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Oh help me write my case statement......

38 replies

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 11:41

I can't get the words out. It is such a responsibility. The most important thing I have ever had to write!

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TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 12:30

Have you got notes/ bullet points of the key things.. ( might give you a clear structure of what you need to say in order)

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 12:38

Thank you. I'm doing something like taht atm. This is sooo stressful!

I keep writing one word and then getting up to make tea

I did the easy bit, which was a direct response to their opposition, point by point, but I've been told now to do some more human writing and it is so scary!

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niminypiminy · 13/06/2010 12:53

If you are thinking about a piece of writing as incredibly important and having to be absolutely right it's very difficult indeed to write it.

The best thing is to think that it doesn't have to be right first time. It's easier to revise something than to write it. This is what I would do (and I suffer very badly from writer's block so I know whereof I speak):

Give yourself a time when you can get up and do something else (I invariably find the most productive time is ten minutes before time's up) so you are not sitting there miserably all day.

Try this exercise. Using a pen and paper, write for five minutes. You can write anything, utter nonsense (eg why i am doing this bloody exercise), the point is to keep writing WITHOUT STOPPING for five whole minutes. I usually find that by the end of the time I have started whatever it is I want to write.

Try and write as freely as you can without stopping to correct yourself, being grammatical and so on. This is just a first draft. The main thing is to get the gist of your thoughts down. Write and write as long as you can (or until your time is up). When you've finished, put it away, go and do something else for a while.

Then, come back when you have had some time not thinking about it (this is important because quite often your brain will work on it unconsciously while you are doing something else).

Now you can work on revising it. Probably you will change it a lot, but changing something that's already there is easier work than writing it in the first place. You may need to revise a couple of times having got someone else to read it in the meantime but you will be on the way to having it written and finished.

Hope that helps!

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 15:02

Grrr, this is going slow.

Thanks Nimmy. I did what you suggested and found that I started writing about thing things that made me most angry. I feel like I have a bit of a clothes horse to hang the rest on now, but ....................per, it's hard!

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TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 15:16

I also hates writing in a more human way.. I tend to lessen the needs because I hate making ds2 sound like a horrible child. Which he isn't.

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 15:32

Thanks for the cuppa. Goodness this is horrible.

Ah, well I just enjoyed that last bit though. Legal people always tell you that the tribunal isn't interested in how you've been treated by the LA,

but in my case how I have been treated is linked to their very poor understanding and failure of their provision to meet his needs. Tis also linked to how hard I have tried to resolve the issues prior to tribunal and how stupid their responses have been. Legal advocate person says I should make sure I get these things in as they will be interested. Phew.

The rest I'll save for whatever complaints thingy I climb next.

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StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 15:32

And actually, I found writing in the first person changes the feel, even if the rest of the words are pretty much the same.

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TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 15:51

Glad your working your way through it.. What you have had to deal with Is bloody awful IMO.

I mean seriously put down to basics .. It's not mch to ask that our dc's are given the oppertunity to be able to access a bloody education really is it. The fight on behalf of our dc's should never have to flipping happen.
< gets off soap box>

TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 15:52

Opportunity *

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 16:14

Thanks,

and thanks for this too 'What you have had to deal with Is bloody awful IMO'

I forget, I really do. I just plod more and more emotionally void and blank it all out, until times like this when it all resurfaces and somehow I have to stick it all together in a document that will be responsible for my ds having a life, or not.

And the worst thing is, I'll never be able to say 'it was all worth it in the end', because it never will be worth the resources and time, and lost relationship with my children. But I have no choice.

Sorry, having a whinge now. I'd rather do ANYTHING than this document

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TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 16:52

Ahh whinge away.. Just sorry I'm pretty pant with regard to helping getting this written for you.

< offers another cuppa>

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 17:08

Ah well, cuppas are good.

Just been through the SALT data protection documents and it makes dire reading I can tell you. If they had spent 1 minute for every hour they appear to have been writing notes about how helpful they are being, we might have actually seen some progress........

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AgnesDiPesto · 13/06/2010 19:48

Write some headings
eg background - your family set up
chronology - re how you realised problems, got diagnosis etc
details of your DS specific problems eg sensory, language, social etc
intervention to date - SALT, LA, nursery - what worked what didn't (you'll have to get someone else to read this part and tone it down!).
why applied for statement - Don't get into the ins and outs of who said what just summarise eg say that there were difficulties or discrepancies in evidence etc but don't make a big deal of it you will have done that elsewhere
ABA - how come to start it, what involved - I then listed progress made under headings eg language, social etc, why you want it

Why want ABA eg why alternatives not appropriate

Future - eg not asking for ABA forever but as transition into mainstream etc

try and give some personal anecdotes eg specific aba things that have changed your DS life / ability to learn etc. Show is generalising by specific egs

The key questions for tribunal are:
Is LA option appropriate - if not why not
Is your option appropriate - if so, why
Is your DS making progress

It took me ages. Get someone else to read it and take out anything that makes you sound bitter and sarcastic and generally tone it down. The bad stuff will be in the correspondence, here you want to come across as reasoned and logical. You need to take them on the journey that led you to make the decisions you made and show why they are so sensible.

lou031205 · 13/06/2010 20:43

"What do we want?"

"Decent Provision"

"When do we want it?"

"Now!"

"What do we want?"

"A bit of justice"

"When do we want it?"

"Now!"

"What do we want?"

"An apology"

"When do we want it?"

"Now!"

"GO STAR, GO STAR, GO STAR"

We are all behind you. You can do it. You have to do it, and you know it.

Get a photo of your DS, and everytime you get writer's block, look at that & remember who you are fighting for not what you are fighting against

justaboutupright · 13/06/2010 20:50

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StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 20:58

LOL Thank you.

My printer has just run out of ink

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lou031205 · 13/06/2010 21:00

Hmmm....can't fix that one, sorry

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 21:01

Good photo idea though

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justaboutupright · 13/06/2010 21:12

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TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 21:13

You lot go all 2,4,6,8 who do we appreciate.. When all I did was pour tea down poor star.

< offers another cuppa... With cake this time>

StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 21:17

bored now.........

just ordered some more ink from amazon. About to drink Arsenic tea!

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StarOfValkyrie · 13/06/2010 21:19

Got me bare bones now anyway. Now it is a matter of linking the evidence to the text and refining. It will probably change massively, but I don't have the pressure now of having all these things to say, coz they're pretty much said (until I think of something else).

phew

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justaboutupright · 13/06/2010 21:20

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TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 21:30

Arsenic tea is magic.. It'll make you feel much better!

When linking evidence from what I said to what professionals had said I used those post it note page markers.( little sticky tabs that you can write on).
Made the whole thing much easier. I personally then appendixes them.( this was not for the same reason that your doing though).
So without ink you can go though and mark the relevant paragraphs and link.. Whch souls make it a lot easier when you cone to write it up.

Onward and upward..

TheArsenicCupCake · 13/06/2010 21:33

Can I just say .. I'm on my phone mning.. And it keeps making up words for me...grrrrr