Permanently reduced timetable

[mazagean]

Hi has anyone got any experience of getting a reduced timetable permanently agreed?

My child has trauma based school avoidance amongst many other things.

What has really helped with attendance has been a later start. Not massively later, just enough time to come in after everyone else, check in and head out to lessons. Less than an hour. Much better than before where we had attendance as low as 50 percent we are now at about 85 per cent.

Now this has been nicely working it is being pointed out that this was only a temporary intervention and would soon go back to full time.

This is not a matter of my kid stepping up. His disability/ trauma and other factors make him unable to step up.

Can anyone please help - the senco is a bit of a dick, attendance are being arseholes and I am very worried about the effect this will have on my child.

Do I just write straight to the head of school? I have so much information about my child I don't know how to narrow it down so that it is a no brainer - basically child = disabled, attendance = improving, heading into final year why mess it all up?

My child has an ehcp but this was not in place at the last review and so is not included.

Please if anyone has any pointers about how to go about this I will be very grateful

Thanks
M

My child has trauma based school avoidance amongst many other things.

I would be looking for an alternative school

what will happen when not at school?

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately at this point it is too late to find a new provision. If they moved they would not settle soon enough to do gcses so we are stuck on this journey with this school. Just trying to make it as painless as possible and maximise chances of them getting some gcses which looked very uncertain until school gave them a later start.

It's only 45 minutes later than usual so not a lot.

Remind the school they must make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act and must make their best endeavours to meet DC’s SEN under the CAFA 2014.

I wouldn’t call it a part-time/reduced timetable because they should be short term aimed at reintegration and after that DC should be in school full-time or alternative provision made as well as or instead of school. And really a slightly later start to avoid the crowds isn’t what is typically meant by a reduced timetable. Edited to clarify, when schools talk about reduced timetables they usually mean more than just arriving slightly later.

Is tutor/form time first thing? Could DC work towards only missing that rather than 45 mins? The school may be more willing to agree to that than missing part of the first lesson as well.

You should request an early review of the EHCP.

Thanks @BrumToTheRescue. This helps me understand better whats going on.

Because attendance have become involved it's like he's been shoehorned into this reduced timetable to get them (attendance) off the sen department's back.

Makes me furious. He is so pleased about getting in and managing better and the reward for that is taking it away.

@chillisalt he does miss most of the first lesson. It is just so much better than he was managing before.

He comes in at 9.45. First lesson starts at 9.15 and before that is tutor time.

When he comes in he then has time to settle in with a teacher in the pastoral area before he goes to lessons.

It just feels so unfair - he has an EHCP plan and diagnoses and has not been managing because the support has not been in place for half the year (illness/recruitment etc). And the message from school is always that he needs to do better.

It just feels so unfair - he has an EHCP plan and diagnoses and has not been managing because the support has not been in place for half the year (illness/recruitment etc). And the message from school is always that he needs to do better.

More like the school needs to do better. The school needs reminding the EHCP is a legal document which isn’t optional and they must make reasonable adjustments. Is the provision that hasn’t been provided detailed, specified and quantified in F? If so, it must be provided, the LA is ultimately responsible and can be enforced. Lack of staff isn’t a lawful excuse.

You really need an early review. IPSEA has a model letter you can use to request one. The soft start needs to be in there. If DS doesn’t attend the first lesson but instead uses the half a lesson he is on site to settle ready for the day that is reasonable but needs to be in the EHCP.

I don’t think OP’s DS isn’t entering a class halfway through. He is arriving at school 30 mins late and then settling in with a teacher in the pastoral area during the rest of 1st lesson.

It could mean DS doesn’t arrive at school until part way through first lesson. Then is in school for some of first lesson but not actually in class. Which is what the below makes it sound like.

He comes in at 9.45. First lesson starts at 9.15 and before that is tutor time.

When he comes in he then has time to settle in with a teacher in the pastoral area before he goes to lessons.

Good for you. I read it differently. Missing most of first lesson could easily mean missing most of the time allocated first lesson rather than the actual class.

If the school had a problem with a pupil entering a class part way through they could suggest DS spends the time in pastoral care instead of trying to insist a reasonable adjustment is stopped.

Is there a way to get him to first lesson that he can cope with? For example if tutor time starts at 8:45 could he come in at 8:55, then settle in to the pastoral area for 20 minutes before he goes to first lesson?

I understand that they're concerned because if he misses the first lesson every day he's missing about a 1/5 of the week or one full day. (I know he's not missing the entire lesson but if he's missing all the input it's probably difficult for him to do much in those lessons). But they're going about it terribly, his mental health has to take priority and if they want him in more then they need to put in the effort to find ways for it to work for him. They should be praising the improvement not saying he needs to do better - he's not skiving off to hang around with his mates FGS.

It's a shame they're not doing more to work with him and support him.

Thanks again @BrumToTheRescue

I finally got a copy of his ehcp so I'll set aside time this weekend to look at section F in detail. I'll also look at ipsea thanks for that tip.

I find it so strange dealing with people that pretend they don't have to follow the law or acknowledge disability.

Practically I don't expect much help from senact it's taken them 6 months of phone calls just to get an up to date copy of his ehcp.

Thanks @takemeawayagain I've used this already a couple of times today! They don't seem to get that he is exhausted in bed and asked him to improve his attendance today. Bless him he came home and said he thought he should try harder.

They should be praising the improvement not saying he needs to do better - he's not skiving off to hang around with his mates FGS.

Really they are bad but they've all we've got so we're just trying to get him through.

op is your child joining a class half way through?

Joining a class over half way through means that he will not understand the rest of the lesson. If this happens every day it could have a massive impact on him - he doesn't understand and has missed work, others - the teacher has to try and catch him up while trying to teach the rest of the class. Is there another way of him having this soft start to the day? Could he come in earlier than everyone so he gets time with the pastoral teacher before the lesson begins? Could he miss registration and not P1?