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autism in mainstream school

chris and carly

hi everyone, first time post as ive never found i needed advice but this has me confused. my daughter is 4 and a half in a mainstream school. she has a statement of educational needs which includes the need for her to have supervised help at all times. when talking to her teacher the other day she mentioned one of her tantrums came from the fact her one to one teacher was helping another student as her class is busy. is this not correct as theoretically this support teacher is my daughters? another question is about attendance, some days it is physically impossible for my daughter to learn, her teacher tells us when she has a 'rage' her words not mine, that she affects the learning of all sfudents and is unteachable herself. this is fair enough but days when my daughter is like this the headteacher advised us to maybe keep her off school. its maybe once a week, if that. now he has told us her attendance is unacceptable and is taking no responsibilty. is a child with a statement 100% obliged in attendance than other children. sorry for the rambles but its reallg affecting us as her teacher seems to be bringing up the name of the local disability school more and more when anyone that meets my girl says they never suspect her to have autism. thank you

  • im new here so probably not much help ,

    but if the school is mentioing a special school and willing to help with this then i would snap up any help they are willing to offer from my experience gettig your child ito a special school is not an easy thing and can take many may years of battling in totally unsuitable schools to gain a place and is often left way too late and due to ths can cause alot of delayed learning as a consequence i know if my child had been offered a special school at such a young age he would not be in the situation he is now with his well below average learning ability mainstream school is just not suitable for most children on the spectrum way too many things going on for there little heads to cope with

    many parents have the impression that there child deserves a mainstream education for some strange reason ,if you were blind would you see t as your right to drive a car down the main street no matter what despite who you may hit just because you feel you have the right to do so ,some things are just not suited to some people the best place for a child on the spectrum is a school which is designed to help and support a child on the spectrum a main stream school is not designed for that and no matter how much support and 1:1 help they are promised the chances are the environment no matter how ice the school and staff are is just way too much to deal with and as a result will cause unnecessary issues which simply dont need to be there if alterative specialist schooling is being suggested ,

    dont wait snap it up it is designed for your child and can offer what they need ,why fight for mainstream when it just isnt suitable in the majority of cases

    hope you dont find this offensive its just my view but something i feel strongly about every child deserves the right care and support thats tailor made for them main stream school just cannot provide this .

  • Hello, Yes I agree with mumof3. My son who is now 8, did not like his nursery school and also had a lot of time off school when he was in reception class at 4 yrs (in fact for reasons similar to what you have said, kept being sent home because he was 'upset'). I had no come backs at all, no letters of about attendance, nothing and we pulled him out of the nursery school without de-registering so he missed roughly 5 months.

    By the sounds of things they are using the statement for their own benefits, after all they will of gained a TA at no cost to them if you think about it. The 1-1 support is for your child and your child only. You can ask the school if the staff caring for your daughter have been trained in ASD if not you can request that they are, that should clear up the 'rages' which the teacher refers to. As mentioned above contact the school via e-mail (should they try to block all attempts of written correspondence, I would see that as a little sign that things aren't as they should be) in my mind if there is nothing to hide it would be beneficial for both parties to have information documented for reference. Time should not be an issue. It would take 5 minutes to read an email and 5 minutes to respond which to me would be far more easier than arranging a meeting with numerous staff members and spending 30-60 minutes discussing? (the excuse used by my sons school).

    If you have no joy with the school contact the education department I am sure they will happily look into it seeing as they have provided the funding using your daughters individual needs.

  • Your child has no more obligation than any other child to attend school.

    I agree with the others regarding the 1:1 - they're for your child and not to help other children in the class.

  • While it may not be the same as I experienced as a child, I had to attend tutor group a session that school hoped would socialise me- then I went to Special Educational Needs centre and had my own separate/but near by area to complete work. Home by one pm to do 20 mins homework and afternoon to myself.

    I used to help on the farm and it was escapism driving from 9 years old and feeding cows with silage using tractor loader at 12.

    The education authority have responsibilities to make suitable adjustments.

    School was hell on earth for me prior to changes above.

  • Hi chris and carly,

    I am sorry to hear about the issues you are having with your daughter's school.

    I have put a few links below to information you may find useful. Apologies if you've read this all already, I am not sure how familiar you are with our website.

    The following article contains a lot of helpful information about education for a child with an autism spectrum disorder:
    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: http://www.autism.org.uk/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: 
    You may want to contact our Education Rights Service where information, support and advice is provided on educational provision and entitlements. Please see the following link for further information: 
    Hope this helps,
    Adél, NAS

  • it certainly is illegal exclusion, and your childs 1;1 is provided for your child not for other children as well at busy times,if the 1:1 is helping someone else another 1:1 should be provided, this is failing to meet your childs needs and not meeting what is set out in her statement. if i were you i would start to get the schools views on these things in writing, personally we e mailed everything as the schools have a tendancy to loose correspondance or not recieve it. It will make them very aware that you are watching them very closely, and a record of what school has said and done may be usefull at some point, particularly if things go wrong.

    of course if you feel that the school is unsuited to your child you have every right to request a review of the statement and ask that another school be named along with reasons for that

    get youself a copy of the sen code of practice and read it.

    schools get away with this kind of thing far too much,  dont be afraid to follow the complaints procedure and avoid informal chats, if it must be a meeting ask for minutes and ask to see them to make sure they are an accurate representation of what is said. 

     

  • HI

    THIS IS MY FIRST TIME AS A MEMBER ON THIS SITE.

    My son was diagonsed with aspergers 2 yrs ago which was a long fight for!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has just turn 11yrs old, he will be starting secondary school this year. At this present time we are getting support from his school and his new secondary school for his transition into his new high school.

    My main worry at the moment is that he feels very lonely and sad mainly because he his getting a lot of teasing in his school from other kids because they are noticing how different he is..

    We our based in Cardiff. My post is to see if anyone knoes any events or clubs where my son can make friends who can understand what he is going through.

    Thankyou

    Talybont1