Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone.
I am Mum to a newly diagnosed ASD 15 year old boy.
This has been a hard slog to get a diagnosis and I have found the schools to be less than helpful!
In his previous school he was just branded a naughty boy with no input from SENCO dept.
My son started a new school in September and in transition my son was supposed to receive a fresh start but at the diaagnosis meeting in January this year I was infromed that he had arrived at the school as a "discipline problem" and that they had never recieved the Educational Psychologists report, that had been in place since the previous May that had highlighted learning difficulties and possible Aspergers, from his previous school. Even though I had handed a copy of this into his new school myself.
After the diagnosis meeting I have asked further questions regarding this and it has come to light that the SENCO department head had voiced her concerns that my son should have arrived under there umbrella but that she had been "overruled".
My sons school experience is not good and his behaviour is not brilliant which we are working on but he doesn't have good relationships with his teachers because for an entire term he was again treated as just being bad.
My question is that I want to make a formal complaint because despite information provided to the school that there were difficulties, they have ignored them and possibly made school a negative experience for my son and we don't know whether it could have turned out to be better for him if they had acted on informaton they had.
When I spoke to Autism Outreach they just said that sadly this is not unusual. But does that mean we should just accept it.
Your advice/comments would be appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Ellsey,
The complaint issue has to come from you. I agree the situation is inexcusable and it's clear both you and your son have been let down, but you have to weigh up any benefit that can be accomplished in the time he has left at the School and whether your efforts would be better focused on a more secure/ supportive environment for your son, post 16.
The normal path to go through, would be a complaint to the board of governers, but I advise you get support with this, as the complaints proceedure has to be followed carefullY to comply with their guidelines.
I did this for my son at primary level and it was extremely unsuccessful, with the governers siding with the headmaster on the issue, however it was clear they were out of their depth as they didn't even know the difference between School action and School action plus! Pretty poor really given that the individual was meant to be the SEN representative on the governing board.
It took a judgement by the SEN tribunal in London to shake the board out of their slumber and into the reality that the case was very serious and that my sons educational and emotional well-being had been damaged as a result of their neglect and poor management of his SEN. Sadly, by then I'd already had to remove my children from the School because of what I saw as major breaches of the SEN Code of Practice. You may want to get legal advice here, if you feel this has occured for your son.
Thankfully, his secondary and FE experience (Covered by his statement) has been more productive and supportive. Support is key here If you want to turn it around. After Tribunal I focused on my sons needs, although i was advised to sue. All we wanted was the right provision for my son however, so we didn't feel our energy would be well spent going down that avenue. I home educated also as the LA decided on a placement.
Does he have a statement? It's likely that it will end when he reaches 16, so you may need to look at a MOAP (Moving On Action Plan,) or LDA (Learning disability assessment) for his post 16 provision. Talk to connexions or your LA about provision for this if he's flown under the radar and isn't really being taken seriously by the School.
He is not alone as this short video clip reveals, however, you need to reassure him that their are better placements and things can get better with the correct support.
www.facebook.com/.../
Please ask if you have any other questions I can help you with.
Coogybear.