My SA is 10 yrs & 6 months old and in July he will be coming to the end of yr 5 at his primary school. (He has attended this school for 2 yrs, as I made the decision to move him to a school nearer home.) In July last year SA was diagnosed with childhood autism, he already has dyslexia and this in itself is quite severe. In March this year SA was also diagnosed with ADHD, he only has a short span of concentration and gets distracted very easily and has to be constantly refocused. At school SA is on SA+HF,(PSS and CAT have been on board about 5 mths) but it's his progression that causes me immense concern. When he joined this school he was on a 2b for numeracy - now a 2a; a 2c for reading - now a 2a and a 1b for writing, which throughout the 2yr period has remained unchanged. A very opinionated Ed Psyc came on board in March and said that the school were doing all they can and that she felt that SA could & should try harder; the week after at a caf meeting, the senco and deputy head asked me if I'd considered putting SA on medication to help him concentrate more and that maybe it was something I could have a talk to his consultant about. (I will not go down this avenue till all others have been tried)For the past 2 yrs I have been up and down the school like a yoyo, fighting his corner, trying to be constructive when putting my point across. But I felt that anything I said fell mainly on deaf ears and that it was so hard to get direct answers or such a battle to get any changes implemented, that to be honest not a great deal has altered in regards to SA's lessons over the 2yr period. I honestly thought that when the school had the diagnosis for both of his conditions, that things would change - how naive can you get? SA is a bright child who is very articulate, but more importantly does have the ability to learn (camhs confirmed this through their assessments); it's just their adopted teaching methods and recording formats, eg - writing - that SA struggles to deal with. I also feel that due to SA's problems, they haven't taken on board the extent of frustration he goes through. Even the target settings on his IEP keep coming down not up - first it was to be able to write 5 sentences independently, then it went down to 3, now it is just write sentences because the targets were not being achieved. Anyway, after months of reading policies, procedures and legal rights also talking to parents in partnership and getting an educational advocate from NAS. I am now in the process of applying for an assessment off our local LEA; but one thing bothers me! I don't want the Ed Psyc who has seen SA to do the assessment, if hopefully I get that far. She has gone on her opinion and not fact and although she is supposed to be a professional, I feel an assessment done by her would be somewhat biased. Do I have any say in this, also, should I write this on the requisition before I send it off, stating my reasons for the change?
Thanking You all so very much, Suella.