiatrician. Does his teacher have a duty to put him on the special needs register and will this actually help in any way. He has a diagnosis of phonological disorder and mild/moderate receptive and expressive language delay.

He has problems with reading especially phonics at school and he also has problems with Maths. He also has problems staying focused on his work. He has just entered year 1 at school and is the oldest in his class.

I don't know whether I should speak to his teacher and ask why he is not on the special needs register. I am not sure what difference if any it would make.

I would say that he should be on the SEN register but I think you should make an appointment with the SENCO at your Ds's school and speak to her. His old school should have sent records, iep's and any other info to the new school.

The teacher is not qualified to judge whether he needs speech therapy, it is not her call and she shouldnt be making it!

Good luck

He has a new teacher now he has moved up to year 1 thankfully! His old teacher is actually the SENCO at his school.

I don't know if reports and ieps were sent, but his current teacher is aware of his disorder so i guess they must have. He also used to have a CAF report as his teacher and SENCO at his old school thought it was necessary if there was ever a need for a statement to show what they had been doing.

I find it quite shocking that his teacher who is the SENCO said he doesn't need speech therapy and it turns out he has many speech and language problems. I think I will ask for an appointment with her when i drop DS of at school tomorrow, she should have received the recent reports from speech therapy and social skills sessions.

Does it help being on the SEN register? I just don't understand why he isn't on it at the moment when he has special needs.

He has only been at this new school since march.

Teachers are not clinical diagnosticians, and good teachers are always open to learning about SN's they may not have personally experienced before.

If you are in England he should automatically be on the SEN register at "School Action Plus" status, due to the outside intervention of SALT.

This alone gives you the right to request a statement, which I suggest you do, in order to trigger and EP visit to the school in a timely manner. If the SENCO doesn't even recognise that he has special needs, she can't possibly begin to meet any support needs he may have.

You do not need to ask anyones permission to apply for a statement. Doing so will however FORCE the school to explicitly state how they are currently supporting your child's needs. I have no idea whether you'll actually get a statement btw, but feel strongly that one letter to the LA, could save you potentially years of being messed about by this school as making an application sends a strong message that you at least are really serious about your child's education & a caring parent. (imho lazy or non-sympathetic schools rely on parental apathy to get away with far too much sometimes)

The IPSEA website gives model letter examples for statement applications.

I will definately ask to speak to her tomorrow, I didn't know that he automatically should be put on the register, I did ask her when he started in his new class whether she was going to put him on the register and she just said no as he was working at the same level as some of the other boys in his class, although how she could know that after a couple of weeks I don't know.

The difference between his old school and his new one is just massive, his new school is not very good to be honest looking at OFSTED reports but it was the only school in the area with a place for him.

His teacher sounds like a food.

My son has Aspergers. He is articulate with a good vocabulary. He has speech therapy in relation to his social communication difficulties and verbal/non verbal communication.

He's just started at secondary high school and they have and asd unit attachment they can access, if the child needs it.

"like a FOOL"

www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DCSF-00639-2008#downloadableparts

Take the time to read the guide in the link above. Under the graduated approach your child shoul ALREADY be on school action plus and you should be recieving a copy of his individual education plan once a term to sign off. Spend a few days on it, as it's a lot to get your head round at first & shout out if you need clarification of any key points - we'll all help you, as it can be over whelming at first.

This Senco isn't doing her job frankly. Don't get angry when you talk to her, stay calm and ask for your child's educational needs to be taken seriously as is required by law. I've learnt the hard way to follow up every meeting with my notes in writing and to keep a copy. I also follow up phone calls with an email to clarify what was said. This creates a body of evidence over time that can be really, really helpful. I suggest you begin to do the same.

Sounds like the SENCO is reluctant to increase her workload.
I cannot think of any other reason for her not being willing to acknowledge his SEN.
Make an appointment with the head, ask that his SEN formally be acknowledged by the school & recorded.
Insist that they formally monitor his progress against mutually agreed targets (IEP)
If you dont have any luck contact the LEA (Copy the governors &head) informing them that you ahve a child with DX'd conditionwhich include SEN but the school are refusing to accept your request, make adequate provision or adjust his curriculum to meet his needs.

I spoke to the SENCO this morning! She said that he didn't NEED to be on the SEN register because he would still get the same input whether he was on it or not as he already gets extra help with his phonics. But she will put him on now and sort out an IEP. She said that she got the impression that I didn't want him on the register, don't know why

She is also putting in a referral to the educational psychologist for him after I told her what he is like at the end of school day and other things like tip toe walking in front of the TV, she said it sounds sensory.She said that she had noticed that he spoke very loud and very fast. So I'm very happy that I went and spoke to her today

Excellent. Now put all that in writing and send it to the HT to clarify that you understood what had been agreed. End it with a question that requires a response such as 'When should we meet to agree the IEP?'

sorry, to SENCO, not HT (although no harm in copying in HT).

