First school meeting after diagnosis...

Hi,  we have just received the asd diagnosis for our 10 year old son in the last week, after 4+ years of trying and without the support of school who stated there were no signs of autism yet writing traits on his report to psychologist at assessment.

And have requested a meeting or should I say school ‘wondered if we required a meeting since receiving the official diagnosis?’  Our answer being ‘yes!’ that we thought a meeting would be very beneficial and would it be possible to invite educational psychologist?  To be told ‘no’ that ‘ learning support didn’t feel educational psychologist had a role right now’ so it would be herself and his class teacher we will have meeting with.

My question to the more experienced is, what should I expect from this meeting?... we are based in Scotland.  I was expecting the headteacher or assistant to attend and educational psychologist and something like an ISP being put in place re support.  I’m not sure our primary follows this programme.  A few years ago I requested a meeting and they pulled together an action plan that has never been followed or reviewed since so my hopes aren’t high.  And on the recent email only support strategies were discussed.

Due to working in child social care in my last job I’m very aware of girfec etc and also aware that even without a diagnosis my son is entitled to his needs being met.  These  have not been met in my view over the years and now with a concrete diagnosis behind us I want to ensure he receives what he needs now, especially as he is in P 7 and transitioning to high school next year.

any information or input would be great right now as I’m feeling a little lost x

  • It's probably still wise to get a EHCP as back up and for when he goes to secondary school. Phone your LEA they should be able to advise you how to go about getting one. We're in the process of getting one for our two year old who was diagnosed with autism last Wednesday but the process may be different for older children.

  • Thank you for your replies.

    I decided to try another strategically worded email to learning support and it seemed to work.

    I got a positive response which surprised me stating that the educational psychologist was new to the school, so learning support and headteacher would be getting together for a meeting to discuss all children with additional needs and my son would be added to the list for discussion and the outcome discussed at our next meeting . They are also going to discuss  his transition to high school at this meeting as well.

    I was dubious as learning support and class teacher do not know him  or manage his asd responses well in my opinion as school causes quite high anxiety for Logan that has not been supported well over the years.  But I’ll be prepared for this next meeting.

  • To force a school into following and sticking to any plan you need to apply for EHCP for your son. That is the only legally binding document in England at least. Perhaps there’s something else in Scotland but there’s definitely EHCP’s too.

    As for the meeting. If the school is unwilling to work with you it really doesn’t matter who attends as it will be waste of your time and the time of an experts that might attend.

    We live in Hampshire and to get hold of EP it’s like finding a gold mine! Incredibly difficult. However during the process of applying for EHCP the EP normally assess a child in school to give advice. The report from EP then makes a vital part of EHCP.

    If school is supportive you and teacher or head should be enough. It’s not like they just met your son. They know him well and all is changed is official diagnosis which in itself doesn’t make any difference.

    What ever you decide, good luck for his next steps in big school Slight smile

  • Hi NAS63209,

    If you haven't seen it before you may find the following links useful from our website, particularly the education rights page which has an advice line with a specific advice section for Scotland: 

    Our Education Rights Service who provides information, support and advice on educational provision and entitlements. Please see the following link for further information: http://www.autism.org.uk/services/helplines/education-rights.aspx

    The following article contains a lot of helpful information about education for a child with an autism:http://www.autism.org.uk/about/in-education.aspx This includes information regarding getting extra support for your child in their education setting.

    You can search for schools that cater for children with an autism spectrum disorder on our Autism Services Directory: https://www.autism.org.uk/services/autism-services-directory.aspx

    It can help to pass on information specifically for education professionals about autism spectrum disorders. The following link contains information written for education professionals: 

    http://www.autism.org.uk/professionals/teachers.aspx

    Hope you find something useful.

    Kind regards,

    Heather - Mod