Hi,
I'm really hoping that someone can help signpost me to some information that might help in this situation!
My eldest child (9) finally got an ASD diagnosis last summer after waiting nearly 3 years for CAMHS to work through their waiting list. He spent last summer off school after feeling bullied, by his teacher, to the point where he attempted to commit suicide.
He's gone back this year with his lovely diagnosis and although there have been many failures on behalf of the school to acknowledge the diagnosis and behave appropriately we have rubbed along better than expected. He still is very stressed by attending school, his attendance this year has been regular even though we are frequently late due to him being upset.
Long story short - this week there was a class outing that we were not aware of, on one of the hottest days so far, standing in the sun from 10am - 2pm. They told him they would get my consent verbally but did not. They took him off site, unprepared both mentally and physically in a staff members car.
He came back with sunburn, severely dehydrated, angry at me for "authorising" the trip, scared witless about what the long term effects of sunburn could be. The sunburn is on me, but with significant sensory issues which mean that we have yet to find some that can actually be applied without a fight and a lot of tears and shouting, I tend to try to only have this battle where necessary. We are fortunate in many ways that sensory issues also mean that he doesn't like to expose any skin at all, especially in summer, and knows to stay in the shade (which is also where he is quite happy to be). If we had known about this trip - firstly we would not have consented because of the activity involved and the fact it is known to be stressful for him but if we had of consented we would have had that fight over suncream!
The head teacher is trying to write the whole thing off and has already lied several times to both myself and my husband (I no longer deal with her as her outright lies, as well as physically speaking over me - I go straight to the SENCo and class teacher). I would like to take this further - should I? Or should I just accept this was my failure and not a safeguarding failure of their behalf?
If I do take it further, then where do I go? Its an academy school and the Ofsted website suggests they do not deal with any issues at all with academies. The governors are very much in the head teachers pocket but I accept that they would be my first port of call. I just feel that once again, his actual SEN have been ignored and that if I go in on my own then they will all just make me out to be a hysteric mother!