School pushing SEN is it because of complaint?

[hollybungalow]

Before summer we raised a complaint with our daughters school based on class allocation as they mixed her up with another child of the same name and we also had a bullying concern (i know now!!) i posted a thread on it here. At one of our meetings they said that because she had been upset about it we should have an SEN assessment. it came out of nowhere so i felt like it was them hiding from their mistake. they admitted their mistake (my child ended up with the other pupils ‘friends’ and visa versa but they refused to change it. We decided to complain so at the very least others didn’t suffer as we had.
Anyway we felt comfortable to send her back in September and spent A LOT of the summer helping her adjust to a completely new set of friends and i think she has done really well.
However
the review of our complaint was today and they have said that they still believe our daughter has SEN for the following reasons: (she has just started Year 1 and is summer born):

She was asked to count to twenty but missed out 15 forwards and backwards
She was only able to read/remember 34 of the 40 tricky words
She had a toilet accident on her first day back

they called us in and said our complaint was effectively null and void because our child had special needs.

So I guess my question is are these reasonable grounds for an assessment? am i burying my head in the sand that she needs some help or are they trying to gas light me on the complaint?

help please!!
thank you x

Sending a child for an assessment is only ever to enable them to access support on my experience. They will also have noticed her demeanour, mannerisms and other Sen traits.

There's no disadvantage to her being assessed if they have concerns. If she does, then she gets extra help (eventually, you'll still have to fight for it). If she doesn't, no change.

Well I teach Year 2 and none of the things you have listed are reasons for considering SEND. Also why would it make your complaint null and void even if she did have SEND issues?

I read in envy, most schools don’t want children on the SEN register as they have to fund the first bit themselves so they must really think there’s a problem. If you truly believe there’s no problem then forward all your evidence in writing and ask for someone from the council to be at the meeting.

Surely screwing up class allocation for a child with SEN is even worse than for a child without SEN. There are enough barriers to learning with whatever SEN they are suggesting, without also upsetting that child socially.

If school admitted they’d mixed up my child with another one when allocating classes yet still refused to swap them over - which would be extremely easy, particularly before the school year had even started - then I think I would have looked for a new school. They sound extremely petty and not child focused.

This is ridiculous! I teach year one and it would be amazing if they could read 34 key words!!!
Your complaint was completely valid whether your child had additional needs or not!! It seems a really bizarre thing they are doing. Schools are struggling to deal with the amount of genuine SEN children. I don’t know why they’d do this??

She sounds like me in year one. Plot spoiler, I have SEN.

The complaint is not null and void due to their dubious argument that your daughter has SEN. I deal with school complaints as my job by the way. Is it at stage 1 or stage 2 of the complaint now?