School insist on holding a SN child back a year

[Solimama]

My DS is SN child and he is about to end of his reception year. He has EHCP and on 1:1 support at mainstream school. We just had a meeting with school and they insisted to hold him back in the reception. He is a winter born child and I came to know holding him back a year in primary school, will affect his secondary school admissions, he might need to jump from year 5 to year 7 and may not give GCSE because his statutory age of schooling will end before that. My DS still doesn't have much speech (he is in few words) possible ASD and ADHD (His is on a waiting list). He has limited speech therapist support at school. But fortunately, he recently started having support from special needs school at mainstream school. He is behind his peers at school. He struggles to write (fine motor skills are behind) and read (not enough speech). He can sit for classroom teaching but he struggles to demonstrate that he understands. He doesn't have disruptive behaviour but he is a strong willed and follow his agenda. (Which we will be working on with SN school support) My question is has anyone came across similar situation? What are the pros and cons of holding him back a year? Does holding back a year really helps because research suggests the opposite?

Transition to secondary won’t be a problem if deceleration is written into section F of the EHCP as it should be.

Leaving education before completing GCSEs won’t be a problem unless DS decides to leave. He will be allowed to complete Y11, it is just as he will no longer be CSA be could technically leave school before finishing if he wanted to. The EHCP can also continue until 25, or 26 in some cases.

I can see the pros of deceleration being:
-it gives you time to work with the SS outreach team.
-it gives you time to improve the EHCP - you need to ask for an early review to improve the provision in section F. DS needs more SALT and OT provision.
-it doesn’t sound like DS is developmentally ready for Y1, so redoing reception will be at a more developmentally appropriate level.

The cons:
-it is unlikely to solve the problems, the gap between DS and his peers in reception may still widen. What would be the plan for if at the end of the repeated year DS still isn’t developmentally ready for Y1?
-it is late in the year to be thinking about this as an early review of the EHCP will be necessary to write deceleration into F.

@ThomasWasTortured Thank you very much! It's such a hard decision to take. As a parent of a SEN child last thing you want to think is what will happen when my DC will reach to the age of secondary school or GCSE. I am also struggling to understand what I will be it's psychological impact on my DS when he will come to know that I hold him back a year. Because at certain point of time he will understand that his peers are ahead of him especially because he is a winter born. And as you said very valid point that if he repeat a year, there is no guarantee that he will be ready at the next academic year.

If DS is going to struggle psychologically because he is behind his peers I think that would happen whether he is decelerated or not. I wouldn’t base the decision on that.

We kept ds back in reception to see if he would catch up with his peers enough to move to year 1. When it became clear he wouldn't we used that extra year in reception to find and move him to a special school. Best decision we ever made.

My dd has severe speech and language disorder and learning difficulties on her ehcp, though we'll out of date now. Still named at old school but at special needs college now.
I found speech and language very limited on nhs, as she made limited progress they kept on taking her off it.
Had sessions with hlta supposedly 3 times a week??
Wished we had moved her to special school earlier, as they had there own speech and language therapist.
Sessions were limited, but the staff were extremely good at using good language skills in the classroom.
That made a huge difference, improving at her pace.
Have you had a meeting with people from special school??
Do you think they are after a managed move??
When she started in y7 they stayed in there year groups, but they changed it a couple of years later to ability groups.
Has his 1-1 been trained in good speech and language skills.
Think in most areas the waiting list for assessment for asd etc is longer now than before covid.
Surely as ds has 1-1 it won't impact yr1 class.
Has ds seen development paediatrician etc recently as to what education setting they think would help ds.
Dd was on p levels for years, made reading her school reports hard.
Expecially when they started to show a graph of progress on it as well.
Does your ds have any imput with specialist teaching service I think that is what they were called.
They assess needs for and things like numicon, clicker 5? Amongst other things to aid progress in learning.

