Have been fobbed off again .... i forecast a not so good relashionship with the school!

[genieinabottle]

Maybe i'm being cynical, pessimistic and precious ...

DS is due to enter MS reception in September (he will be 5 in November)
We had a transition meeting a couple of months ago, with school Senco, nursery teacher, EP and myself and DH.
Senco seemed very nice, spoke of the many things they would or could put in place for DS.
She said her door was always opened for a quick chat, no need to book appouintments!

Since then, DS was finally dx with autism and sp. and lang. disorder.
Cahms spoke to us about their recommendations. Plenty of 1:1 and small group work for DS when he starts school. Involvement from Autism outreach, .... making sure DS is drawn out from his withdrawal as much as possible.

Ms nursery have been useless. DS still has the same targets on his IEP as last year. Why? Because they don't have the time/ressource to do enough 1:1 with him.
He never does anything worth while in there, no writing, drawing or creative stuff.
9 times out of 10, he is in the garden on the bikes, or on his own playing with the cars and the trains. He doesn't learn anything because they can't get him to sit down and participate in table activities! But as he is passive and not a nuisance to them, they just leave him to it.

The slow progress he has made are due to the work the SN language unit (he also attends p/t) have done with him in the past year.

Going back to topic, school Senco was supposed to be observing him earlier. I had told the nursery teacher i wanted to speak to her about his recent dx and what Cahms had said. So teacher said i should go over there 20 mins later after Senco obs with DS.
I turned up and Senco isn't here. I get told by nursery haed that Senco will be observing DS another day as she was busy. She adds that Senco had said i have to make an appointment with her when i want to speak to her, and that as we already had our transition meeting there was no urgent need and she will be contacting me in due time.

I told nursery head what Cahms had said about the 1:1 support, and that they felt that more should be put in place before he starts. Reply: really? he seems fine here with very little 1:1, EP thinks he is doing ok! . (EP saw him only once 8 months ago for a 20 mins observation! WTH does she know about my DS!??? the same EP who didn't really believe DS could be autistic relying only on that 20 mins obs!)(yes he is fine for them in that he is very passive, and that why he is not learning anything! and his IEPs targets stay the same)
I told her that DS had been difficult and unsettled after each of his induction sessions at the school. Reply : well yes that's why the school organize these!
I told her i was concerned because the school teacher couldn't understand the few words DS did manage to speak during the session and isn't up to scratch with her makaton. Reply : it does take some time for people to get used to my DS when he speaks.

She went on saying that maybe he would make a huge step forward during the summer break as some children do! (yes children who have not got asd!!!)

Sorry about the rant... i'm so disappointed and desperate. I will be contacting again Parent partnership about going down the statement route myself because it does look like the school will try to fob us off into thinking everything is fine!

is it worth you contacting senco via school - just wondering if nursery head could be stirring a bit or if there has been chinese whispers, and senco doesn't mean to be unapproachable. I would give up tbh on getting nursery to see the light as to the amount of support DS needs - they sound a lost cause, sadly. Sympathies - had exactly the same problem with DS's first, crapola private nursery, who were happy for him to be severely languaged delayed and not look for 1-1, etc, as long as he sat in a corner quietly.... Will the language unit be liaising with school?

btw DS (language delay and possibly undiagnosed asd, who knows....) had a big leap at around that age, it's not absolutely impossible with kids witn SN.

Thanks for replies.

Totalchaos, yes language unit will soon be having a meeting with school. Thanks God for that actually. I'm hoping something good will come out of this.
Tbh, i have given up on the nursery. They hadn't even passed on both my messages verbal and written to his teacher after he got his dx(she was away on the 1st day he was there following dx) and nursery head didn't seem none the wiser neither!

I don't see how DS could make a leap in just 2 months enough to nearly catch up with his peers as nursery head seemed to be implying.
SALT at the lan.unit have said they think he will need continued salt for at least two years to get to a reasonable level.
He may well progress a bit more during the hols it's possible, but whatever progress he has made in the past have been on the slow side and with hard work tbh.

I haven't contacted RGO as off yet. The way things are going atm, i think i will.

genie, sweetheart. Don't phone parent partnership. Don't let them stall you.

Simply write this letter, or a tweaked Version:

Dear Sir or Madam,

(genieboy?s name) (date of birth)

Request for formal assessment

I am writing as the parent of the above child to request an assessment of his special educational needs under the 1996 Education Act.

Genieboy attends ..................... school.

I believe that (child?s name)'s special educational needs are as follows:

ASD dx
Speech and Language disorder

My reasons for believing that the school cannot on their own make the provision required to meet my child?s needs are:

-Recent dx of ASD
-CAMHS recommend lots of 1:1
-CAMHS recommend visits from Autism outreach
(pad out a little)
-Clause 8:13 of the SEN Code of practice states: "The following are examples of possible approaches: If the LEA conclude that, for example,
the child?s learning difficulties call for: ? daily individual support from a
learning support assistant
? the regular involvement of
non-educational agencies
the LEA may conclude that the
school could not reasonably be
expected to make such provision
within its own resources and that the
nature of the provision suggests that
the LEA should formally identify in a
statement the child?s needs, the full
range of provision to be made and
the review arrangements that will
apply."

