OK, it needs a little work, I think, because it has significant references to events or actions or consequences that the head will be aware of, but the LA person may not be.
"I received the report yesterday. Thank-you
I know we had discussed the incident on the day as I picked him up, straight away before the end of school had finished.
What incident? When? You need to be more formal. So something like '....the incident on dd/mm/yy, in which DS sustained x injury due to y actions, requiring my immediate attendance and the shortening of DS's school day.
"The reason I have asked to have it now, so long after the event is for submitting it as evidence for Statutory Assessment. I have been informed I can submit up to 21/11/12."
This is too apologetic, and unnecessary. I would replace with "As you will be aware, I am compiling evidence for Statutory Assessment. I intend to submit this report as part of my evidence bundle."
"There are above average number of Accident Reports for ds in the time frame submitted (they have given us 12 months)."
How do you know it's above average? Do you have statistics on the number of accidents a child of his age usually has? If not, don't write it. It just waters down what you do have to say. If you do have statistics, you need to mention how much more reports you have for DS than other children of his age.
Write something like "In the last 12 months, DS has had x entries in the accident book, and I have had to collect him from school y times. At all times DS has been playing, unsupported and suffered injuries."
"He is an above average vulnerable child"
What evidence do you have that he is above average? Write a few words which cover that. ie. "He is child with above average intelligence, as identified by x, y, z in reports dated dd/mm/yy.
What evidence do you have that he is vulnerable? Write a few words about that.
"which the Outside Agencies have failed to recognise as they have low overall input/interest with him."
That is your perception. Be careful. Try to rephrase this to be more neutral. Perhaps "Outside agencies have only visited DS on 3 occasions, and have observed him during activities that he excels at.' or something like that, which is more concrete and less accusatory.
"This is shown by our Caf/Taf which is not working properly."
Again, it's all a bit emotive. Make it clear that you are talking about the CAF/TAF process, not the people. So, replace that with "We were disappointed that the last TAF meeting highlighted the fact that DS has not been adequately assessed for his support needs.
"At our last TAF meeting (dated 16/10/12) the following professionals had no evidence (even anecdotal) showing of George?s progress made :
- the Autism Advisory service had not seen our son since the last one six months ago. Last report dated -22/05/12
- They had changed the SALT again and she was getting to know my son again! Last report dated -10/05/12
- The teacher had very little to say. The LSA reported observations. Last report dated ? July-12
4.The School Family Worker the Lead Professional did not attend the meeting.
- OT discharged George but reminded us we could always contact them again when needed.
- EP was asked to attend but declined, her reasons given in her letter -submitted."
Do you mean that they don't have evidence of his progress, or that he hasn't made any progress? Don't allow it to seem that the progress is there, just not documented, if it isn't. Beware also, that the LA may come back and say 'let's see how much progress he can make if he does have the provisions school arranged....'
I wouldn't mind helping him catch up with a tutor if the system was working properly. However, I feel his educational needs should be met first. It was my understanding that we would have been given evidence how ds?s transition was made from Y1 to Y2 from these professionals. Very little of the meeting was taken up on this subject.
"Over the last three years since ds has been known to their services, they have not done any standardised tests. They are using the approach of ?will not look, cannot find, cannot support.? Even if they were to use different therapies, they need to find out if they would work."
Again, this is highly emotive. You need to depersonalise it. Also, which services are you talking about? "Since the involvement of x, y, z services, three years ago, DS has not been assessed using standardised tests. We feel that without standardised testing, DS's abilities and limitations will not be fully explored, and progress cannot adequately be monitored.
"I feel there really is nothing I can do except request Statutory Assessment as he in danger and is now a Health and Safety issue, but they say he doesn?t need one as you know."
In what sense is it a Health and Safety issue? How is a Statement going to sort that? Write something which makes clear what you need to change.
"However, I do feel he fits the criteria as there is no evidence that sufficient progress at School Action Plus from the above specialists has helped especially in the areas of:
?A) that despite every effort having been made by the mainstream school or early years
setting, to cater for the child?s special educational needs - including advice from
experts - the difficulty still persists ?
ds?s difficulties in social communication (three years delay) and social interaction (four years delay) still persist and the delays are becoming wider despite their efforts.
?B) that the pupil appears to have significant special educational needs.
These may be:
? significant learning difficulties
? significant impairments, and/or
? significant emotional and/or behavioural difficulties?
ds has significant impairments as well as emotional difficulties and still persist as discussed in the meetings, despite their efforts."
If you are going to quote the SEN CoP, you need to show it as your source. Write the chapter, clause and page number, so that they can see where you are looking.
A) is where I have a problem with your argument. Despite every effort. You are on one hand saying 'no-one has made an effort' yet on the other hand saying 'Despite every effort...'. It can't be both!! Decide which. I suspect your argument is going to be 'they haven't made any effort, and even if they did, it wouldn't work.'
"It shows he cannot be left alone to play safely. (d?s back was grazed half way up for some time after this incident. I don?t believe, he just hit his head.)"
Formalise this. "In the incident on dd/mm/yy, the accident report states that DS hit is head. However, he had a substantial graze on his back that took several days/weeks to heal.
"This has been missed by the professionals working with him."
What has been missed? The graze, or his general inability to play unsupervised? Which professionals?
"They know he has sensory needs as highlighted by the OT often misunderstood."
Again. Who knows he has sensory needs? The sentence is completely confusing. Is it the the needs that have been highlighted by the OT, but the staff are misunderstanding those sensory needs, or is it that the OT has highlighted that his sensory needs are often misunderstood??
"He needs extra support outside of the 20 hours LSA time (happened outside of provided time) he has been given by the school which can only be enabled by Statutory Assessment."
'happened outside of provided time' makes it sound like it is just one incident which has tipped you over the edge. If there are lots of reports, all of which occur outside of LSA time, you need to make that clear.
Why can't they switch the LSA time so that he has 20 hours, but some of the classroom assistance is switched to lunchtime/playtime?
I'm not suggesting those are reasonable ideas, simply that you need to explain why 20 hours isn't enough. ie. he must have support at maths/lessons for x,y,z reasons, but then there aren't any hours for break times.
"It must be frustrating for you knowing that despite all your efforts, his educational needs are not being met with right support by the outside agencies."
That sounds quite passive aggressive and patronising to me, sorry. I'd take it out. If anything, put something like "I'd like to thank you for all your efforts over the last 3 years. I am aware that as a school you have worked extremely hard to provide DS with all he needs. Unfortunately, I think the time has come to accept that without LA support, DS's needs will not be met.
I hope that helps and isn't too harsh!