My son hates school and it’s affecting his mental health

Further to my previous message about the webinar with Sunshine Support (I learned so much), I had a meeting with the SENCO and Head of my son’s school..

His hours have been reduced to part-time to allow him to fully decompress at the end of each day (I pick him up at lunchtime). They have agreed to make the classroom more inclusive and take down busy displays. They will open windows when the classroom gets too stuffy and have provided fidget toys and ear defenders. This has to be under review for the local authority, but this just means that we have to have regular meetings. It does NOT mean that they can change his hours back to full-time unless there is a miracle cure for ASD. 

I also learned:

If child has 15 days off in a single term (doesn’t have to be consecutive) then you can request that the school organise a tutor for them. 

SEN code of practice is not always in line with the law, so fact check anything that you disagree with

The school should make adjustments to allow the child to cope at school, the parent should not be asked what THEY can do to get the child into school - we are not to be blamed for absences

EHCP - the school does not need to assess the child for 2 terms in order to make the application, The child has or may have special educational needs and whether they may need a special education plan - if the answer is yes to both then they can apply. 

if you are unable to do any webinars then they are worth a follow on Facebook as they post loads of helpful info and it’s all inline with the law. 

Further to my previous message about the webinar with Sunshine Support (I learned so much), I had a meeting with the SENCO and Head of my son’s school..

His hours have been reduced to part-time to allow him to fully decompress at the end of each day (I pick him up at lunchtime). They have agreed to make the classroom more inclusive and take down busy displays. They will open windows when the classroom gets too stuffy and have provided fidget toys and ear defenders. This has to be under review for the local authority, but this just means that we have to have regular meetings. It does NOT mean that they can change his hours back to full-time unless there is a miracle cure for ASD. 

I also learned:

If child has 15 days off in a single term (doesn’t have to be consecutive) then you can request that the school organise a tutor for them. 

SEN code of practice is not always in line with the law, so fact check anything that you disagree with

The school should make adjustments to allow the child to cope at school, the parent should not be asked what THEY can do to get the child into school - we are not to be blamed for absences

EHCP - the school does not need to assess the child for 2 terms in order to make the application, The child has or may have special educational needs and whether they may need a special education plan - if the answer is yes to both then they can apply. 

if you are unable to do any webinars then they are worth a follow on Facebook as they post loads of helpful info and it’s all inline with the law. 

Thankyou so much for the all the information. That’s great, let me know how you get on with the part time and the classroom changes. The school have offered my son ear defenders but he says they don’t work so I’m just trying to find the right ones to buy for him, hopefully this wknd. 

My son got suspended on Monday for 2 days and was meant to be back in on Wednesday but he hasn’t gone back yet as he is so anxious and have not got a good feeling about tomorrow either.  It’s just so hard. The school just don’t know what to do, they are at a loss. I asked if he could do his work in another room because he says the classroom is too noisy and just too much for him. Said they can’t do that because they don’t have the staff, which I get. They give him the option to sit at a table outside of the classroom to do his work but he doesn’t like using this. And I kinda get it. Why would you want to sit just out side of the classroom with the door open knowing all the other children know your there and can see you and still hear all your class mates. Obviously he doesn’t want to feel different to all his other class mates. He’s  clearly struggling so I also get why he would like to do his work in another room altogether with no distraction and less noise. He doesn’t like that there is too much noise, too much people. I think he hates the environmental of the class room all together.  Hopefully if I get the right noise cancelling earbuds, that might help him.