School 1:1 disappearing - advice please

My grandson, T, (aged 7) has been diagnosed with autism and learning disabilities. He speaks very few words, although he understands more (how much more is impossible to tell). He needs a lot of support and supervision throughout the day (and sometimes night). He's in his third year of school, so will be starting juniors in September.

Until this year, the school has been so good - he's had a 1:1 each year, a different 1:1 each year but he's got on well with each of them. This year, however, he's barely seeing his 1:1 because of school staffing issues. He used to enjoy school, but now he's coming home increasingly disregulated and distressed. The 1:1 has expressed her dissatisfaction about with the situation to my daughter. The class teacher, who has always been friendly and positive about T's education, has said she will talk to my daughter about it, but never gets round to setting up a meeting (we all understand she is extremely busy too).

My question is: As I understand the whole situation, T has a 1:1 because he's been diagnosed autistic with learning disabilities. The funding for the 1:1 has been released because of T's recognised needs. Obviously the 1:1 should be free to pitch in with other things from time to time, but they are there for T.

Is my understanding of the situation right?

I (we) would really appreciate any advice, thank you.

Parents
  • Hi there Bee.  I am sorry to hear about the difficulties your grandson is having at school just now, especially considering it used to be such a positive space for him.  I see you've already had some great advice from Expecto_Patronum, so I just wanted to add onto it with NAS's own guidance pages on extra help at school, which you can find here: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/education/extra-help-at-school (These are UK-specific, so apologies if you are not in the UK, but they do have separate information for the different parts of the UK.)

    Best wishes to your family going forward, and please feel free to get back in touch to let us know how things proceed.

Reply
  • Hi there Bee.  I am sorry to hear about the difficulties your grandson is having at school just now, especially considering it used to be such a positive space for him.  I see you've already had some great advice from Expecto_Patronum, so I just wanted to add onto it with NAS's own guidance pages on extra help at school, which you can find here: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/education/extra-help-at-school (These are UK-specific, so apologies if you are not in the UK, but they do have separate information for the different parts of the UK.)

    Best wishes to your family going forward, and please feel free to get back in touch to let us know how things proceed.

Children
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