Urgent help please..in the middle of writing an email to school that I need to send tonight

[hoxtonbabe]

Sorry if I am coming across thick..I need to make sure I am sending the right thing for my agruement.

Following my "here we go again" thread, my son came home today with the "re-arranged" so called work support masked as a detention for tomorrow after school, and then another shcool detention for not attending the work support session yesterday. I was informed that the school should not be scribbling a couple of words such as "work support, room xxx" then teacher initial in my DS diary, but infact writing a proper letter.

Legally the school do not even have to give 24hours notice, but they have/and do , so would expect this to be done correct, but moreover, I want to know in writing why he is being detained, as the only reason I can see for forced sanctions such as this is for behaviour, which the original reason is not, or failure to do assigned work...well my son completed all the questions, he just did not get 80% of them correct, and I dont know of many kids that would go out their way to fully answer questions and purposly get them wrong after spending 1.5 hours on the homework, and this is why he has these detentions piling up on him...becasue he got below 7/10 on his work, and have no interest in the fact that his SEN and their refusal to give him support (IN CLASS) could actually be part of the problem?!?

With all that said can someone tell me what the below means as on of the things I was going to say was I was going to tell them that they have not told me about the detentions via and appropiate method:

"Section 572 of EA 1996, which provides for the methods by which notices may be served under that Act, does not preclude a notice under subsection (3)(d) from being given to the parent by any effective method."

Thanks in advance.

Section 572 of EA 1996 refers to the Education Act of 1996, and lists the methods by which "Any order, notice or other document required or authorised by this Act to be served on any person may be served?
(a)by delivering it to that person, or
(b)by leaving it at his usual or last known place of residence, or
(c)by sending it in a prepaid letter addressed to him at that place."

The paragraph you quote comes from the Education and Inspections Act of 2006, subsection 3 (d) refers to the requirement to give 24 hours notice of after school detention. It is saying that that notice can be given by any effective method, not just by the methods listed in the 1996 Act.

Presumably the school are arguing that an entry in your DS's diary is an 'effective method', and that notice does not have to be by letter

Dear x

Thank you for confirming that the apparent detentions for behaviour issues/ academic issues were in fact my son's mis-intepretation of the work support sessions that he requires in order to access the curriculum and make progress.

Unfortunately, it is not possible for him to attend for these academic sessions on Saturdays or immediately after school, since this time is required for his parent-mediated ASD therapy sessions. I'd be grateful if the support sessions could be rescheduled during school hours.

Obviously, we fully support the school behaviour policy, despite the need for his therapy. Should his behaviour ever necessitate formal sanctions, please let us know and we would ensure his attendance occasional detention sessions.

Love n hugs, hoxtonbabe

I think detentions must be reasonable and proportionate the 'offence'.

I think they changed the law on notice with the Education Act 2012. Section 572 applies to notices served under the EAct 1996 to which there have been changes permitting electronic notices instead of notices by post. Not sure what relevance that would have to your situation.

I think you need to concentrate on:

1. Their failure to explain why he needed to be kept behind
2. The disproportionate and unreasonable nature of the punishment
3. The failure to work with you on this
4. The possibility that this is a punishment which is discriminatory as he is being penalised for failing because of lack of efefctive SEN support. This is not bad behaviour, it is academic 'failure' and they should not address that through detention

Cheer folks, your replies have been very helpful. This is driving me nuts, as we really are at war and the only person suffering with this is my son.

I know someone will say "well why dont I just send him to the detentions" But why should he be detained and punished, and missing his evening social group that he enjoys and benefits from for something the school should not be imposing...I could really understand this if my son flat out did not do the homework, but he did, and we are back to this old chestnut that was raised by my independent EP and at his appeal last month of the school viewing his need as bahaviour or plain old lazy child, despite him being statmented for almost 9 years now, so totally baffled as to why they cant see that there will be times where my son just wont get things and they cant simply keep giving him detentions for it...madness, sheer madness.

Stand firm. No legal right to impose extra education. Dubious legality to impose detention/ other sanctions if not making reasonable adjustments for disability. They are effectively kidnapping your child if they're holding him outside school hours, without your consent.

So just say no. They hold no power over you, and only what delegated authority you give them for your child, during designated hours only.

Oh goodness me...

So today my son for the first time ever decided to skip school as the being torn in this issue is getting to him and I was terrified as I got this call from the school around midday and i thought WTF!!...thankfully he answered my calls after I text him saying the police would have to be called, and I think that got him worried as he is in the police cadets.

Anyhoo, I have just opened my post and the head sends me a charming letter stating that he can not understand how I can say the school are not meeting his needs when I insist my DS should not attend a session designed to help him...the cheeky git then goes on to say "my assertion that the school keeps boys behind for work support by force i unhelpful as it is false"

At this stage I have decided it is better to ignore the school and let solicitors deal with this as we are never going to find common ground, they can not see my point and they do not have a point! However I was ever so tempted to write back saying

" Dear xxx,

If you feel that leaving my son to decline in maths to the point that he is worse off than when he was in primary school, or that your lazy appointed SENCO has never drawn up a SMART IEP (or any IEP at that) and never actually monitored his SEN progress since the day he started, the fact that for 3 years your teachers whom have no idea about SLT have blamed my son for his impairment so have never actually taken any time to adapt the curiculum to his needs as they are so fixated on their "diagnoses" of "your son just needs to work harder" even though he has been diagnosed with his impairment since age 5 and had to go to a specialist primary school, or issuing detentions for not handing in work that is incorrectly answered/or low grades, which to some small extent I agree with, but equally you can not force a person to produce or do something they have a difficulty with...one would not say to a person with limited hearing to "listen better" and not atempt to lip read to them. With all the above said and done if you are still insisting that xxx is meeting his needs then you should not be anywhere near children, let alone SEN children.

regarding to my comments being unhelpful and false, I can not see how you think it is helpful to not implement any of the provision on his statment for 3 years, then punish the child for not fully grasping his work, and when I ask for this help you are claiming to give him to be held in school time rather than after school, you say no and when he does not attend you issue him with another detention, yet say you are not forcing him to stay...I agree you are not physically forcing him, but neither are you making it optional and if the detentions for failing to attend the sessions pile up, as you will eventually exclude, yet you say my comments are unhelpful and false. Surely you should be more concerned about the total lack of regard your staff (especially your senco) has for statements ( al legally binding document) as my son's has never been implemented and concentrating on the in school support rather than the out of hours support. The after school work support is not a substitute for the support you should be providing in school, and take offence when you state I insist on not allowing him to attend a session that is designed to help him.

(sorry for long rant folks, I really had to get that off my chest..)

don't respond. Keep em guessing, awaiting a response, much nastier!

Plus LEA retain the duty to meet statemented needs, they're not able to simply palm it off on incompetents or budget-robbers. So lawyer may say sue the organ grinder not the monkey