Does anyone know about special needs schools

[espadrille 10]

Every Child Matters.

 

The way of working is now about inclusion and integration so that kids are educated in teh classroom.This is a great idea so long as resources are put in place to enable all children to achieve their true potential.

In my opinion and experience, I dont believe that (generally) a child who has Asperger Syndrome should be educated in a special school.They are often high functioning and as such achieve higly in academic areas.

 

What is lacking is social skills training and I shall be asking about this tomorrow at a meeting I am going to.

I believe that there should be funding in place to help all children with Asperger Syndrome as not getting the help when first diagnosed affects the school life and the rest of their life.

[espadrille 10]

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SENDISTtribunals/#detail

 

Not sure if this has been posted here already, it is relevant to us in that it's yet another erosion of parents options and choices.

 

 

Changes have been made to the tribunal systems as a whole, including the special educational needs tribunals, there has been very little consultation.

 

As you are probably aware when parents of children with special educational needs disagree with the Local Education Authority (LEA) over the provision for their child's education, the parents can go to a Tribunal to have their complaint heard. The Tribunal was supposed to be free and informal.

 

However, the government is proposing to change these SENDIST Tribunals by turning them into a proper court hearing. The proposed Regulations are so legalistic it will be impossible for parents to attend Tribunal without a barrister. The extreme expense will prevent parents from appealing (about £20,000 plus). Lay representatives cannot work under these circumstances as costs can be awarded against them. They do not qualify for indemnity insurance.

 

The LEAs would also have the power to assess disabled children against parents' wishes, which parents could be forced to pay for. This extraordinary power is not available to the High Court, unless parents are suspected of child abuse. If the changes to the SENDIST Tribunal goes ahead, parents of disabled children will be hugely disadvantaged and the children will ultimately suffer.

 

Many people with SEN children are still not aware of the governments

plans. Feel free to pass this on to other forums.

 

More information available here

 

http://www.sendist.gov.uk/importantInfo.htm

 

The group of people affected directly by this change at any one time is small (only those currently appealing the LEA provision for their child) and so it is crucial that as many other people respond as possible as it could affect any of our families in the fullness of time. Please sign the petition.

It looks as though many signed this petition but I dont know what difference it will make.

[marie riley 10]

hi all a new update i have been to look around some resource centres this week for help with my son who has autism.

the 1st resource centre i went to was for children with bed behaviour which looked ok but when talking to the teacher i said it would be no good as my son would pick up on the behaviour of the other children it was a great resource centre though offerd plenty of help.

The 2nd was a autism resource centre which teaches children and either helps them back into main stream or refers them to a special school this sounds great for my son who is struggling within mainstream it gives him that bit extra support he needs

[jon&emma 13]

hi my sons school is talking of putting my son in a special needs school because of his behaviour.

he has autism and aspergers but he has got a behaviour of if he does not get his own way he hits out.

school are finding they can not cope and say a special school would be better but i am not to sure if this would help or make him worse.

has anybody had experience with special schools and what they are like

 

i feel as though it is me to blame for all of this

 

hi marie, we are going through the same as you at the moment our son joshua has asperger syndrome, and is getting no support from his mainstream school even though they have SEN reasouce team,

 

Every day they are coming to us saying how bad he has been and how it is unacceptable. this maybe, but if they would have pulled there finger out when he first started back in febuary then it wouldnt have gotten to be unacceptable imo.

 

The school have made promises upon promises that stratagies would be put in place to help joshua but there has been only a couple that has been, but then taken away from him, as his teacher thought they were doing nothing to help, this has caused absolute caos for joshua.

 

we are at a point were we just dont know what to do. our poor son is getting the blame for them not supporting him.

we have had meetings to air our feelings to the head, but she doesnt seem bothered she just likes to make excuses up.

we are also intouch with the educational psycologist,

ryegate, parent partnership and autism team.

 

The educational psycologist has been to asses joshua a few times, the first time she came she told us his class was so disruptive that she would have to work with the class teacher, to be able to manage the whole class, to be able to help joshua, as it is unbeleavably noisy and that is one of joshuas downfalls (noise).

 

We have asked Ryegate for help and advice, all they told us was to leave it to the school, as it is there responsibility and to get intouch with our educational psycologest.

 

We have an appointment with Parent partnership on wednesday, cant wait to see what they have to say.

 

Autism team are coming into school soon we have been told by the school.

 

We are hopeing we will get somewere after all this, but in the meantime we have to watch our son go through imence preassure, and it is so painfull to watch.

 

I also went through the stage of blaming myself and sometimes still cant help but think it is still me to blame.

 

Good luck with everything Marie i know you need it.

[marie riley 10]

Hi jon&emma i am involved with parent partnership in rotherham and these are the ones who are helping me get support with my son dominic he is 8 years old and is still struggling but the headmaster is starting to understand a little bit more than he did i also have the autism communication team learning support and the educational phsycologist involved mine is just being looked into for a sen statement but with all the reports and support should be ok.

Hope everything goes ok for you in your meeting at school

[espadrille 10]

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0281

 

Here is a link to a hopeful development.

Shame it will take so long though.

[Titian 10]

Just thought you may be interested to know of provision in Sheffield that takes young adults from 16 - 25 years.

 

http://www.rmet.co.uk/index.php/the_colleges/freeman_college/