Hello, well it was eventful to say the least.
Our psych is brill, we got there and there was no representative from school, so psych made the head teacher come in, she was not pleased, the school is closing tomorrow and she hasnt got the heads job of the new one so she didnt want to know.
She tried to say that we had harmed DS education by "removing" him from school, our psych started chuckling and said "here,s his report from pupil referral service, he has got A,s for everything apart from his handwriting which we know he has a problem with"
she said "yes but he hasnt been able to do things like scientific experiments" and the NHS psych said "well, whatever he has missed he will catch up as he,s a very clever boy"
Then the SEN Assesment Manager said that the reason they couldnt asess DS is because he wasnt in school so i told her that IPSEA say he can be asessed at home by an Ed Psych, they do it all the time with kids in DS situation, "No" she said so i said "Why?" and she said "we only do that for the under 5,s"
I started getting annoyed and our psych cut across me and changed the subject!!!!
Then the learning mentor had her say, "DS has never approached me or his friends to say that he is feeling anxious, he is avery happy and clever boy and we dont see evidence of this behaviour that his mother says is happening"
I said "If DS cant tell his parents and his close friends how he feels and the only way that we know is by him vomiting, getting aggressive etc then how can you expect him to tell you"?
Out psych said asked them to imagine themselves in DS position, imagine walking through the school door, the smells, the noises, the anxiety of not knowing who is going to say what, do what to you, the anxiety just builds up and up and if you are a child with aspergers who cannot understand his feelings or explain them then anyone then its not surprising that he doesnt want to come to school given the bad experience/lack of support that has taken place.
Then we dropped a clanger and told them that we didnt know if we wanted DS to go to the new school as it is 3 times as big as the old one and we think it will be too much for him to cope with.
LEA women started getting agitated "Theres only one week left until school breaks up, we need to know before next week"
We said we will let them know.
We dont want Ds to go to the new school, our psych has said he doesnt think it will be right for him and has told us of a school that is brill with children who have ASD, but its not in our borough and we will have to fight to get him a place in there, but as we are already going to tribunal we can tag it on to the end of that.
So thats that, oh and the NHS psych has discharged DS from her dept as she says that our psych can deal with him, - she couldnt wait to get rid of us fast enough!!!!!!