The head teacher from that other mainstream school just rang me and said she couldn’t take ds. She said she wouldn’t be able to meet his needs (standard answer for we can’t be arsed to try and don’t want the hassle) she said she had 3 children in what would be his year with additional needs and ds ehcp band tells her he is complex so she wouldn’t be able to accept him on the basis that she doesn’t have the trained staff, so I said ok. (Can’t force her - no issues with that! She had a stinking attitude from the outset, so wouldn’t want to send him there anyway)
But what really pissed me off and I’ve just totally shamed her for it, wasn’t anything to do with her saying no, it was because she said she agreed with ds school about the part time hours and sometimes schools can only offer a couple of hours a day at best and that it was better than nothing. She said she had a pupil in her school at the moment on a similar timetable, she said it’s really difficult for the school to deal with these pupils and they try their best. I told her ds had been part time more or less for the last 27 months, she said ds headteacher would have his best interests at heart 😂 you joking me! I said no that’s not the reason at all.
I let RIP and said its illegal how are you not aware of that? So she said no it’s not illegal, so I said YES it is.
It’s an illegal exclusion, informal exclusion, disability discrimination, whichever way you want to look at it, so there was an awkward silence on her behalf so I told her to look it up on the DFE or contact sendiass for advice or id be more than happy to let sendiass know when I next speak to them and she can forward them the legislation. I said it’s easily accessible on the internet and I suggested she read it ASAP.
I said do you send other pupils home after 2 or 3 hours every day? She didn’t answer me, so I said I assume you don’t, so I said so why is ok for you to do that to a disabled child every single day?
I said my own ds is years behind his peers educationally so how is it helpful for him to have received half of the education he is entitled too! Talk about counter productive.
These kids deserve better.