Panel said no!

[StarlightMcKingsThree]

They only said they hadn't got the parent report. They said they had the rest, then I guess it turned out they didn't when the got to look at it.

Lougle I really don't expect an LA to change the placement of a child with a statement simply based on a parent request, especially when the school says they are meeting the child's needs well and the LA has a history of having a good partnership with the school.

The reasonable thing to do first would be to thoroughly investigate what may have gone wrong even if it was just parents perception. It's the next step really after raising concerns with the school.

The panel thing was their idea after I called them to let them know my concerns.

However, my frustration will be with the pace. DS is losing time that cannot be regained. And I'm afraid I have lost patience I once had. I know what needs to be done. I can do it. But DS needs to be in school with support after I have. This is far beyond what a LA will be used to dealing with. That is not DS' fault.

The other reason they gave was that they can't consult with a school that wasn't open yet

Funny that my LA see fit to propose a placement in a unit which doesn't exist yet.

Convenient, this lack of joined up national provision.

I think that is a non-argument to be honest. The school already has children with committed funding albeit not from my LA, meaning that they'd have to make it clear what it was about my child that made him so different from these others. I can also ask them how the feck they put any kids in their own special schools when they first opened.

So sorry star , is the situation with the school totally irretrievable , what have they suggested as the next move .
They obviously know your very unhappy , I know that's bit of an understatement , but have they made any suggestion on how to maybe resolve things for the time being for your sons welfare if nothing else's .
As all said an done it's all suppost to be for kids benefit , not ours or there , but for your son .
If everything was good how do you see that the school should support your son , would the head / class teacher / senco not listen to some of your ideas . Surely one of them must see that some of what your saying would work .
Maybe ask them for work to cover at home , then take tiny bit further each time so they can see for themselves that progress is being made and that maybe they can move him further along with the curriculum .
Don't know whether you feel that you can work with them any more . Is your son still happy with this placement . What has change about the placement from when you first looked at it , is it there inflexibility to work with you . ( the me school attitude , I know best ) have had teachers like that when my son in special school , in fact it was there suggestion that he should move to mainstream with support . Sometimes think it was just to be rid of me , rest of parents never disagreed with her.
Would leaving it for a few weeks and seeing then if they work with you any better be an option . Please don't bite me down with that one just wondering , sometimes they might change perspective knowing how serious you feel about things.

Sorry to hear it, but from what you had said previously you were expecting this?

How can they make a decision if they don't have all the paperwork?

Star, when is your annual review?

New, We're in the middle of the AR process. Had the meeting but no amended statement.

Homework DS is in a taxi for 10 hours a week. One of the reasons I can't make this placement work by supplementing is this. His school isn't far, it's just that he's furthest so first on the 9 people pick-up.

claw I have no idea why I am surprised that they didn't even know they didn't have all the paperwork until I contacted them and requested a change of placement. I guess they just place a child OOC somewhere and then ignore them and their subsequent paperwork. Probably a blessing for most parents.

Its ridiculous, I hope this makes their decision void and they will have to look again at the decision?

The utterly stupid thing about this is that whilst they say they can't consult with a school that isn't open, I have been told by a parent I trust that they have consulted with my requested school for THEIR child after a breakdown in placement with our local school (which is the only place they have agreed to consult with so far).

But hey! Same old same old.

My outrage levels don't even register.

It sounds silly but things like not getting the refusal letter on a weekend, no pretence that the SEN team don't have email addresses, getting back to me without my chasing, well, so far it's a tad more civilised than my previous experiences. And there's a lot to be said for that. I might even attempt to be reasonable myself.

Star, you have been then bought the t-shirt and been there and bought the t-shirt again, you know the drill! You are well past shockable!

In fact I am so used to dealing with shit, I am rather shocked when I don't have to! Sad but true.

You know what if feels like?

It feels like a job. Do this, then do that, then book this, then meet about that, then call this, then record that.

I hope now I can do it better with fewer relationship breakdowns, tidier paperwork, better clothes, less bags under my eyes, being kinder to my family, dates with my DH etc. less claws out etc.

Lol how weird I was saying exactly the same thing to DH this morning. I had paperwork all over the kitchen table and he asked me whether I enjoy doing this, said I was good at it and whether I would consider a job doing it

I told him it IS a job and one I would rather not do! It might not be employment, but it is a job, a job that needs doing.

I hate it when professionals say to me 'oooh must be very hard for you and/or it must make you feel very anxious' in their best sympathy voices, referring to ds's most shocking behaviour ie self harming or poo smearing or walking downstairs with blood smeared across his face.

