Classic SENCO comment

[Corrimony]

(Why they don't want to move the workstation of a child with autism):

"It causes the staff anxiety to make changes when we have agreed upon a policy."

Yes, it comes across as putting the staff before the child. Moving a workstation shouldn't be a big deal.
But one of the points of having a policy that's been agreed on is so that all staff know exactly what needs to happen and when for a child with additional needs. If it gets switched and swapped around, then if a member of staff forgets or isn't up to speed, it may lead to stress on the part of the adut because they have cocked up and the child is distressed.
In a good school, flexibility should be an integral part of practice. if you are juggling two or three dozen balls and someone changes the rules for one of them when you thought you had a system, then that ball may be dropped.
So perhaps it wasn't meant as thoughtlessly as it appeared.

Un-freakin-believeable
Applying a policy to a child with SEN is a classic - every child has to be trreated as an individual,

That said wander's point is fair - and you will always get further in getting what you want if you can see it from their point of view.

BUT school is wrong, so you need to get them past this one. Lots of nicey nicey, I do understand, etc, but still say that if the policy doesn't meet dc's needs the that would mean that they were failig to comply with the law and obvioulsy they wouldn't want to do that being as how they are such nice folk....

And staff anxiety of that minimal level is not a legal issue - dc's anxiety and learning is

Oh dear!!

He or she needs a

Wanderer, I see what you mean. I do need to remind myself that they are working incredibly hard and may be trying to do what they think is best under difficult circumstances.

Senvet, I will do like you say at the meeting try to make sure they can move past this (especially as I am keeping him home for anxiety until then)

so your dc's anxiety has to trump the staff anxiety!

They cannot seriously say that their staff getting a teeny weeny bit anxious about an exception to a policy is more important than dc missing out on education -

I mean: if we look at the pool of anxiety in the school population, surely they can see that moving the work station will produce a net reduction?

They probably (poor stressed dears that they are) have yet to spot that the law requires then to treat each child as an individual, and so no policy should be applied to an individual without considering if it meets the individual needs.

But I will fume for you, whilst you do your best to persuade them that you are all on the same side, and that if they could just give this a try.....

It might not be the staff at all, it might just be the SENCO that is speaking on their behalf. Out of her arse.
Talk to his teacher directly.

Does the teacher need to be on SA+? Visual timetable?

Well if they are stressed by breaking an internal school policy then they should be a good deal more stressed by breaking the law of the land.

Why does the workstation need to be moved? What's the reasoning behind it?
They have provided it to meet his needs, so they've not broken the law. What's wrong with the original plan? Were you involved in creating it, OP?

Wanderer, the workstation always used to be in the corner of the classroom, in a quiet spot faced away from the classroom. Despite problems, he'd been more or less happy to go into school and things had been improving. Then they decided he needed to sit with the other children and moved it into the middle of the room facing the front. Since then he has grown increasingly anxious, his social skills have regressed and now hates schools and cries about going in. He keeps telling them and us that he needs to workstation back where it used to be but they have refused over the last two months, adamant that we must not let him control us. I think he just can't process all the sensory stuff and social information and concentrate and maintain good mental health when he's spending so much time in the thick of it.

I think the staff that had the bright idea to move the workstation in the first place 'feel anxious' that they will look like arses in front of their colleagues and that their policy has been such an obvious and disastrous failure and so are trying to hide behind policy which they themselves made up recently. Policy can be amended - after all they moved the workstation from the corner of the classroom.

Oh Corrimony, what total incompetence!
Fine to try out something new, to see if it works. Total arrogance and stubborness not to assess the decision, find it wanting and revert to what worked before.
If something isn't working, it needs to adapt and change. Your poor boy.
Talk to the teacher, then take it further up the foodchain if you have to.
Keep a papertrail of your discussions, in case you need to get the Inclusion team involved.