I will do that, I'm just worried about appearing pushy

Glad you got on ok, dont worry about being pushy, SENCO's are usually very busy and it wont hurt to remind her that you agreed a meeting.

When you have written the IEP make sure you agree a review date before you leave the meeting so that it doesnt get forgotten. there should be a box on the EIP form to fill in the review date.

Remember you are your Ds's advocate, if you are not pushy for him, noone else will be.

That should be IEP not EIP

I didn't send the letter but I am going to do it now.

My sons teacher needed to have a word with me today saying that since the beginning of term he has been difficult and this last week even more so especially so today, she said she was going to take the certificate of him that he got for his maths as he is apparently getting very good after his earlier difficulties last year, she decided not to though she just made it clear to DS that the certificate was for maths and not for his behaviour. I said I would have a word with him.

The problem is though it is very hard to have a conversation with DS, he just doesn't seem to listen or follow the conversation very well, he just says that he doesn't know what was naughty. His teacher says he has been answering back and not co-operating. He was fine last year, not many problems, I don't know whether it is the change of routine, I know he has been very emotional at the end of the school day and has been doing a lot of toe walking and spinning in front of the TV after school.

He came out of school absolutely distraught today because he didn't 'win' the end of week raffle,he had a tantrum apparently because he was not picked and they couldn't console him, it is so hard to explain to him that it is completely random who gets picked.

Teacher says that DS can only be her helper next week as reward for getting the certificate if he has a good day on monday, any ideas how to explain this to DS, he just doesn't seem to get it at all, I have no idea how to get him to understand.

Ask the teacher if she has heard of disability discrimination???

ffs he has a diagnosed COMMUNICATION disorder, he's also only very young. Is it any wonder he gets confused in a school environment without support?

Was the CT present during your meeting with the senco?

Removing a child's maths certificate for an issue nothing to do with maths? You wouldn't have to have a communication disorder to struggle to understand that logic.

Write the letter to the senco, copy it to ct and ht. The ct is likely to take the lead in writing the IEP anyway, so you want her on side and on the ball. It's worth discussing your senco conversation with her if she wasn't present - you need to be building that relationship as it is going to be the crux of how the year pans out.

Have they got all up to date copies of paed and slt reports?

Ask if slt can come into school to help with target setting for the IEP.

Sorry to sound a bit thick but what does CT mean? class teacher? if so no, it wasn't a meeting, I just caught the SENCO in the playground when I spoke to her. The class teacher does have his latest SALT report which included information about his language problems and how what may come across as being disobedient may be a communication problem.

They don't have any of his pead reports because they were all done while he was at his old school, unless they have forwarded them on, he hasn't seen the pead yet while at this school, his first appointment after being referred again was going to be on the 2nd november but the hospital phoned yesterday and said they weren't the right people to be dealing with DS and have contacted my GP to make referral to the correct people which is the child development team so still need to wait for appointment.

I thought the teacher may be being a bit harsh but I wasn't sure whether I was just making excuses for his behaviour, DS isn't as badly behaved at home as his teacher says he is at school, but I think that is because I manage his behaviour well.

I hope she doesn't stop him being helper if he doesn't have a good day as being helper is reward for his maths which he has already earned, nothing to do with behaviour.

I had a chat with DS he cant really explain what has been happening at school, all he has said in a variety of funny voices is that he hurts peoples feelings and is rude, but when I asked him how he says he doesn't know how. He said he was making loud noises in quiet time also, I asked him to demonstrate the noise and it is indeed a strange noise I told him he needs to try hard to do as he is told, he said ok but looked very confused.

I really don't think he is going to cope well at all in year 1. He has been so grumpy on school nights, we have had lots and lots of emotional outbursts over absolutely nothing. I hope the peadiatrician appt comes through soon.

I think they must have got his old reports as the SENCO was aware that he has phonological disorder.

Teacher also said that DS seems to have some auditory memory problems so surely she must realise that it may be harder for him to remember what to do.

Ct is just class teacher - sorry, lazy typing!

When mine with sn change schools I make copies of all of the previous reports and give them to the ct and senco, including copies of any previous IEP etc. (mine changed school a lot as we were military family and moved every year or so). I don't ever rely on professionals forwarding stuff - if they do it's a bonus.

I would make copies of everything you have, and then hand them over next week, with an apology (fake it - it's an exercise in building a relationship as much as passing info) and just say that there may be something in addition to what they already have on the file that might be useful.

If it wasn't a formal meeting, I would also Say to the teacher 'I bumped into mrs s in the playground and we discussed Ed psych referral - I wonder if the three of us could get together to formalize the the way forward? When would be convenient?' and definitely ask if reports /slt can be utilized for IEP targetsin the interim.