Advice sought for ASD boy 11

This sounds very familiar, my daughter had a rubbish teacher in year 5, which had a knock on effect in year 6. I honestly can't believe they have excluded your son for struggling. Can this be legal?

Hi Tempest,

All i can say is push now to get things in place for high school, EHCP, transition plan, meet with chosen high school now, the works.

I am a year ahead of you and didnt do this, trying to have faith in systems, only to the detiment of my son and our family.

Let us know how you get on and any tips you descover along the way

Just want to add that it is a common pattern that bright autistic children cope in early primary school and come to a crisis in year 6 where EHCP are sought. Children who go to secondary without EHCPs often crash there and a personal cost is higher as mental health deteriorates significantly and stakes become higher. Don't assume you can go to the year 4 situation by hanging school.  Your son's needs have changed. You need to think strategically about the future. EHCP is a gateway to get the right support to meet certain needs, so most helpful options would not be open to him without EHCP.

Thank you for the reply it has helped a great deal, an EHCP previously wasn't needed as before year 5 we managed his anxiety at school as Teacher was amazing and I worked at school as a HLTA so was able to pop over if he was wobbly.

Year 5 was awful and he had to be moved class as the Teacher was not meeting his needs and needless to say after complaints procedure no longer works there. That was an incredible amount of stress for him which I feel has not been addressed by the school. Now year 6 as we all know is stressful enough, he feels its not a safe space and his behavior is disruptive due to his anxiety.

I have spent the weekend researching options. I feel a bit better and a little more in control of what options there are for him. But under no illusions its going to be a long road to where we want / need to be.

You clearly need to get an EHCP, it is surprising the school haven't yet applied for one. Your son is not coping with school because his needs are not being met and are not even properly understood. The fact that he has meltdowns and difficulties at home is evidence that his needs are not met at school. The fact that he under performs in test shows his needs are not met, reasonable adjustment are not in place. 

You need to request EHC assessment and aim for an EHCP and for a suitable school that could meet his needs.

Don't waste time as transition to secondary school is critical, it is when many autistic children fail to cope and implode or get school exclusion, so try gettying the assessment this school year. You need to act urgently. 

You absolutely are better off staying at the current school until the EHCP, otherwise you will just loose the evidence and history at the current school and the precious time.

I would advise getting a copy of the Code of Practice and getting familiar with the process and the hoops you need to jump in the EHCP process.
You need to contact education advisory service.

NAS is one.

You might also contact IPSEA, the also have telephone helpline https://www.ipsea.org.uk/making-a-request-for-an-ehc-needs-assessment

or SOSSEN, they have excellent walk in centres where the can look at your paperwork and advise in person 1:1. 

 https://sossen.org.uk/information_sheets.php

SOSSEN and IPSEA also have model letters for nearly every occasion, you will need to use some of them when requesting the assessment..You need to use the helplines to get your head around how to request the EHC assessment and what evidence to submit. There is urgency, otherwise yoy will loose a year until the secondary school will get their act together, at your son's wellbeing expense.

Once you have applied for the assessment, you may start looking for suitable schools.

Hello

You may find the following  information useful.

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

You may want to contact 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

In addition , you may be interested in contacting our School Exclusions service. The School Exclusions Service offers advice and information to parents of children and young people on the autism spectrum on all aspects of school exclusion in England. 

If you would like to access this service please call 0808 800 4002. Please leave a message on the answering service with a brief summary of your enquiry, together with your phone number and email address, so that an Exclusions Adviser can arrange to call you back to discuss your query in detail. Alternatively, you can the team via email on schoolexclusions@nas.org.uk

Finally you may like to contact our Autism Helpline team who can provide you with information and advice . You can contact the team via telephone on 0808 800 4104 (Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday 9am to 3pm). Please note that the Helpline is experiencing a high volume of calls and it may take a couple of attempts before you get through to speak to an advisor. Alternatively, should you prefer to send a message, you can do so via their webform:

https://www.autism.org.uk/services/helplines/main/questions.aspx

I hope this is of some assistance to you

Best wishes

Lorraine Mod