Part-time education to meet needs

[badgerparade]

School policy states that decisions to best deal with a child's lack of progress or underlying behaviour issues can include providing them with a part-time education if it best meets their needs. Surely if they weren't making progress why would you give them part-time education?
Also, the standard behaviour policy mentions nothing about the possibility of a part-time timetable for NT children so why place children with SEN on one? It says nothing about any work being provided when they're not in school.
Any views on this would be appreciated.

That is sooo wrong - the part-time bit I mean. So it it's not working, you give them less help? It's ludicrous!

It seems to me this is what schools resort to when they run out of ideas....

Have you seen this survey from "Contact a Family"?

www.cafamily.org.uk/news-and-media/has-your-child-been-unofficially-excluded-from-school/?page=2

I agree some children cannot cope with a full school day, and particularly with the example you gave. My ds has a severe sensory processing disorder, and is barely coping in MS, even with all the adjustments made; he really needs a different environment if he is to thrive. His school thinks the solution is to go part-time, or I need to make a choice between academic progression or making his day free of academic pressures.

Some parents also choose to flexi-school, as it suits their children.

However I don't think this is what badgerparade's school is probably referring to? Happy to be corrected.

Well ds was part-time for a year while his needs were being 'understood' .

DS2 is part time (3 mornings a week). He gets too tired to cope with any more. He is in reception though so don't know if it's different from year 1.

It might also be suggested that if school cannot meet his needs full time perhaps another more specialist school could? if you are unhappy about getting a pert time education for your ds I would start looking round for a school that can meet is needs full time and then start working on getting the la to accept or if necessary fund this school. I know I would be unhappy with a part time education for my dc.

my 9 year old son is part time only at the moment as he cannot cope with school - just got his report today - attendance 47.4% this year - school cannot meet his needs but we are being forced to tribunal to get him a new school - system stinks. i wish now that i have just taken him out full time as going part time has resolved nothing. he still vomits, is hightly stressed and the lastest es psych report says he is depressed so have i really helped him by letting him go part time? somehow i think it will be something i look back on and regret

Well we thought he could cope at school but, when he did attend full-time, it was clear that he couldn't . Annoyed that a year of possibly the correct support/placement was wasted while they worked out what his needs were. They then said that they couldn't meet the needs anyway!

DS attends part-time (age 6) but - the important bit - for the rest of the time he has 'Education Otherwise than at School' - which in his case is an ABA programme. So he still receives full-time education but not all of it at school - you can get Education Otherwise on grounds needs cannot be met fully or partly in school. His Statement is for Ed O/wise with part-time attendance at school. See Education Act 1996 for info on Ed O/wise

DS could attend fulltime, its just the staff don't know how to teach him so there would be no benefit - he learns more in ABA 1:1 than he would going to school more. He would learn less if he went more.

All children are entitled to fulltime education unless they have medical (not behavioural / SEN) needs. DFE guidance and an Local Govt Ombudsman Report 'Out of School Out of Mind' both confirm this. Education Act 2010 extended the right to fulltime school to children in PRU's as well. Guidance also says child should receive as much education as possible not just 5 hour minimum

If a school says a child can only attend part-time due to SEN then it is for the LA to provide a FT education either via home tuition, PRU, putting more support into school so child can spend half day in 1:1, dual placement etc etc. The starting point is not to only offer part-time education.

If schools / LA only provide part-time then that is an unofficial exclusion & discrimination.

Parents can request flexi schooling, but schools cannot impose flexi schooling on parents!

If behaviour is bad enough to merit part-time attendance then the LA should usually be placing the child temporarily or permanently in a different school - usually specialist unit etc.

Badger you should send this to the head of SEN at the Council and ask for their views - possibly do this via a parent group / local sen charity?

Is your school an academy?

Agnes - I have an ongoing stage 2 complaint with the LA. They have said that a part-time timetable is allowed as part of a PSP for a short while but in our case the temporary measure went on longer than expected . They claim that because he had challenging behaviour they couldn't put him back full time but funnily enough the school agreed to have him when funding was increased.

I attended a training course through work about social communication, emotional regulation and transitional support, and apparently (according to the lecturer), children loose their focus and their ability to learn drops considerably at about 1/2pm.
I haven't looked into it any further, but when I heard it, wondered why we still send children to school later than this.

Badger bizarrely I just saw this linked in something else i was reading

DFE Guidance

My reading of it is that schools must arrange fulltime education from the 6th day after an exclusion - I wonder if this includes a part-time exclusion?

Have you tried IPSEA?

How did the school record the absence under the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006? When did the school inform the LA of the part-time exclusion?

Badgerparade, the school is talking nonsense. All children are entitled by law to full time education. If they insist on part time, then they are excluding your child and have to go through the exclusion process including giving you the right to make representations to the governors. The governors would have to consider the issue of disability discrimination, as they are in effect punishing your child rather than taking steps to see that his needs are met. If he can't cope in school, they should be looking at whether he should move to a school where his needs can be met, and in the meantime they or the LA should be providing home tuition. You might need to involve a lawyer with this.

Sorry,not drip-feeding but forgot to mention he has now been permanently excluded so they achieved their aim to get rid of him. We will be appealing,not to have him back there, but to disagree with their actions. Have plenty of things to say to the Governors about how poorly they treat children with SEN. We were already arranging a specialist placement in the next few weeks so they could have waited really but probably just did it to make a point.

[Silvery what you say makes perfect sense. In Ireland the children go home at 2pm up to age of 11, although they often stay in school to do Sports which means they are technically there till later. Same in Germany where school ends at lunchtime, but starts a bit earlier.]

For the record my child enjoyed school in Reception because he was never made to go full-time until the Summer term. This made his attitude to school very positive, and he behaved very well in the mornings, and there were NO issues. And he learnt to read almost immediately. I don't see why he would have progressed any faster getting stressed in the afternoon session, when he was overtired. The rest of his school career has been fulltime, although he has now been diagnosed with ASD aged 8, and he continues to enjoy school.

my sons non attendance in the afternoon has been logged as authourised- does this make any difference? the LA accept current school cannot meet his needs but have made no effort to see a new school placement so he has now only been part time since june so it has been 6 months now that he is not getting a full time education