Being sent home from school for discipline method

[peanutbuttercup]

New principal at school wants to get tough on DS1s behaviour (9 years old ASD and anxiety). On the plus side he now has a teacher aide for the first time. On the minus side the new strategy is that if he hits out they ring me up and I have to come and take him home. What do you think of this strategy? It's happening about once a week currently. I work part-time and sometimes need to leave work to collect him, which is very difficult. DH thinks it is totally unacceptable and wants me to complain, I am not sure.

Is he happier at home than at school? Mine was, and I spent a while persuading the school that they were going to create a school refuser as in his eyes, being sent home was easier than managing the tightrope that was social interaction with others.
Not appropriate or legal to use exclusion as a tool to deal with his SN, and that's what they are doing.

I agree with silver they are teaching him the fastest way home

It is probably and illegal exclusion as well and hopefully someone more knowledgable than me will come along soon to tell you why.

The TA and class teacher need to get to the route of why he is hitting before they will be able to stop it.

Good luck

All I can say, from my own perspective, is that if this regime had been imposed on my DS, he would have kicked off to avoid the things he didn't want to do. The idea seems very shortsighted to me. Never mind the problems it will undoubtedly
cause at home. I would tell the head very firmly that you are not going to leave work to pick your DS up.

Currently he is usually not wanting to go home but this could change. I'm not sure what to do or if I even get a say in it.

We have our own battle about similar issues this afternoon for ds2.

It is an illegal exclusion - school are not allowed to simply send a child home to cool off. You need to have an exclusion letter for every incident as this will provide evidence to get support for your son.

Has there been any improvement in behaviour since this strategy has been implemented.? If not then it is not a suitable behavioural strategy and just a convenience for the school.

ds2 is a bit different as he hates school so exclusions are definitely a reward. He has just learnt that if he continues to behave badly for six weeks then he will be rewarded by part-time hours. Sigh!

Agree with others - there should be a paper trail for this which should send alarm bells to the LEA that school isn't meeting his needs. I got to the point where I was picking dd up almost daily so I know how stressful it can get.

It's definitely illegal. If they can't manage his behaviour in school, they should be seeking advice on what they should be doing to avoid him reaching the point when he hits out - e.g. looking for what the triggers are, perhaps investigating whether he needs more support with social communication, or whether it is something like sensory difficulties that are causing the problems.

Tell them that if they want to send him home, they must do it as a formal exclusion every time, and that you expect them to follow the guidance on exclusions of children with known SEN in full.

Wants to get tough on behaviour of an anxious child with SEN?

Nice. Not.

Ask him if his intended punishment is to deny an already vulnerable child his right to a full-time education and whether the SEN Governor agrees with this.

That's called exclusion and it's not going to teach him not to be anxious and get angry.

Ask the head the following questions:

1. How will it help your DS not to feel anxious and upset and lash out, to be sent home from school? How will it teach him not to get upset?
2. How will they evaluate the effectiveness of this method in preventing this behaviour?
3. Given that such behaviour is a sign that the school is not meeting your DS's needs, what steps do they intend to take to ensure that your DS does not get repeatedly excluded? In other words, how are they planning on ensuring that his needs are met, from now on?
4. Could you have a letter explaining the reasons for each and every single exclusion, no matter how brief, please.

Does your DS have a statement, btw?

It sounds like an illegal exclusion to me!

You could contact your local Parent partnership as a first step (useful to see if they are any good). Report it to your LA.

And get advise from someone like SOS!SEN (link on the side).

Schools cannot just send pupils home. They need to work to manage behaviour.

Thanks so much for replies. We are in NZ so unfortunately do not have statements or LEA. However, I imagine the other things are the same. We have an appointment with CAMHS this morning so I will get their advice. I do not want to alienate myself from new head though as I think she feels at the moment we are on the "same page". I just know from personal experience that the tough route is usually counter productive. She is getting advice from the Ministry of Education (similar to LEA perhaps?) and they were behind this strategy...
I just want him to be happy.