A sound educational arguement-anyone come across this?

[tiptoes]

In relation to my previous threads on DS with selective mutism staying back in reception doing year 1 work I have been told the school need to have a sound educational arguement to do this.

Ds has the abilty and understanding and his mutism is not holding him back academically as stated in reports from the school and SALT.
The SALT has explained to me it could be extra help due to the mutism which is not required as I am doing the sliding in technique with him and has been very sucessful.Ds needs to stay in a normal mainstrem enviroment with less pressure on him to talk which he would get with moving up to year one as specified by his new class teacher.
Would apprieciate anyones experiences or opinions on what could be classified as sound educational agruement.

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Yes, he needs ot move up a year.

In reception there will now be an expectation for your son to not speak, moving him up will give him thopportunity not only to progress academically but to form new relationships with new staff, specifically new staff who may not be aware of teh extent of his problem and will terefore treat him like all the other kids., whihc might be just what he needs.

Thanks emmalou78,that'e exactly how I see the situation.

When I went to pick DS up from school today his teacher for next term(his reception teacher at the moment is moving up to year 3)stopped me to go through what arrangements they could make for the year 1 work within the reception.As I and the SALT keep trying to explain it's not so much the year 1 work but the fact that he has selective mutism and a big change like this is not recommended at this stage when he is progressing with his talking in class now with a certain number of peers whom he has gained confidence in this past year.Totally ignoring the fact that she knows I am not happy with this arangement and am doing my best to get the decision reversed.No one at the school seems willing to listen to myself or the professionals.

bye keeping him in reception and him doing different work to the rest of teh class would just isolate him further, would that not totally exacerbate the SM

Emmalou78-Exactly the point I have been trying to make.Also by putting these 4 SN children together mixed in with the new reception children will also make them stand out and bring more attention to their SN.As for DS with SM that would be a SM childs worst nightmare to stand out from thre crowd.Surly they all need to stay mixed in with the peers they have been with the past year.My SALT feels it will only cause them all to inforce each others behaviour.

If the school has only kept down children with SN, this suggests that this might be the way they try to deal with special needs children in general. Most LEAs will have an SEN advisor whose role is to provide support to schools re SN policy. It might be worth contacting them and sharing your concerns. It might also be worth asking how they see this approach fitting with the 2001 SEN and Disability Act, which makes it illegal for schools to discriminate against children because of their disability. A person is defined as having a disability if "he / she has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his / her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities" (Discrimination Disability Act 1995) Apparantly "mental health" only includes well recognised diagnosis, but mutism would seem to be that. Anyway, schools have a duty not to treat these children less favourably and to make "reasonable adjustments". The test for "less favourable treatment" is whether a disabled pupil is being less afavourabley treated than another pupil "for a reason related to his disability". When making these "reasonable adjustments" schools can take acount of their financial resources, health and safety issues, the interests of other pupils etc, but the basic line is they have to actually put themselves out a bit. I'm pretty sure that just dumping anyone with SN in the reception year group wouldn't fit with "reasonable adjustments". Schools, or certainly LEAs, should be very aware of this legislation as there have been cases where LEAs have been taken to court for failing to provide adequately "access" to the curriculum for SN pupils. Hope this is helpful and good luck.

Thanks neolara ,that is very useful to know as I feel I have come up againest a brick wall at the moment .

I did point out to the Head that the 4 children staying behind had SN and was that a factor but she would not comment on the other children who were staying back as it had'nt been confirmed with their parents.But through playground talk I found out who the other mothers were.We all got our letters of confirmation Monday just gone where as the other mothers got theirs a week before.

No advice I'm afraid but didn't want to leave your thread without posting. The idea of keeping your ds in Reception sounds like complete madness to me. Hopefully when the powers-that-be find out about the way the school discriminates against children with SN, the school will have to change this stupid policy.

Wishing you all the best. xx

Thanks coppertop,much apprieciated to know I have some support from somewhere.

Have been sent copies today of letters sent to the Head from the SALT and the paediatrician who both strongly argue againest this decision.
Am hoping the school will take note of these,and am drafting a letter to the head of governers also.
Really hoping I can resolve this with the school otherwise my only option is to put in a formal complaint.