Is it usual that a parent write a letter asking for a statement to be continued at review?

[Hedgyhoggy]

Just that really. Ds received statement end of Nov 13 and has a six month review in a couple of weeks. The senco has asked me to wite an other letter ('like the one you did requesting stat ass) saying why you think statement needs to continue. Is this usual? Are there any tricks to writing it?

i've never been asked to do that and DS has been statemented for 5 years!

I obviously give my views at the annual review which are minuted and at the last review i did submit a letter to put my views in writing about DS needing a SS placement.

I guess you need to write about what difference the statement has made to DS and his learning and write down any other help you think he might need.

I usually get a form to fill in with categories like:

• How do you think your child is doing?

• Are there any particular areas you think your child needs to work on next?

• Is your child happy?

(Not the exact wording but aimed at getting that kind of information)

It's used as a means of deciding what the next target areas should be.

I always send views before annual reviews in the same way professionals do. We get a letter from the LA not the school about AR as DS is education otherwise (ABA) so the LA calls the reviews. Its more usual for schools to call and chair the review but they should write to everyone and ask everyone for the same information. See here
My LA sends a form for me to complete.
If you are happy with everything as it is say so but still make it clear your child is only making the progress they are because of the support in place and what would happen if didn't continue to have it.
As we have ABA we always have to justify progress and why it should continue so I usually end up writing loads.

Our pro-forma is something like "what are your child's strengths?", "what's working well?" "what's not working well?" and "what would you like to see happen in the coming year?"

Wow my LA is well slack then!

DS has never met any targets in AR and we usually have an interim review every 3 months so maybe that's why they have never asked for anything in writing.
He's in SS now so reviews won't be as often and i guess i should write a letter for the next AR to make sure he doesn't lose his placement.

I have just written my parental views for my DS's first annual review. The LA have sent me a similar form to posters above.

In my views, I've made it quite clear that his Tribunal-ordered quantified and specified Statement and indie SS are the things which are helping him make progress. And that the support he is currently getting because of the school and the Statement is helping him to make his own progress too.

I think my LA might get a bit bored reading mine because the answer I've given to every question is that it's all down to the quantified and specified Statement.

Not that they're likely to read my views as they've never properly read anything to do with my DS in the past.

Thanks for your replies, gives me a bit more of an idea as to what to write. I think my problem is that though the school is nice it definitely could be better and I don't think the senco seems to do very much at all. I don't think I have any info or support off her and I don't think she offers much to the ct either. Do you think that by asking me to write a letter asking for the statement to continue that what she really wants is for me to feel its under threat and I should therefore say nice things about the school. Does she want me to say that the school have been setting targets but ds has not been reaching them...but it's not the fault of the school it's because dc is dev delayed. Feeling paranoid especially as ct teacher has been talking about special school which I feel at this moment in time would not benefit ds. Not sure if all this makes sense. Could be paranoid witterings. Feel like my head is about to explode after a week of endless appointments with ds, cannot see the wood for the trees.

Say the parent-school partnership should improve and parents invited to feedback on all targets before set.