MS nursery don't bother with DS !!

[genieinabottle]

Just another random moan, sorry.
Again i can only see the obvious differences between the SN language unit and the MS nursery DS both attends.
DS did a lovely canvas painting of his hands for Mother's day (SALT said they had to coax him for a while, as he doesn't like gooey textures and getting his hands dirty) but he still managed it in the end with the right help!
MS nursery said 'i have no Mothers'day card as they couldn't get him to participate in the activity for making the card' i was gutted!!
All the other kids had made a lovely card with crepe paper!!
The truth is i don't think MS nursery even bother to try half the time. As soon as he shows avoidance they let him get on with it !! Grrr...

Oh dear. Sounds like the nursery might need some coaxing and ideas of how best to help your DS. Not all ms nurseries are like this, I have to say, having had excellent pre-school for my dd2, but yours might need more pressure and input from you.

A chat with the SENCO?

That is really bad genie - nursery should make sure that all the children come out with a card for mother's day! Even if they had done most of the work and just got your ds to do a tiny part of it. I am glad though that the SN nursery did encourage him and you had a card from your ds. Schools can do marvellous things with our children but they have to have the will to do it which they don't always have! x

Dd2 goes to MS nursery 3 days a week and SN nursery 2 days. She gets far more attention at MS than she does at SN nursery and really enjoys it (more than sn nursery), i think its due to the help we have had from portage, her portage worker goes into nursery once a week to offer them advice and show them ways to help dd2.

Do you have a portage worker that could help?

No Marne no portage worker. Teacher did suggest portage to EP last year but EP said she'd rather refer to Saucepans. Well nothing ever came of that.

But tbh, MS nursery have plenty of strategies to help manage DS's issues, area senco, EP and even teacher from language unit have all visited and suggested ways to support DS. The thing is most of the staff changes regularly, more than half of them are TA who know nothing of SEN , and they just don't care to make the effort. That is the attitude that comes accross anyway.

That's so sad

DS2 always brings home a lovely card for me and he hates getting his hands all painty. He came out with a lovely potato print card (which I know he will have needed hand over hand help with) and a little plastic goblet filled with pink angel delight for me yesterday. (And he loved the angel delight, once we persuaded him to actually taste it. No good for me, since I'm lactose intolerant!!!)

Does your DS have any 1:1 at his MS nursery, or does he seem to be left to fend for himself a lot?

That's lovely Ouryve.
My DS isn't yet statemented, and he gets very little 1:1. Teacher says she is working with him on some of his IEP targets 30 mins per week which is next to nothing.
Whenever i go to observe him at MS nursery, i see he is left to his own a lot, and even then i get the feeling they make the effort to pay attention to him for the benefit of my eyes.
I mean DS has been there since age 2, and he has made very little progress in comparison to the progress he has made since he started at the language unit back last autumn.

genie

How far along the process are you with regards to a Statement application?.

Half an hour a week is certainly nowhere near enough.

If you have not already personally applied for a Statement you can do so without the say so of anyone like the nursery.

IPSEA has a good website and there are model letters you can use www.ipsea.org.uk

Attila, I have written the letter of application for statutory assesment. It's 2 pages long...

But i haven't sent it yet. I was decided to send it last month, but after a chat with one of the salt from DS's lang.unit. i thought i'd wait until he has his formal dx.
Salt said having an asd dx...or not? would change quite a lot of things regarding the actual provision on the statement includin provision with salt, and autism outreach services...
She hinted it'd be in our interest to wait until the dx.

Also we had EP (a different one to the nursery one) coming to our house 2 weeks ago, so we quizzed her about statement.
She did say if we wanted to apply now we could indeed go ahead. But her opinion based on her experience was that we'd be rejected on the grounds that the LEA would want to wait at least for DS to have been at reception with 2 IEPs with little progress, before LEA would agree statement is what he needs.
So we replied that DS has been with 2 IEPs already at nursery and has made little progress, but she said his needs are met atm as he goes to the lang. unit too and he has made progress since attending the lang. unit.

She also said we may be lucky in the end to get a statement, but a statement doesn't necessary means that 1:1 support with a key person for DS would be offered. She said all we might get is like a 'binding lawful agreement' on strategies to help DS.
...

So here we go again, DH and i have backed down again and waiting for the dx. (sometimes in May or June i hope!)

Sorry a long post here.

Hi genie,

But they want you to back down, makes their life easier you see.

Would send this letter asap (albeit shortened). They won't take much notice of a two page letter; its far too long for them to read and or acknowledge properly.

You do not need a formal dx before applying for a Statement.

re this comment made by the EP:-
"But her opinion based on her experience was that we'd be rejected on the grounds that the LEA would want to wait at least for DS to have been at reception with 2 IEPs with little progress, before LEA would agree statement is what he needs".

Another bod towing the party line. Its so crap honestly, I do not know how they sleep at night after uttering such rubbish.
No, do not settle for this at all and they're not allowed to do this anyway!. They are happy to see him potentially fail at school. NO!!!. Apart from anything else statements can take six months to set up and that is if all goes well and you do not disagree with the content of the proposed statement.

Statement support has to be both quantified (i.e set hours of support per week) and qualified; anything less than this has to be rejected by you.

I would be talking to some independent organisations like for example IPSEA, SOS SEN and or ACE to get their opinion. Not Parent Partnership as they often work too closely with the LEA and are thus not fully independent of them.

You are your child's best - and only - advocate. No-one else is better placed than you to fight for his educational rights.

Hi Genie,

Send the letter NOW, a friend sent a letter applying for a statement, the statement is now in place (16h 1:1) and this was before he even saw a paed. eventually saw paed a week ago and she wants to review in a year, suggested HFA! You really do not need a dx, it's about needs not the label.