Mainstream school pushing to "get rid" of dd!

[thornrose]

My dd is 15, she has AS and is Year 10 in a mainstream high school. The SENCO has asked a few times whether I think that the school is the right one for dd. When we last met she mused out loud whether a Special school in our area would be better for dd. It clearly isn't and I told her this.

We just had dd's statement review (many months overdue) and she suggested dual registration at the same Special school she mentioned previously

I checked out the other school's website and it is clearly not appropriate for dd. I can't shake the feeling that she is trying to say that the school can't meet dd's needs. I am so worried. If dd had to move schools now it would be a nightmare. Can the school say they can't meet her needs and force her out?

Is it an academy, or an LA-maintained school?

LA maintained, C of E girls school.

I don't know much about this sort of problem - we fought to get our DCs from mainstream to special - but I'm pretty sure that your DD has a right to a mainstream education unless it can be argued that it's incompatible with the efficient education of other kids. I can't imagine your LA will be busting a gut to relocate her to a special school either.

Hopefully someone with better experience will come along in a bit, but I'd be surprised if you can't keep her in mainstream. The other issue though is whether you feel you can work productively with a school that has this attitude.

Are they saying that there's a genuine needs-based issue here? Or do you think it's some overpaid wanker in the school's senior leadership team trying to eliminate all humanoid obstacles to the Ofsted grade they want?

I suspect the latter, I think you have it in a nutshell! Their sudden lack of commitment to dd, now it is obvious she is going to struggle to get good GCSE results. makes me want to pick dd up and run away. But to where?

Is she happy / settled where she is? What help is specified & quantified in her statement? And how well has the school delivered the provision in Part 3 so far?

If the answers to those are positive, then there might not be much they can do if you stick to your guns... other than give themselves a long hard look in the mirror and remember what it was that they went into education to do

Ugger's right about the legal position, and I think she's also right that the LA won't be desperate to move dd to an expensive special school either. I would hope they would be particularly reluctant to move her at this stage in her education when it cannot but mess up her GCSEs. Whilst dual registration wouldn't be so drastic, am I right in thinking it would mean her spending at least some time in the special school and therefore horrible complications with her GCSE syllabus?

If they say that they can't meet dd's needs, they'd have to show that she isn't making progress. Is she?

Did anyone else at the annual review go along with this idea? If it finds its way into the final AR report as a recommendation, make sure you let the LA know that you absolutely don't agree and think it is clearly unnecessary and indeed would be potentially disastrous for dd.

The annual review was just me and the SENCO. She told me that she couldn't print out the paperwork so this was just an informal chat and rescheduled actual annual review for 2 weeks time. She then dropped the bombshell about dual registration and asked me to consider it.

The place she is recommending is for students at P level to level 2 which is not dd. DD has dyscalculia so maths is within these levels but not her other subjects.

I don't know how the hell dual registration would play out with her GCSE syllabus but I tend to agree it would have 'horrible complications'. I can't rid myself of this horrible feeling they have given up on dd.

We suggested dual registration for ds in year 2, ( who now in year 10 in a special school and is achieving mostly on P scales and level 1s). We were told it was not a good idea because it was confusing for the child. I realise dd is considerably more able academically, but it seems an odd idea for a child already in their GCSE syllabus years, to change now unless the SS can add support of some sort to the MS. There are more academically able children in ds school (not his class) who may be taking a couple of GCSEs next year, who need the extra support of a special school. The change to taking more academically able students is very recent, so I wonder if it worth speaking to the suggested special school - if only to get ammunition! It was the SS (when ds was still in MS) who talked the most sense on dual registration, and helped us think things through. Would it be worth looking at an indi school? Its certainly worth asking what another school could help with that the present school can't?

Alarm bells ring when a school staff member suggests something odd or controversial at a meeting which has been converted into an "informal chat". If I read what you've said correctly, thornrose, you turned up for an annual review and the SENCO said, can't do that yet, let's have an informal chat.

The beauty of informal chats from the schools point of view (and the problem for us as parents) is that they are not minuted and so there are no records and if, as a parent, you refer to this later and the school person says "no I didn't say it like that", you have no proof. Been there myself on this one, although ours were more formal meetings with minutes but the controversial bits didn't appear in their records. Started taking my own minutes and the person from school objected to me writing down exactly what they said as in their view "it could be quoted back out of context" but I failed to see how. Wrote it all down when I left the room instead!

The difficulty here, is that you have to work out if the school will actually give your dd the support she needs over yrs 10 and 11. I would think that if this issue is only being raised "informally" then the SENCO is just trying the water. If you had said you'd be interested in going down the special school route then it might have come up as a more formal proposal later. If dd remains registered solely in their school, surely it is in their interests to get her to do as well as possible. How have you found individual teachers so far? Do you know if there are any other ASD children in Yr 10 or 11? This may be an issue where you can get together and ensure your dc get the support they need.

Yes Running you are spot on. My reaction was very strongly against the idea and the SENCO immediately back tracked.

No other ASD girls in Year 10, I'll enquire about Year 11. Dd has moderate LD due to poor memory and processing type issues plus dyspraxia and dyscalculia. Spelling and reading are her strengths.

I've just received dd's predicted GCSE grades after 1 term in Year 10 and they are all Es apart from Maths with target levels being Cs. I think this is the crux of the matter! Her teachers are very happy with dd's attitude and the effort she puts in.