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School - work placement

Hotel california

My son came home from school on Friday and asked how he could hide from the work experience coordinator.  Apparently she is trying to track him down to make him commit to one weeks off site work experience in a pet store.  My son has ASC and it is quite evident that he would not be able to cope.  If anyone he doesn't know engages him in conversation he either freezes or runs away.  

He does volunteer at a local animal sanctuary for a couple of hours on a Sunday, but his school says that doesn't qualify.  It has taken many years to get him to the point where he feels comfortable doing this, so throwing him into an unknown environment is doomed to fail on many levels.

I would be grateful to hear how other parents have handled this issue with school?  

  • Thank you Longman for taking the time to look into this matter.  I have arranged to meet with the coordinator next week.  It does feel like a one size fits all policy which is nuts.  

    If she persists I will contact the helpline as suggested.

    Many thanks.

  • Hi Hotel California

     

    We've got an education rights helpline that could possibly help - 0808 800 4102. 

  • I've just looked at a "work experence coordinator" job specification for Lincolnshire County Council at Spalding High School.

    The post holder is to solely manage work experience for year 10 and 6th form and to obtain data according to statutory requirements.

    The post requires accordance with the School's Equal Opportunities Policy, but whereas the specification talks directly about Health and safety issues in the placements, there's nothing at all about taking account of disability.

    As I haven't found the exact legislation driving this I don't know whether that's just a Lincolnshire County Council oversight or something occurring nationally.

    If it is a defect nationally, perhaps NAS could look into this?

  • Work experience is increasingly seen as vital to getting jobs after leaving school, and beyond higher education as well. So schools are appointing work experience coordinators or assigning the task on top of some poor teacher's already overloaded hours.

    The Coalition Government is obsessed with targets, so schools no doubt are expected to show good results in this, no doubt looked at by OFSTED.

    So this poor work experience coordinator has to drum up a high proportion of work experience candidates.

    It occurs to me your son may have taken this too literarally, in that it is something this individual will be trying to get from addressing whole classes.

    On the other hand if this Work Experience Coordinator is directly pushing your son into a specific job, questions need to be asked.

    Does she know about your son's ASC?  I'm not sure what happens in schools about the confidentiality issue, need-to-know, but it may be this staff member isn't taking disability into account.

    When his school says his existing voluntary work doesn't qualify, what they probably mean is for them to meet the targets, they have to get pupils to complete a certain size of work experience unit they can assess.

    Given the Coalition Goverment has scrapped fitness portfolios and is reintroducing team sports for all, partly on the grounds that the individual fitness reports were too bureaucratic, it does seem odd that they are treating work experience on a paperwork basis. Rather than what would best help the individual it looks like its all about the school meeting target quotas. 

    So really you need to intervene and perhaps discuss with the school whether a strategy round your son's existing voluntary activity would suffice. Because what matters surely is what would best help your son.

    Not more public school fantasy nonsense from Michael Gove and Co., who seem to thrive on being hated by every teacher in the country.