a little update re the tribunal tomorrow

[bjkmummy]

after all the faffing around re the class teacher/senco and her not wanting to attend and 3 weeks of faffing - she has announced to her class today that she wont be in school ALL day tomorrow - wonder where she is going???? given its only listed for half a day and the song and dance about needing to be in school , quite why now she is going to be out for a full day is somewhat puzzling so I do now have to by the looks of it face the senco as well at the hearing. this is not good for my nerves at all!!!!!

added to that that my daughter has come home and burst out crying cos the girls in the class are being really horrible to her so im sat here thinking why have I put her into this school???? what was I thinking and what an absolute mess im making of her education just trying to get her help and feel like im making it so much worse.........

You have her in the school that you thought was best for her with the information you had, at the time you chose it.

Teacher's itinerary for tomorrow:
9am - meeting wiht LA
11am - tribunal
1pm - lunch in the pub.

Greet her with your best head tilt. Poor woman being torn so many ways.

Perhaps she's pretending to be ill/attend funeral ?

who knows star - I guess she could be elsewhere tomorrow - will have to see what tomorrow brings I guess. im sure the panel are going to be so pleased if she does attend that she has managed to sort out the staffing issues at school after all......

just waiting for my son to get home then off down the garden to sit in the summer house and chillax

Or pretending its a full day hearing and going shopping…
Is this the one who got her to redo the tests to 'improve' her marks, in that case you should be looking forward to making her cringe when having to confirm this to the Panel.
Super good luck.

Yes. If you need to occupy yourself do so planning on asking her the questions in front of the panel that will illustrate your case.

So you won't be surprised to see her - poker face with a sympathetic twist - poor woman may have been threatened with subpoena - if that was not needed, her inability to attend was purely a delaying tactic and was never 'true'. The more desperate, the more dirty.

yes this is the one who has at every opportunity tried to 'improve' her scores from spelling tests to handwriting tests to maths test to English tests - in fact everything!!!! and of course its all in the bundle......... every single bit of it......

Don't let her presence unnerve you. Don't let her be significant, focus on your main points and don't let them distract you with detail. Don't get drawn in to discussion or allowing them to set the agenda by saying outrageous things you feel compelled to respond to.

last time keep the head teacher tried to get us to bite by questioning what happened at home........ I just sat there and ignored the comment completely as it was clear it was a desperate act to make us react. if they try again tomorrow - well the indie reports make reference to what good parents we are

This teacher will not remember your child's name in a few years, yet you will be living with the consequences of her actions.

Sympathy may be justified, but not by you. Even if she loses her job by doing the right thing she can get another, but her actions coukd stand in the way of your child's opportunity to get any job.

Good luck for tomorrow bjk. You are very well prepared - much better prepared then they are.

I echo all the comments that no matter the outcome, it is just one more hurdle to jump.

Your DC might "just only be" dyslexic but my DS is in an indie school because a tribunal judge ruled that a mainstream could not support specifically his dyslexia.

Star - I don't mean real sympathy - I mean strategic sympathy - good god the woman is an adult and it is her job - courtesy of public funding

the indie reports have picked up some other difficulties along the way as well which all tie in with a child with dyslexia I guess - but put these all together and they all agree she is struggling -every single report uses the word significantly behind which is whats quoted in the code of practice.

thank you for the comments re the teacher - one of my weak points is that I worry about other peoples feelings too much - I have toughened up over the last few years and everything you have all said is so accurate - the teacher does have a choice, she is an adult and at the end of it is dyslexic herself and her own parents had to fight for her but I think she has the eye on the heads job now she has disappeared on long term sick so a different agenda here now from when we began this 'journey' my dh is fantastic and he will ask the questions I may wobble over

Suggest you bake a truly delicious looking home-made and offer nice big slices to the opposition at break time 'because we're all here with dc best interests at heart, even if we have some differences of opinion'

Teacher will be so busy wondering if it has bodily fluids or a voodoo spell on it, that she'll not concentrate on their case.

And if she does declines your kind offer for fear of poison, being so openly paranoid and rude will rattle her

Good luck for tribunal ...been following your story and wow !! you are a strong lady!!!
Sending you all my best vibes for tomorrow.

You can do it, bjk. I'll be amazed if you don't - your DD is so far apart from the girl the LA/teacher describes that the panel won't trust a word they say.

