Homework system not working for autistic child

[Clymene]

There was this thread here the other day: Does your child's school use a system that allows parents to see what their homework is? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3745863-Does-your-childs-school-use-a-system-that-allows-parents-to-see-what-their-homework-is

Which made me realise that most schools seem to use some kind of electronic system to let children know about homework. As I said on that thread, DS's school uses a planner where the children are supposed to write their homework down. The problem is that he doesn't, 9 times out of 10. He has permission to take a photo of the board or record a voice memo on his phone but he forgets to do that to.

The upshot is that he now has 6 behaviour points which are for not handing in homework that neither he nor I realised he had.

Is it worth me speaking to the SENCO again? We had this issue last year and she suggested taking photos etc. but it clearly isn't working.

Would be grateful for any suggestions.

He's 12 incidentally, in year 8.

Does he have a school email? I just wondered if the individual teachers could email him the homework at the end of the lesson and then you and he could check it in the evenings.

It is difficult, Ds is year 11 and autistic but his school have always used the sims system, although I remember back in year 7 some teachers didn't record homework. Ds used his written planner early on but I don't think he's written much in it for the last two years.

Thanks, yes he does.

Is it a reasonable adjustment to ask the teachers to email him when they don't email the rest of the class? I'm just not sure how far I can push it.

If he was deliberately not bothering to do homework, then I could understand it but he has no recollection of it having even been handed out a lot of the time unless they give him something physical! His verbal processing is very poor.

Maybe ask the Senco and see what they say. It can be difficult in secondary school to get all teachers following sen plans and remembering to make reasonable adjustments. But if this would make things a little easier for your Ds hopefully they might agree to try. It seems a shame for him to be punished when it is not a deliberate act. I think secondary school sencos can be busy too, so quite often you have to make yourself well known as a parent to get anything done!

Ds often says he doesn't hear things being announced in class! It always amazes me because he is a bright boy but his planning and organisational skills are dire.