Excluded from main stream school?

[l.plates]

Hi there

My eight year old son is statemented under special educational needs, he attends a main stream school were he is allocated so many hours s.e.n education which the school recieve funding for.

At the last review / meeting on his progress it has been suggested that he will not be allowed to continue into years 5 and 6 at the school.

Can they rearly do this????

[robinseggs]

In other words they are saying he must go to a special school? Is he not allowed to attend the regular school setting in their district???

[robinseggs]

If this is the case i would be wondering...."Whose best interest does this serve?" Your son's or the other classmates?

[pina]

Hi l.plates, I'm not sure if you can stop your child from going to special school, but I had a friend who had a similar situation and she flatly refused to let her child go, her son was 7 when she was told that he should be taken out of main stream school. I remember she appealled against it, even got a soliciter to go with her. (He was a waste of money she said. he just sat there and let her do the talking). It was held in a room with about six middle aged people sitting across the table, and not one of them knew her son. Anyway she won the appeal and her son stayed on condition she gave him one to one private lessons at home as well as going to school.

If you really don't think he should go then look into it and do what you can.

[Betty Boop]

Originally Posted by l.plates

Hi there

My eight year old son is statemented under special educational needs, he attends a main stream school were he is allocated so many hours s.e.n education which the school recieve funding for.

At the last review / meeting on his progress it has been suggested that he will not be allowed to continue into years 5 and 6 at the school.

Can they rearly do this????

Get back to your school straight away and find out why? Has this never been discussed with you before? Do you have regular meetings with the SENCO at the school and if you do this is when it should have been talked about, not at the annual review.
I understand that the way the money is provided has changed recently. Apparently schools no longer get funding from the LEA for their special needs children, they have supposedly been allocated more money in their yearly budgets to allow for this. This is certainly the case in Cornwall, although it could be different for you.

As to whether they can do this I'm not sure, is there a suitable special needs school in your area?
My son is also eight and special needs, I have queried recently if he is suitable for mainstream schooling, his school feel that at the moment he is. My son goes to wonderful school, they have bent over backwards to accommodate him and help him. I have regular chats with his teacher, helper and the SENCO.

I'd be a bit inclined to think that this could possibly be about 'money'.
Best of luck with sorting this out.

[booradley]

my son hasn't been statemented but he has had an I.E.P for his dyslexia and funnily enough, they had me in last week and told me they're taking him off it because he's hitting his targets even though I can't see any improvement whatsoever. Hmmm, seems like a money thing to me.

it might be a positive move for your son if it's only for a year or so before high school.

[l.plates]

Hi all

Thank you for your advice.

My son gets 12.50hrs one to one education under SEN a week at the review the cost was mentioned, under the system here the parants have the final decision and yet I'm being continualy pressured to change my decision. my son is now saying himself that he is not liked or wanted at the school and is being called thick-oh, and told to go to a school for dummies.

[gmc]

posted by l.plates

Hi there

My eight year old son is statemented under special educational needs, he attends a main stream school were he is allocated so many hours s.e.n education which the school recieve funding for.

At the last review / meeting on his progress it has been suggested that he will not be allowed to continue into years 5 and 6 at the school.

Can they rearly do this????

You don't say whether you are in scotland or england but in scotland the answer is no they can't and they're chancing their arm.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/d...w7/sima-04.htm

Aims
3.1 The Government believes that everyone has a right to participate fully in society, and to have the opportunity to reach their full potential. No democratic society should tolerate the misery and divisions which social exclusion represents. No democratic society should permit the development of conditions in which alienation, racism and violent disorder can flourish. Moreover, in an increasingly global economy, economic competitiveness and the ability to thrive depends on the extent to which the full human resources of Scotland can be mobilised and maximised. The Government believes, therefore, that action must be taken to achieve true equality of opportunity.

Try doing a google search under social inclusion.

Does have a major down side in that kids who really should be in special needs classes and one on one teaching get put in with the mainstream.

posted by jives

Robin, the British school system differs from ours significantly. They may well be able to do it. As I understand it, children with less talent and skills (by standardized testing) at the high school age go to trade schools, while the more gifted are offered an opportunity to go to college.

There's both pros and cons to this, but it's not better or worse than our system.

Way out of date we started going comprehensive in the 60's, you might find this of interest, some of the current debate going on.

http://www.casenet.org.uk/success.html

TB is tryng to turn back the clock as an ex public schoolboy (UK context public school is fee paying, he went to one of the more expensive schools in edinburgh) he's managing to antagonise much of the labour party and there is a massive debate about education reform starting.

Just to complicate things Scotland and England have different education systems-naturally scotland's is better although I may be a little biased.

[robinseggs]

Originally Posted by l.plates

Hi all

Thank you for your advice.

My son gets 12.50hrs one to one education under SEN a week at the review the cost was mentioned, under the system here the parants have the final decision and yet I'm being continualy pressured to change my decision. my son is now saying himself that he is not liked or wanted at the school and is being called thick-oh, and told to go to a school for dummies.

Aww Plates, I feel bad for your situation. I hope everything works out. But please consider your son's situation to the fullest extent .....Is it at all possible that going to the special school may actually be better for him? It has been my experience that most parents have this big opposition to sending them there and even fight it tooth and nail when in reality it winds up being the greatest thing they could have done for their child. Why wouldn't you want the best for your child and for him to have better opportunities more tailored to his needs? I know sending him seems like defeat--an actual admittance that there are more problems than regular school can handle, but think of the little boy as he sits confused/feeling left out in the regular room. Now he has even told you he feels picked on. I guess I see a lot of parents pushing so hard for their kid to remain mainstream and yet the child gets absolutely NOTHING out of the school day because there is much time spent trying to fix the problems/issues that occur when they aren't able to thrive. I dunno........consider this please....I hope everything works out for your little boy. I have a 9 yr old boy and I know our children are just the most important thing in the world to us!! Good luck!

[l.plates]

Originally Posted by robinseggs

Aww Plates, I feel bad for your situation. I hope everything works out. But please consider your son's situation to the fullest extent .....Is it at all possible that going to the special school may actually be better for him? It has been my experience that most parents have this big opposition to sending them there and even fight it tooth and nail when in reality it winds up being the greatest thing they could have done for their child. Why wouldn't you want the best for your child and for him to have better opportunities more tailored to his needs? I know sending him seems like defeat--an actual admittance that there are more problems than regular school can handle, but think of the little boy as he sits confused/feeling left out in the regular room. Now he has even told you he feels picked on. I guess I see a lot of parents pushing so hard for their kid to remain mainstream and yet the child gets absolutely NOTHING out of the school day because there is much time spent trying to fix the problems/issues that occur when they aren't able to thrive. I dunno........consider this please....I hope everything works out for your little boy. I have a 9 yr old boy and I know our children are just the most important thing in the world to us!! Good luck!

Hi

These problems have only arisen since the review a week ago, at the review a year ago our decision to keep our son in main stream school was not a problem, the biggest area of conversation was COST. they even (SENCO) tried to say he would be excluded from secondary school.

my son achieves the work at home unaided but at school he switches off and stares out of the window, the teachers allow him to do this and then decide he should'nt be there. today they have sent me a letter about his absence, he's had 4 days sick since september, this can be checked out with his doctor.

I have found out the numbers are too high they cannot accomadate all the children next year for year 5 ?????