Statement Advice

[amumtothree]

My ds is in year 4 (age 8). We are very lucky; he is in a supportive school who are trying hard to help him. He has dyslexia and dyspraxia, with the usual organisational issues, noise issues, reading and writing are extremely hard for him (and act as a barrier to learning), and he is socially immature. Having read the information about applying for statements and potentially tribunals I'm a bit confused (he is currently being assessed for a statement). He is happy at his school (although he is getting a little disenchanted due to his learning gap). Ideally we would like to get additional help to improve things in his current school. My concern is that even with significant additional support he may still fail to progress, then the alternative would be to change school. In our area my understanding from other parents is that the alternative is an OOC independent school (due to poor provision many parents have achieved this at tribunal). My question is, if we accept the statement for this year and he fails to make progress, does that stop us making a change of school to a non state maintained school (until senior school). I know I'm jumping the gun and as yet his statement may not even give the hours he needs, I just wanted to make sure I know what I'm committing to.

I think you have the right to appeal at each review though we haven't reached the review point just yet. I would think you need to have sufficient proof that he needs different support and then also be able to show that the school you want is the only place that could provide that to be in with a reasonable chance of a change being made.

Have you been to see the other school at this stage? It may be worth a visit to see now what they do, if only to help you in the decision making process further down the line.

IPSEA would be a good place to get information more specifically about your options and rights of appeal.

Thanks beautiful girl. I haven't been to the independent school yet but I know parents with lea funded children there. I'm really hoping that we can stay local and that would mean state maintained schools. I just don't want to burn any bridge. Ds scores highly for verbal reasoning but this fails to translate in to a school setting. I might phone IPSEA just to clarify, the point that confused me was that it seemed to be saying that on a review you could only request a change of school if it was state maintained (but I may just be reading it wrong). Thanks for the reply.

I think you may be getting a little ahead of yourself. If the statement names current state mainstream it will be because parts 2 and 3 do not warrant (from the lea's pov) special school. So if you wanted to name an OOC specialist dyslexia school you would need to appeal parts 2, 3 and 4. Part 2 is a description of all the child's needs and part 3 the provision to meet those needs. The lea will only consider OOC indi ss where they are unable to find a m/s school willing to say they cannot make the provision. It is their opinion that all mainstream schools are able to make provision for SpLD.

DS1's statement is m/s and we are going to tribunal in May. He is 12 - failed transition from primary and is unable to attend and receiving lea home tuition until the ruling of tribunal. Around 70% of the children at the school are lea funded - the vast majority were unable to attend m/s and have won their place following tribunal.

Unfortunately you have to wait until the wheels actually fall off rather than warning that this is likely.

Hi keep. I'm defo getting ahead of myself. We have so little control over the process that all I can do at the moment is overthink things.
Because he and we (as parents) are so happy with his school we really want his current school to work, so we are happy to wait and see. The downside is OT and ed psych have both indicated that large classes are going to always be an issue for him even if he gets 1 to 1.

I feel for you - we are a couple of years off seniors yet but I'm already envisiging the situation you are in for us. I think that's probably part of my question really - of the parents that I have spoken to - it's seemed easier to get specialist senior provision when it's already in place at juniors. However the thing that seems to be a constant is that provision is not always fair and consistent. I hope your lea concede before tribunal to save you the heartache.

What support do you get at the moment and what support to you want to have with a statement? When DS1 was at primary and still on SA+ following first refusual to assess he had Wave 3 interventions (such as Acceleread/Accelewrite), reading age and spelling age were recorded at least every 6 months and ratio gain calculated. The Rose Review on dyslexia is useful on what is expected. He was also being taught to touch type and had a recording device. In fact from year 2 to year 6 he received over 40 different interventions.

There was another boy in DS1's class who had a dyslexia statement but he only received the Wave 3, touch-typing and recording device because the lea were making the school provide them for DS1. Do not expect significant additional support. DS1's statement is for 15 hours but is worded so that this can be either 1:1, small group or whole class. This can and often is interpreted as having access to the class TA along with all the other children. It does not mean 15 hours 1:1 with an LSA. How many hours support does DS1 have on the current IEP - 1:1, small group, whole class?

amum, I'm sorry to be a pain but the words in your OP jump all over the place. Can you repost it with paragraphs or just break it up a bit?

Sorry starlight not sure how to repost. I will try again, soz I'm new to MN.

DS is on SA+.
He currently has (all based on his dyspraxia needs): fizzy, 1:1 provided by school for 12 hrs a week (TA and trainee teacher who is a volunteer), OT support for school (which has resulted in wedge cushion, writing slope, pen grips), SALT (but he has just been signed off as she thinks his issues are related to his thought process)

As part of the statement process he has also been "officially" diagnosed with dyslexia. The ed psych has now recommended he learn to touch type. We have purchased the nessy fingers programme. I think school are waiting for the statement before they introduce anything else.

Keep. We are aware that we may not get what he needs. School have been providing quite a lot of extra help for a while and he still has not progressed - so fingers crossed.

As DS is OK at the moment I'm happy to play the wait and see game for now, however I just wanted to see if this will stop any of my future options.

ie if we accept the statement for this year and he fails to make progress, does that stop us making a change of school to a non state maintained school (until senior school).

Sorry if this is long and garbled.

Check out the following www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/tribunals/special-educational-needs-and-disability/HowToAppealAgainstSENDdecision_Jan11.pdf

The statement is reviewed annually. If you accepted the statement for m/s now you would not at review be able to change m/s to ss but would be limited to other m/s schools. After the review you could appeal parts 2, 3 or 4 and name OOC if you disagreed with the provision for the up-coming year. So you have a right to appeal to tribunal if you disagree with m/s but not to change the type of provision named on the statement without appealing.

You would need strong evidence of lack of (inadequate) progress. In purely academic terms this is very difficult. Ratio gain is supposed to be at least 0.5 (6 months per academic year) but if progress rate matches previous rate this can be seen as adequate, particulary where there is not a large discrepency between assessed ability and attainment.

From what you have said the school have applied for statement? It is rare to actually get 12 hours in-house-funded 1:1 but the lea is supposed to fund provision over around 12.5 hours and one of the criteria for assessment is that the school is providing as much as it can out of it's own resources.

It seems a bit odd to have 12 hours 1:1 but no specific interventions for a child with SpLD. What does the 1:1 do? Why has he not been taught to touch type previously or if that is a problem to use voice recognition software like Dragon? Did the 12 hours materialise at the same time as application for assessment or was it gradually increased?

sorry - didn't convert my link

www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/tribunals/special-educational-needs-and-disability/HowToAppealAgainstSENDdecision_Jan11.pdf

Thanks keep.

His dyspraxia means a lot of his issues relate to coordination and concentration. He has also always stuggled with his reading and writing, but only just had dx of dyslexia.

The 1:1 is to help him work out how he is going to undertake a task, help with reading and writing, additional phonics work and reading. In addition to this he does a couple of fizzy classes a week. He has had an IEP since year 1 and this level of help has been available to him since September (it has increased over the years).

Whilst a lot of the help he has been getting has helped him manage some of his coordination issues it has failed to help overcome his barriers to learning. If he is concentrating on reading or writing something then he doesn't take any of it in. I hope that makes sence.