statements

[Mungo]

I am unsure whether to pursue a statement. When I spoke to Headteacher this morning she said so certainly that DD would not get a statement that I am wondering whether I should listen to her. Apparently these are getting more difficult to obtain.

Any advice really appreciated.

[tigger2]

Hi Mungo,

I am sure that someone will be along soon with words of wisdom but in the meantime I wanted to say that I do understand the points you worry about regarding your daughters next school and the possibility that she may feel disadvantaged. My understanding is that it is very difficult to get a statement now because it is a much more convoluted process...another couple of hurdles have been added which (and this is only my understanding ) means that less children 'get' a statement.
Have you got particular schools in mind? I would suggest that you approach the senco in each of your preferred schools and see what they have to say. The secondary school senco's that I have spoken to have said that usually they use parents information and transfer information from primary schools (most schools arrange visits into primary schools in the summer term) to help form a plan for the first couple of weeks as to how any sen issues are met. They have advised what strategies they commonly use for pupils in my childs situation

Have you tried Partnership with Parents? They advise on sen matters and I think that they are very helpful. Their number and email can be reached via KCC's website . They have very sound advice on offer and are happy to send out information to you. Until I spoke to them I didn't know that Kent had a dyslexia policy!!! They can also help with advice re statements which would probably help you a lot as well as advice regarding ed psych assessments.

Hope that you get the reassurances that you need-Good Luck !
Tigger

[mystery]

Do you know what she gets as part of "school action". You might find that in reality it is nothing, and she is doing well, and this would set your mind at rest about secondary school!! And if you do know in detail what she gets, and consider that this contributes significantly to her success, then you can describe this to the secondary school so that she gets the same.

Sometimes primaries set up these great lists of children with this that and the other on them but not a lot happens in reality!

[tigger2]

You are so right Mystery ! Our local school has a list of pupils with sen as long as your arm but very little has been done to help our dc. Ask to see her provision map to give you an idea of her needs according to the school.I've found secondary school senco's to be more proactive....

Tigger
x

[yoyo123]

Statements are very difficult to get. If she is doing fine, just with action within the school then the LA will probably contest that she needs no further help.

Asking to see the provision map will be a help, has she an IEP? What support is she given for her dyslexia?

[Alex]

The management of SEN in schools follows a needs led, staged process. When a school identifies a problem with learning or they know that a child has another disability or difficulty which is making it hard for them to learn properly the child is usually put on “School Action” (though sometimes stages are skipped if it is obvious that a child is going to need extensive help – some children have Statements well before they even start mainstream school). The school identifies the problems and puts a plan of action in place to try and meet the extra needs the child has. This is usually in the form of an IEP which specifies targets and the action and extra help to be put into place to help the child meet those targets. If the extra help does not “work” the school may try a variety of interventions. If it becomes clear that the child is still not making adequate progress to meet the targets and expectations despite all that has been tried, the school may then move to call in some outside advice from specialists such as the Educational Psychologist, Learning Support, Emotional and Behavioural Support, Speech and Language specialist, Autism outreach etc, etc, whatever is appropriate and available in the area. This is the trigger for the child to move onto School Action Plus.

New plans, informed by specialist advice, are drawn up and implemented, again usually through regularly reviewed IEPs. It is only if despite the interventions the child does not make sufficient progress that Statutory Assessment would be considered.

The first thing a LA usually does when it receives a request for Statutory Assessment is contact the school to see what help has been given, for how long and to what extent it has worked in resolving the problems. Without this evidence they would not usually accede to the request. A statement would only result from such an assessment if the LA agreed that the child’s needs could not be met from within the school’s normal resources.

If your child has been doing well and making good progress under School Action it would be very unlikely that the LA would agree to any Statutory Assessment.

It is very natural to have concerns about how your child will manage in the more demanding secondary environment. Firstly you need to be clear about what help she has been receiving in her primary school which has clearly been effective as she has progressed well. Do they anticipate that she will have more problems with any aspect of secondary school? You will want to know from the secondary schools you are considering whether they will have the same sort of help available or what particular programmes, help or equipment they have to help children with dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD. How will they monitor how your child is managing? How will they help her transition? The SENCOs should be happy to discuss these issues with you if you contact them. Usually there is liaison between the primary schools and the secondary schools to make sure that transition for children with SEN proceeds smoothly and the destination school is fully aware of the child’s needs.

In many schools there is quite a bit of help available without any need for a Statement. Notebook computers, dyslexia programmes, extra pastoral support would often be accessible to any child who needed them. However, schools do vary in what they are able to offer from their own resources so it is worth finding out about this from the SENCO beforehand.

You may find people at your local Parent Partnership Service or Choice Advice Service can advise you on specific schools and that there may be leaflets and helpsheeets or even workshops sometimes on offer for parents of children with SEN making the transition to secondary school.

For a good overview of the law on SEN and how the system works the IPSEA website is clear and useful:
http://www.ipsea.org.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mystery]

Yes you could have a read of the SEN code of practice 2011 as well. I'm not sure what you are hoping to get from a statement that you are worried she will not otherwise get. What sort of support do you think she needs that has worked well so far and needs to carry on forever?

[Mungo]

Alex, yoyo, Tigger 2, and mystery

Thankyou so much for your words of wisdom and advice. I thought a statement would give me more clout when asking for help. I think after the results I'll be able to focus on schools and decide the next steps.

Thanks again for helping me, this forum is such a good place for help and advice.

Mungo

[mystery]

Yes it does sound as though you are being given the right advice that a statement is unlikely. Whether your DD goes to grammar or not you should be able to find out what practical support she currently needs, and the SENCo in her new school should have this information and make it very clear to individual subject teachers what is required.

Hopefully things have improved since I taught in secondary but as a subject teacher I never received any info from a SENCO (there was one) as to how to get the best out of the children with special needs in my classes (and I did have several). I have to say that if I had been on e-mail, and the parent had been too, I would have been more than happy to communicate with the parent and find out how best to proceed. But every SENCO is different, and every teacher is different, and hopefully you will have a smooth run, and you will know before your daughter starts her new school if her teachers are going to receive clear instructions from the SENCO or not.

The other thing you could do is make contingency plans for if the support is not there (and at secondary level children sometimes may choose not to have it if it sounds kind of optional as they do not want to appear different from the rest of the class). So for example, you consider that writing down the homework requirements is likely to be a problem for her. If the homework instructions she comes back with look incomplete after a few weeks, or she is getting detentions for not doing homework that she was not aware of etc etc, then you could contact the form tutor and ask if she could give you contact details for all your children's teachers and then you could drop them all a brief e-mail explaining that she might need a little extra time to copy down the homework requirements so please could they either write them down for her, or put them up on the board before the lesson, or e-mail them to you, or something else that suits them? Or if she has a good friend in each different teaching group she might be able to text them after school to get the homework instructions without you having to try and get the teachers to do something different for your DD.

If she is doing well at primary now as you seem to be saying, maybe this is no longer an issue. Is there anything other than the communication of homework requirements that might require some "adjustment" for her?

[Guest55]

Mungo I have PMd you