Meeting on Monday to reduce DS hours at school- help me decide pls?

[lala21]

Hello you lovely people

My ds is in YR 1 (nearly 6yrs old) and after a 4 hard years we finally have a CAMHS meeting in Dec and have also been referred by GP (2nd time round) to dev paed for assessment too. He's been referred to OT as well for support with his sensory and processing issues.

The SENCO and in house EP have been amazing and are putting in place a nurture group( no self esteem) making some social stories for him ( lets other children hit and push him but he thinks they are friends) and are supporting him as if the dx has come for being HFA ASD.

I have a meeting on Monday with the Head to talk about my DS attending a Forest School in the pm of Friday.
The head said she would talk to some people and we can chat arrangements on Mon as its been done before in this school.

My idea would be for him to rest Friday morning and then attend Forest school in the afternoon for 2 hrs ( den building, tool using, making camp and learning about bugs)

His 2 teachers said he is academically very able and loved reading and writing. He has a project book between home and school to extend when work is finished and I thought he could use his outdoor time to create a project book.

They had the Forest School in Reception and he loved it and thrived and its all becoming a bit much for him. Its as though he can just about cope through to midweek and then we start with the toileting issues, lack of focuses and noises in class ( which I explained is a sign he is under immense stress and seems to happen after about 3 days into school)

DH thinks we should compromise and let him go in for the morning and I collect him at 12.
What would you do or think? Obviously we could review it and also see what CAMHS think.

Thank you in advance need to head to bed as I know it will be a rough night ahead x x x
Oh dear is a bit long- sorry

Sorry if I'm a bit late.

But what is the Forest school? Are you seeking dual placement for your DS? Regarding the reduced timetable?

If it is about that. I'm all for it, I am currently trying to get that in place for DS at the moment.

I can see some great advantages in this for your son but there are some disadvantages which no one has mentioned yet.

For my ds's it would seem very wrong if they did not go to school and everyone else did and increase their anxiety levels.

How would missing work on Friday's be handled as I am sure lots of schools do work that runs over the entire week. Will he have to catch up on Monday or have lots of bits of unfinished work. Is the teacher going to be thrilled if she has to repeat things on a Monday especially for him. Yes, the same situation occurs if a child is ill but you are asking for quite a lot of extra work from the teacher. ds1 finds it difficult to cope if he has missed work due to absence (e.g. he had a major meltdown when he was asked to do test eight instead of the test seven he was expecting).

What are the reward schemes at the school like. If it is Friday "golden time" then your ds will miss this incentive every week. Maybe he won't mind but mine would.

The HT will also know if she grants flexi-schooling for your ds other parents will be knocking at her door for time off to do other things (not your problem of course) but it is going to affect her thinking.

I am not saying any of these are good enough reasons to not do it but just bear in mind for your discussion with school and in how you prepare your son for the change.

Not so. If flexible schooling is agreed then as long as OP meets some aspect of education in the time he is with her then it is absolutely legitimate. 'Resting' isn't going to mean lounging about - he's not a teenager lying in bed all day! He will be learning from whatever he does in that time.

But that's a great big "if". The head teacher needs to agree, and may not be at all keen on a child missing an even larger chunk of the curriculum which will have to be compensated for somehow if he is to keep up with the rest of the class. He may be even less keen on having queues of parents outside his door saying "lala's son gets to take the equivalent of 19 days off per year, why are you objecting to me taking my child out for a week's holiday?" He should also consult the local authority which may not agree. What he cannot agree to, in any event, is a morning off solely for the purpose of having a rest. If Ofsted turned up and queried this arrangement, any Head who airily said he assumed that "rest" must mean that the child is learning somehow would soon find himself in an extremely difficult position.

Look, I'm not disputing in any way that it may help OP's child to make this arrangement. But it always worries me when people go for the part time option, because it may not help their child in the longer term, and it lets schools and LAs off the hook. If a child can't cope in school full time, the reality is that either he needs much more help in school, or that school cannot meet his needs, and that is what really needs to be addressed.

If he were just to miss Friday afternoon there would probably be very little actual work he would miss and the forest school could be his golden time. Maybe see if this could work initially?

There are several boys at our local primary, who have time off each week to train with Premiership football youth teams and this is sanctioned by the HT.

"Can a school place a pupil on a part-time timetable?
As a rule, no. All pupils of compulsory school age are entitled to a full-time education. In very exceptional circumstances there may be a need for a temporary part-time timetable to meet a pupil’s individual needs. For example where a medical condition prevents a pupil from attending full-time education and a part-time timetable is considered as part of a re-integration package. A part-time timetable must not be treated as a long-term solution. Any pastoral support programme or other agreement must have a time limit by which point the pupil is expected to attend full-time or be provided with alternative provision.
In agreeing to a part-time timetable a school has agreed to a pupil being absent from school for part of the week or day and therefore must record it as authorised absence" <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=YUl0VNWsDMHLaMjWgPAE&url=www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/361008/Advice_on_school_attendance_sept_2014.pdf&ved=0CBwQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHmLvjQCxYriUB6D0kocDhLUV0k_Q&sig2=eD35YLmo17lYBxoBdx4QJA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Govt. Advice on School Attendance

Flexi schooling, however, is entirely different. The school remains responsible for the national curriculum delivery and the decision re. Flexi school rests entirely on the school. Nothing to do with the LA. Most schools will be reluctant because they must enter the flexi school portion as code c -authorised absence, so it will affect their attendance statistics.

Oh gosh so many of you replied THANK YOU sorry had meant to update but had a bad day and night with the baby.

Well head was not adverse to flexi schooling at all but wanted to make sure he was accessing everything school had to offer.
The school has a Forest School but for Year 3 up but she requested that he goes to it on a Wed afternoon as he does it already so is familiar with the set up which I felt was a great idea.

Also my DS loves sports and running ( which is his big thing it relaxes him and lets him run of some steam) they have a group of children who do a running club on a monday and gentle exercise on a friday pm in school hrs which she thinks he could try and see how he feels, and also they have something called the Sunshine club which the head feels he needs to access which is done in the afternoon where a teacher is in permanently where children can come and do separate project work or play games or listen to music and she felt he should have access to it based on a set timetable and as he gets older he can start to say when he needs to go.
We are meeting next week just to initially put in a plan for him. They also have rabbits and chickens in school and I got voted vice chair on the PTA and think I am going to see if we can get some of the children into a rota of feeding and visiting the animals at the moment its nursery and reception but have am calling a meeting after xmas to get a whole school approach.

I think we may need an IEP ( sorry I know its changed ) but don't actually know what is going on. Need to speak to SENCO