My reply 'no it isn't, ive been dealing with it for so long' I must come across as cold hearted!

That is my plan too Star, to try and have a life, as well as a 'job'!

You ARE good at it Claw. Would you consider voluntary advocacy training with the NAS/IPSEA/Contact A Familiy or others?

Star, I am still learning and have only mastered up to a certain point so far, getting a statement and fighting for the appropriate provision to go in it!

After that, the next steps, things such as AR or what you are doing now trying to change schools are still a mystery to me!

Although I must say the training does sound interesting and I would be happy to learn the next steps.

Star, so sorry you are going through this. I had no idea, as have been off the SN boards for a while, with just the odd visit to the Goose and Carrot - usually too late to manage reading back and catching up on more than a page or so of posts. The last I heard was some rumblings that things were starting to go a bit off course with the course. I'm really sorry things got worse.

It's so frustrating when you think you've found the right placement, fought for OOC indie and then the place turns out to be something other than the one they 'sold' to you. We are in a similar position, but with no other options at the moment. It stinks.

I haven't yet reached the point of being able to be calm about it - as my rants on the G&C yesterday will testify to, although I do find I do a lot of eye rolling and sighing in a 'here we go again' way these days, which is an improvement on all the bursting into tears I used to do.

I have no advise, but didn't want to read and run. All I can offer is a bit of solidarity and some virtual and chocolates, as I feel hopelessly out of date and you are far more knowledgeable and experienced than me anyway.

It's alright Moose. It really is.

I have had and made a few phonecalls today that has clarified my thinking (As well as on here though as you know we can't always write everything).

I have requested dereg now and responded to some of the issues raised as kindly and as politely as I can.

Star could you ask them about transport issues as there not suppose to be that long .
Is there another taxi that could maybe pick your son up last . Is he the youngest on the transport , that this might help .
The transport will be from the lea and not the school , so would they not help with problem a little . Could the driver maybe pick them up the other way around some mornings , or more importantly drop them off . Or even alternate ,so it's not always your son having the long drop off , would it be worth asking .
This might also buck up a few of parents who have them hang around waiting on there children or themselves .

He lives furthest away homework. It's the carpark thing I don't like but that is because the taxi wants to leave at 8:30 on the dot to avoid the traffic apparently.

I have an issue with this obviously, but outside all of that, the taxi company have been very amenable to different drop off locations so I can take dd to after school activities, and the escort is excellent, they consistently use car seats and the vehicle is in decent condition.

I know all these things should be a given, but I know they are not, and so do know what to be grateful for.

Another daft question why are they at school half an hour early , and why are they being dropped off in the car park . Surely they should be taken into school and have a place to sit and play if there arriving that early .
What need for it , surely the driver is going to hit as much traffic at that time with all the other schools going in .
I would be asking why he needs to be picked up before eight o'clock and if any of other children not ready then it's there parents responsibility to get them to school . Not fair expecting your child to sit in taxi cause other are to lazy to be ready in the morning .
When my child was four they wanted to pick him up in a bus at half seven in morning , I said no , so he got taxi with two other boys , one whose mum never had him ready in the morning , in end they picked my child up first , then this other little boy and she was still half time not ready , so my child would have to sit and wait , the child after mum was climbing the wall as they where always late picking him up .
There isn't any easy solution but transport should maybe help out a bit more , think there picking up too early especially if he has to hang around this length of time at school , who supervising them here .

They are supervised in the playground.

I know this sounds silly, but I think the taxi and subsequent playground hanging about is actually one of the better aspects of the school.

This is where he is forced to interacts with the older children who have better social skills than his peers. They pet him, nurture him and tease him in a kind of safe way.

BUT, he is complaining a lot about his long commute lately.

DD1 also has play time as soon as she gets to school, Star.

The school recognise that for lots of the children, a long commute with lots of sitting means that they aren't ready to learn when they get to school. So they have some time in the playground, bombing around, so they can start the day positively.

I had a response to my dereg request too. Until now I was getting along fine with the LA. I asked the case officer who told me that it was down to the EWO.

But the EWO.................

Basically I mentioned that I wanted to dereg, and before I could explain they got all huffy and send they'd send the paperwork and started to ask me things. I had to interrupt to explain that ds had a statement and then got a curt 'You can't unless we say so', to which I replied that I knew that and was the purpose of my call, to request permission.

The response then was 'You need to speak to ds' case officer', to which I replied that I had and been referred to the EWO.

EWO then said asked if ds was not happy. I said he was happy, just not learning. She then told me that I'd have to go to tribunal.

wtf?

I said 'It would BE September by the time the tribunal came around' and so then she agreed to speak with her boss and get back to me.