@iwanttoscream Thank you for your answer. It's good to know that your DD is doing so well. I have been told by school that special school people are visiting only for 1:1's training so I can't meet them. Which I felt is a strange answer. What do you mean by managed move? (Sorry I didn't get that). No, his 1:1 is not trained for speech and language she is only following the plan provided by SLT. DS is not seen by development paediatrician recently but development paediatrician in the past mented that his development is affected by his lack speech and language skills. His 1:1 mentioned to me that DS doesn't seems to have severe learning difficulties because he keep demonstrating that to her some or other ways especially during is computer based learning with her. No my DS does not have input with specialist teaching service yet.

It isn’t uncommon for SS outreach to only work with school staff &/or DC. If you need them to speak to you you need that detailed in the EHCP. The same goes for if DS requires input from the specialist teaching service &/or the 1:1’s training, qualifications and experience - it needs to be in the EHCP. It really sounds like the EHCP is poor and needs improving.

Managed moves are for those at risk of permanent exclusion, they are used as a way to avoid it.

That's great that the special school are in training his 1-1.
Sometimes when special school staff come in, it's to see them before they move.?.
Hopefully they will be able to unlock his potential with the training given to his 1-1.
Even for them to come up with ways of engaging with your ds to improve his learning potential.
My dd also has reduced auditory memory problems, still does to some extend.
But considering how she was in ks1, she's come on .
Recently went to Buckingham Palace to celebrate her gold duke of edinburgh award.
Hopefully the special school will continue to offer support and guidance to ds 1-1.

@ThomasWasTortured I agree with you his EHCP needs improvement. We have mentioned this to the people who are involved with his EHCP. It is a new territory for me so your suggestion is very helpful. I also started to feel that his current school is failing to provide necessary support for him and most of the time I need to reach out to SLT, OT etc on my own or chase school to do anything for him and school try every possible way to push me back. Do you know if changing school (if school have a placement available) is straightforward process if child has EHCP in place? @iwanttoscream How wonderful!! Your DD is doing fantastic!! Thank you for sharing your positive story. It gives me some hope.

Unfortunately, if the EHCP is poor then, on paper, the school aren’t failing to provide the necessary support. All the provision DS reasonably requires should be detailed, specified and quantified in the EHCP otherwise it is highly likely DS won’t receive it and it isn’t enforceable.

You may need to appeal to get a watertight EHCP. To improve the EHCP ask for an early review. The LA don’t have to agree, if that happens you will need to either wait for the annual review or request a reassessment of needs which if refused does come with the right of appeal.

Do you know if changing school (if school have a placement available) is straightforward process if child has EHCP in place?

There isn’t a straightforward answer to this, sadly. You can make it known you prefer another placement as part of the review process (annual review or early review). Following the review the LA will decide whether they are going to amend the EHCP or not. If they do amend they will send a draft which you can comment on and state your preferred placement - there’s limited circumstances where the LA can lawfully refuse to name your preferred placement. However, the LA may force you to appeal either because they decide not to amend following the review or do amend but don’t name the placement you want/amend B&F satisfactorily.

@ThomasWasTortured Thank you this information was indeed very helpful!

I think being held back could be helpful. My dd repeated reception. She wasn't ready for year 1. It also gave everyone time to get to grips with what her needs were likely to be in the future. Ultimately she ended up in a specialist school from year 3.

@ThomasWasTortured just one more question. If LA accepts the request and send it over the preferred school. (Considering there is a placement available) Can preferred school refuse the request on the basis on SEN requirement?

Whether the school can refuse to be named depends on the type of school.

In order for a wholly independent school to be named in the EHCP you need an offer of a place.

If the school is not wholly independent, the LA must name your preferred school unless the LA can prove:
-The setting is unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or special educational needs (“SEN”) of the child or young person; or
-The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for others; or
-The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.
If the LA can’t meet the high threshold for this, they can, and must, name the school regardless of the school’s objections. If the school is named in the EHCP they must admit.

@ThomasWasTortured Thank you! @iwanttoscream Can you please let me know what learning techniques special school used for your DD? Post COVID, most of the support organisations are not providing enough support unless you push them to their limits. May be information from you will help me to put forward specific request to the special school.

Think they used readwrite Inc, which is if I remember phonic based learning.
Recently the college she's at now started using viper's for reading etc.
Think they used numicon for maths, to many yrs ago now. Can remember being offered a parents group to help us use numicon. But with other children it wasn't a option I could do after school. No family around to help.

