Yet another tribunal question. Ineed advise again!

[Ineedmorepatience]

We have our tribunal re match soon and as many of you know we are now considering not continuing to send Dd3 to school.

Someone on here recommended that we still go back to tribunal and try one last time to get Dd3 a statement or EHC or whatever.

However I need to decide whether to get an updated EP report, the last one was done in December and ask the EP to come with us again to tribunal or whether to leave it as it is.

Bearing in mind the LA EP has done no assessments with Dd3, she has observed her twice and met with her for one hour. She is intending to start some work with her around reducing her anxiety but that has yet to start!

So do I save my money and go back with what we have or do I throw more money at it??

Hope someone has some ideas because I dont know which way to turn

I think the value of getting another report could be if your senco is going to turn up at the hearing and start singing what absolutely fantastic and amazing progress your dd has made = you would need maybe updated report to counter that argument unless you have evidence otherwise.

as its been only 6 months, the EP would be limited in what they can do test wise so that would reduce the cost down hopefully

but moving on from that, if you win how good is the statement going to be? are you going to be going back again in 6 month time appealing the actual contents of the statement? or are you adamant that you will HE in sept?

Is this appeal to against refusal to statement?

Your EP could equally go and see how dc is in school, with the added bonus of being able to see dc at home before or afterwards, which LA EP will not have done - your EP will then be one up.

If dc would mask if your EP was known to be at home then see if you can sneak them in to view without dc being aware your EP was there.

May sound slightly mad, but I heard of an expert hiding behind a tree once to see a dc who was behaving naturally and it absolutely did the trick.

@ the EP hiding behind a tree senvet!

The EP we have used totally gets Dd3 and knows exactly what her issues are, he is mega experienced and understands what makes children tick so he said absolutely all the right things when he came to tribunal before which is why I have considered asking him again (and also because it is the return match from the ajourned hearing)
And yes this is an appeal against a NIL!

bjk, Yes we are almost certainly going to HE from september but we havent spoken to Dd3 yet! We decided we would wait until after the tribunal (if we go).

Its all got on top of me lately and part of me wants to bail out but part of me says we still have a chance of winning the tribunal!

I would still do the tribunal - as someone said to me on here a dire statement is still a statement so even if it is dire and then you HE you still have a statement so further down the line if she returns back into school you have it there ready - accept it maybe pants but that's an argument for another day and if they try and convert later to an EHCP you can push them to do more assessments. its just I guess how much do you spend now is the question isn't it? at this stage you have nothing at all to lose by going back to tribunal

That is what I think too bjk I think we have enough evidence from emails etc to enable us to quote that Manchester judgement! And see what happens. The school have spent barely anything on supporting Dd3 and clearly have no intention of spending anything. Everything they have done is available from their own resources and yet she is struggling desperately and has been too anxious to attend on many 4 occasions this term, always due to teacher stupidity!!

It has been difficult to motivate her to go at all since Feb but then if she thinks she is going to be late she gets really panicked!

In terms of not sending her back in September I cant wait!! I am done with all this crap and I want to get her back to being happy!

Sorry that was meant to say she has been very anxious about attending school on many occasions and has been unable to attend on 4! Plus all the after school meltdowns,like last night and tonight!!

and its now only a matter of weeks to go to the hearing and then one way or another it will all be over

Yeah that is true bjk, I will be glad of that I can tell you!!