Oh girls this morning has been horrendous. This might get long and rambling so for those of you that bow out half way through - I don't blame you. I am sat at my desk at work blubbing like a snotty nosed mad woman.
It was dd's statement review this morning. Had posted on here the other day about understanding that the statement process is horrible but is the right thing to do in the end etc. etc. - probably serves me right.
Basically dd already has a statement in place that is relevant to her year in nursery (we actually have had a very good, pro-active relationship with the LEA, which I know some of you haven't), and it has now come round to review time to make it relevant to her reception year and to make sure there is enough time to get all the support etc needed in place for September. We applied to a good local mainstream primary, for the main reason that it is all on one level therefore fully accessible to dd, and were accepted, no questions asked. I was a bit apprehensive about the meeting because it's always daunting with so many people there and hearing all dd's "bad" points being discussed but I was fairly confident that we knew what our aims and objectives were, so off we went. Fine..all well and good.....but.....
After the 7 other professionals present (10 people there in total incl. dh & I) had taken an hour and a half all to have their say about dd's current statement, improvements she's made, amendments needed and provisions to be put in place at her mainstream school for September, the headteacher of the mainstream primary looked straight at dh and I and said "Can I just ask why you choose my school for M? Because basically after what I have heard this morning, I don't think it's a good idea at all, she'd be like a fish out of water"
WTF!!!!!!!!!!! The LEA rep. was horrified as were most of the other people present.
Fair enough, if there were reservations about her ability to cope in mainstream schooling and a suggestion that maybe the Special School route would be more beneficial to her we would have been perfectly open to that.......IF it had come months and months ago and from the appropriate person! As far as I am concerned what he was actually saying was "I have got a nice little CofE school in a good catchment area, with excellent SAT results, we are high up in the league tables and I don't need the hassle of an SEN child to mess up our cosy routine and drag us done a place or two". Then he had the cheek to say "but you're very welcome to come back with me after this meeting and have a good look for yourselves". By which time I was in floods of tears in front of everyone - which is not like me - but please, talk about inappropriate timing.
So now, we're left in limbo. The meeting was drawn to a swift close because nobody could really go any further. I would not dream of stepping one foot inside a school in which we are not welcome so what do we do now????????!!!!!!!!!!! Help.......
Plus, we then got told if we're going to look round other mainstream and special schools we need to make a decision in the next two weeks...I've got exams in a week and we're off on holiday in two...oh why is everything so hard??