Think in September they are going to do some phonic work with her, to help her with spelling, still struggles with times table. So better with digital clocks as its hard for her to work out the minutes. Though sometimes when it's 14:00 she can think its 4pm rather than 2pm. It's down to her working memory. By then she'll be 22.
Never did Sat's at school, nothing until dhe got entry level gcses.
Hopefully imput from the special school will help you ds keep the gap between your ds and his class small.
With us it just got bigger gap each year.
Hopefully this makes sense, been busy chasing things like ehcp etc.

Thank you @iwanttoscream for the information. Immensely helpful!

@ThomasWasTortured I am going ahead with a pathway as you suggested. Asking for early EHCP review while offsetting him. We have been told that review will take place in September as we don't have any time right now. LA mentioned that they do not include offsetting in part F of EHCP as a declaration but it will appear in history part. Will that be okay? Also, there has been comments by school during the offsetting meeting when they mentioned that my DS needs to to take break during the ongoing session at school or he is still not making friends. They further said he is not disruptive but he goes for walks with his TA if he need a break. Now basically there all are related to his ASD. Can I ask something to mentioned in his EHCP regarding this? Is there anything can be done about this? I can't keep him forever in reception for this reason.

By offsetting, do you mean deceleration? If so, that absolutely can be special educational provision. Point them towards AB v North Somerset Council [2010] UKUT 8 (AAC). If it isn’t in F, it isn’t enforceable, so you need it in F.

Movements breaks can and should be in F, and can be done in older years.

I push back gently and say it will make a massive difference High school is a whole kettle of fish

mist hight schools only give 1.1 inside the lesson this alone will impact his ability to make social progress most teens don’t want to hang around with someone who has a adult with them all the time.

my youngest has a boy in her class who is a year older and his mum has said it’s made a massive difference to him

I think it’s neive to think support will countine most of the issues parents have is when their child hits high school

I think it’s neive to think support will countine

Provision in EHCPs must be provided and can be enforced if it isn’t.

The 1st time I looked at the local special school I was shown some of the most profound pupils. Didn't feel right.
But a couple of years down the line I revisited and shown around again and was impressed. Some of the pupils in the year group were working above dd level and some were more profound.
For a few years they stayed in there year group, then they moved into ability groups. Which covered different ages, worked well for most. Some children couldn't cope with the change, so changed school.
Have they put in his ehcp the amount of speech and language to be given and by who.
We found nhs salt was always discharging dd as progress was limited.
Our ehcp was originally a statement of special needs, took until ks2 to get.
Buried my head in the sand before.
Think it was redrafted each key stage will look at my stack some time and post.
Has the school had any feed back from the special school.
Though in our area, they seem hell bent keeping kids in mainstream.

And in the meantime while your fighting to get the school to do what it’s supposed to you child does what🤷🏿‍♂️

better to see in the extra year if they can get up to speed if not cut your losses and find a SN school

I almost never meet a parent who regrets placing their child in SN sxhool but always meet parents regret not sending them

In my last post I didn’t comment on deceleration. The rest of my posts make it clear I think there are pros and cons. What I was commenting on in my last post was you stating it is naive to think support will continue in secondary. I was pointing out it must be provided, legally.

If DC don’t receive the provision, in the vast majority of cases threatening JR or a pre-action letter works, very few get to a JR hearing itself and when it does you can ask for interim relief, so enforcement doesn’t need to take a long time. It is the LA who is ultimately responsible for ensuring provision is provided.

SS isn’t the best placement for all DC. For some the best in MS with support. There are parents who regret SS. You only have to read MN over the years to see that.

@ThomasWasTortured Thank you! I will check with LA and refer them to the case law you mentioned above. @iwanttoscream No SS provisions are not mentioned in his EHCP. Therefore school is currently not doing much about it but we have spoken with LA and mentioned we need to include that in EHCP when we will be having an early review. @Thatgirl1981 Thank you. I can understand why you said not many people regret sending DC to SC but I feel reception is too early to take that decision. Also, it depends on child to child some may do fine in a mainstream school and some may not.