Write the questions down so you have them available, but I would bet the Panel is already busting to ask them for you.
There is no excuse for getting a child to re do tests. Ask her how many other children were made to re do the tests until they got a better mark?
Be thinking of you tomorrow.

at the end of the hearing as the teacher and sen officer walked down the stairs thinking we had left we could hear them laughing and joking.

the dyslexia teacher emailed me yesterday asking how it went and said that she had spoken to the class teacher and she is quite overwhelmed about what happened and quite upset about the judge not allowing her to quote LA policy and that they only wanted to hear about the law. the teacher was also saying that there are worse children in her class than my daughter and she is making fabulous progress!!!

why do I not have a single ounce of sympathy for her? over whelmed? how the the hell does she think Ive felt over these last 6 months? and then to sit in the hearing and listen to her admit giving my daughter tests again and agreeing she will do stuff that only a few weeks ago she made it clear would never ever happen - still waiting to see if the LA specialist teacher arrives which in the hearing last week she assured the panel she could have them in school within days

We never got any sympathy or acknowledgment mistakes had been made, even when we won on every point. The attitude was that we must have lied or tricked the panel as thats the only possible way the LA could have lost. This was despite the panel clearly saying the reason we won was because it wasn't satisfied the LA could provide for DS needs and the autism teacher had not been able to show her service could implement specific strategies, programmes and structures (i.e. provide autism teaching at all!) All we got from LA was a comment that we must be delighted with the outcome (which we were) but it was a bitter success because it acknowledged DS had not been taught at all for 2 years between age 2 and 4, there was no acknowledgement two years of his life at a key stage had been completely wasted and he would never get that time back and we will never know if he would have done better if we had started helping him properly sooner.

The service made no changes, what it offers children now is identical to what the tribunal found was in adequate for ds in 2010.

I really hope you win Bjk then you can tell her to get all the other children who are allegedly worse assessed too as she is failing them as well!

This is why the tribunal system is so important, its so crucial that these people are legally accountable. When legal aid gets cut and people moan about fat cat lawyers and ambulance chasers they don think about what life will be like if public services are not subject to any scrutiny.

No one at Dd3's school has even acknowledged that we won our Tribunal other than the HT who said well done!

I am dreading what the senco will say in her report to the LA.

I am no longer on speaking terms with the school

This yr has turned into a horrible nightmare.

The them and us situation between LA's, Schools and parents of children with SEN is not helping anybody and is making our job so hard!!

Good luck with the panel decision bjk am honking for you.

They see themselves as the victims. They see parents as using the tribunal service to 'up the ante'. In fact, Edward Timspon has agreed this happens.

God knows how they can conclude that when tribunal can only award 'adequate'.

What parent goes to tribunal for 'adequate' unless their child is being so badly failed the parents shake with fear?

The worst part about all of this is the even if we win we will be back at tribunal in a matter of months appealing either a NIL or a rubbish statement or no statement at all! I haven't seen the teacher at all since last week, not even a glimpse of her. No doubt the sen officer will have told her all about the big bad parents always fighting for their children and wanting top notch provision and I'm just a troublemaker. I really am over it now. It's amazing how this process changes you as a person. A year ago i was a gibbering wreck after the hearing, this year I'm like 'whatever' and couldn't care less about other professionals hurt feelings. I've got the social worker here soon as well, will put in my best bright and breezy face. Sod's law postman will arrive whilst she is here with the blooming decision!

What parent goes to tribunal for 'adequate' unless their child is being so badly failed the parents shake with fear?

Exactly this. It is such a stressful situation for the parent (let alone for the system-failed child) that no parent would put themselves through it. It is the most stressful thing I've ever had to do - home ed a system-failed highly-anxious child, AND fight the "system" by dealing with experts, schools, lawyers and law-breaking nasty vengeful LA staff, AND cope with DS's needs.

Before Tribunal, my DS had a very very bleak future - the experts told me exactly what his future would be. Post-tribunal and with the right provision (even tho it's "adequate") - he finally has a future and might just go into adult life very differently to the adult he would become without intervention.

All the way through my LGO complaint, the LA still said that their school would have been the right place for my DS - despite a judge ruling differently. In their so-called apology, they said it wasn't their intention to cause me stress or upset me. BLAH - of course it was!

I care not one jot for the hurt feelings these so called professionals. Either do your job properly, or get out before you destroy more children's lives!

I suppose when you spend your life only saying what the people you're speaking to want to hear, with all the associated backflips involved, it does become rather overwhelming when you're summoned into a room and told to tell the truth, within the confines of what is actually lawful.