I understand that you are required by law to reply to this request within six weeks and that if you refuse I will be able to appeal to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal.

Yours sincerely,

Genieinabottle

Sorry about the formatting.

Hi Genie,

Knew they would much you about again. I would seriously reconsider whether to send him to this school at all.

Would second Lougle here - do not contact bloody PP. They will mess with you as well. I write that also as they often work in close cahoots with the LEA.

Seek independent advice and use the template letter that Lougle has posted up. Do not delay this any longer. IPSEA, SOS;SEN and ACE can all offer independent advice. Also keep using this board!.

tribunalgoer - you should rename yourself "I'm going on a provision hunt"

Lougle and tribunalgoer....you've namechanged right? Don't confuse the old girl

Genie I second everything everyone is telling you. Get that SA request in now. I met a woman at a support group the other day who was telling me how wonderful school was with her child who is just coming to the end of Y1. They are just applying for a statement, yet he has profound coordination difficulties and is 'semi verbal' (her description). Still the LA will have saved themselves 2 years of funding. That's what it is all about

Yes, debs, it's lou031205 - I am sticking with Lougle now, it fits like a glove

Hi. Would agree with requesting statement yourself and not going to parent partnership.
It is shite, but it is quite possible that new school will be heavily influenced by reports from Nursery, and how they see your ds. If they think he is managing without much 1:1 they will pass this on.
Many schools ignore recommedations from CAMHS, and think outside agencies shouldnt "tell" them what their pupils need.
This attitude prevails, despite all the legislation saying all agencies should work together for the good of the child. Aaaaaaargh!
Oh, and if you have the audacity to disagree with the school and EP and Senco, then you are of course "neurotic" and "over-anxious", and you can be sure, this will be recorded somewhere.
By the way, do you have the same Senco as Claw???? The Senco is there for Your benefit, not the other way round.
Get copies of all reports and anything you send, and always ask for any info/discussions re your ds in Writing.
(was saying the situation was shite, not parent Partnership, but know some on this board are not big fans of them.)

Genie I would seriously speak to the autism outreach now and say there is no way this school is ready for your child in Sept and you are even thinking of whether he should go. If he has to go insist you have outreach support on first day in school (you can only ask!)

Ask autism outreach straight out what are the best schools for ASD in your area and say you are having second thoughts (they might already know if that school has been useless with other children before)

I have a bad feeling about this school if they are being dismissive of you now (and you are the expert afterall) then they sound like one of those schools who don't want to pay out for 1:1 and will muddle along letting your DS fail until you either get a statement or something goes horribly wrong.

Do you have a local ASD group you can email and beg other parents for info on other schools. I know it sounds scary to jump ship but there are schools out there that are a million times better and they will be used to parents landing on their doorstep at the last minute or midterm with an ASD child.

If you ring around schools you will know when you have found the right one - its when they say go and get a GP letter so we can bump your child up the list and we'll put the 1:1 in from our own budget while we help you get a statement - thats when you know you have found the right school.

If they are telling you now you are being a nuisance to the SENCO its a really bad sign. It sounds like Claw's experience waiting to happen.

Have you ever looked at ABA? My DS is very passive and we have cracked the sitting and following task thing with use of rewards and then token boards.

Lougle, cheers for the template letter . Seriously, it is useful for me as i'm not that confident with writing official type letters.

Everyone are telling me the same thing about the statement.
And you are all right. I've wasted enough time pondering over what to do... should have applied sooner, but kept hoping it wouldn't come to that and school was going to play ball.
But it's not starting well and DS isn't even there yet. Scary thought!

When i send the letter, should the LEA want a report or whatever else info... is there a deadline for me to send that info to them?
I'm asking as in 3 weeks, we 're off abroad to visit family for 2 weeks. So i wouldn't want to miss a deadline or anything like that iyswim?
Also does anyone knows if the department who deals with statementing issues closes during the summer break?
I'm asking as our dx report from Cahms probably won't be with us until mid-august at the earliest, if there's a deadline for report/info to be sent off to LEA that could pose a problem (we were warned on the day that they are slow with reports typing,...etc and it could take 6-8 weeks)

Thanks.

Wouldn't worry about timelines over the summer hols as you will have to wait anyway now. They don't assess just before a long break. You would have 6 weeks or so anyway for them to decide.

genie,

The initial request letter is actually quite short; you do not need to send them anything like reports etc. The letter to the LEA should be drafted along the lines Lougle posted earlier in this thread. Please write it asap!.

Your experience to date does also seem to me like Claw's waiting to happen.

Again don't worry about timelines; they still need the six weeks to decide (mark that particular date on your calendar). If the LEA do agree to assess (and they may well say no initially) they will ask for the report from CAMHS along with all the others for consideration.