Are the LA supposed to attend an AR or not?

[bewilderedandbemused]

Received paperwork about pending review and it looks like nobody from the LA is attending. It is the first 'proper' review ever and for Yr 9 - is this usual?

Ours never have. 4 years and counting now, and have started secondary transitioning. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

School and I have a good, productive meeting where we agree the plan for dd's year ahead. It helps that I have a very good relationship with the school, and am absolutely certain it is the right place for dd1. Hen we send the minutes to the LA and wait for the revised statement to come through a few months later.

Nice and sime that way!

Same here LA have never attended an AR. Statement finalised in yr6 now in yr12.

Ours always come . Usually two of them. Thats what you get when you win an expensive ABA placement at age 3. Unless you need a change to statement I would regard it as a good thing. Our ARs are always a stressful and miserable experience.

sorry yours are so stressful, Agnes, but we won dd1's ABA placement aged 5, and even when there was a clear route to reopening the statement and forcing a reassessment (her first school closed), the LA were a no-show.

it just varies so much, both fromarea to area, and within areas - a friend of mine with her dc at the same school has had LA representation at each AR. we live 2 minutes away from each other, so that is truly baffling!

DS has had 3 annual reviews, only class teacher and assistant head attended the first 2, but when we walked into the 3rd one, last month, we knew it was the big talk about where DS will be placed in September 2014 as the LEA SEN officer was sat there.

A lot of people attend reviews to look and feel important and to shuffle papers.
Unless they are people that matter and do useful measurable things for your child, be glad.

Some folk have wafting from AR to AR down to a fine art.

If it's likely to be tricky, take some support with you and get one of your 'team' to write up minutes too.

There's no need for the LA to attend - the SEN CoP delegates the AR process to the school.

If they want to be there, it's up to them, but there is nothing missed by not having them in attendance.

My LA will be turning up - they are sending an EP who's office is based nearly 80 miles away from the indie ss (school is out of county). This is the first ever annual review for my DC as he only got a Statement last year.

Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that I complained to the LGO about their unlawful behaviour. I smell trouble.

Similar situation here Towie.
Hmm, will wait to see what happens I suppose. I thought Yr 9 was transition planning or something?

This is year 5 AR so no need for LA to turn up. School is in the middle of nowhere. Hope she's got a SatNav - she'll need it!

Depending on timings, TOWIE, the yr5 review is taken as the beginning of secondary transitioning.

we just had dd1's yr5 review, and the LA didn't show, but sent a message back saying 'thanks for letting us know, we'll attend the yr5 review in order to discuss transitioning'. school had to respond saying 'erm... this is the yr5 review!'

sadly () it was too late for the LA to shoehorn it into their diaries.

Only AR I've ever been at where the LA attended, was when the parents wanted a Private school, out of authority, and were talking about taking the case to tribunal (that's as a SENCo, btw, so obviously have been at lots of ARs, not just one, annually IYSWIM)

I must admit I did wonder if they're treating it as the transfer review. For various reasons, hopefully they are.

We were called to a meeting once to discuss a 'few difficulties'and when we turned up about ten people were there including the SEN Manager.

They later said that it had actually been an emergency review meeting! A completely new statement had in fact already been written and was issued the next morning!

Mine turned up(in fact They orchestrated it) at a 2-moth early bi-annual review that was 6 weeks before the tribunal. Cynical, me? No!

Mine come if there is a problem.

About AR in general.

I found this on IPSEA's website - it's a PDF so will download if you click the link.

IPSEA's advice on annual review