I'm well and truly hacked off. After a year of ds's school first talking about requesting a statement, and then actually compiling all the evidence needed, ds has finally been turned down. I just don't get it, the SALT and Ed Psych report clearly showed that he needed a statement, loads of evidence to back it, but in the headteachers own words:
'we've shot ourselves in the foot!'.
Basically they've provided their own LSA for ds, and according to the head the LEA feel that they're doing such a great job using their own resources they felt ds was coping well enough within that school. That's all very well, but what happens when ds moves to Juniors, he's in year 1 now, his new school might not be able to provide their own LSA so what's going to happen to ds then, he can't cope on his own, all his reports state that he needs an LSA to assess the curriculum. There had been discussions with SALT and Head about the possibility of ds attending a special unit within a mainstream school when he moves up to Juniors, but as statement is needed for such a place, all we can hope for now is for ds to attend that actual school but without access to the unit. The head said that she wished that ds's SN's preschool had applied for a statement in the first place, I can't believe it, all this valuable time has been wasted. What hope have I got if I apply when the school were in a much better position to prove his needs within the school day, he'll always have his LSA there so the viewpoint of LEA won't have changed. I just don't get it though, the head says she hasn't stopped trying and has a report to finish this week to add for the LEA, but I thought that the school weren't able to appeal?? Sorry if I'm waffling, I'm bloody annoyed