Advice needed about my child's SEN statement.

[????'s Mrs]

My daughter has a full statement of SEN -supposedly for every hour she is in the classroom. I found out last week that for the whole of this academic year they haven't been giving her any support on a Friday because her 1:1 worker dropped to part time.

This wasn't discussed with either myself or my partner. It seems they have just been giving her support via the class TA which is what any usual child would receive and is not what is laid out in her statement. Unsurprisingly, her progress this year has slowed, with no progress in Maths at all. I only found out that the support wasn't being provided when a new teacher started this term and happened to mention it in the school playground!

The school are now acting very defensively and saying she doesn't need the support - which wasn't what they said in her last annual review. Surely, they can't make this decision without discussing it with anyone, when her statement specifies the hours she should receive? Does anyone have advice or guidance about who I can approach for advice in this instance, as when I notified the SEN team at Southwark they said the head teacher needs to resolve this. It seems he has no intention of doing that though.

Many thanks.

[intexasatthe moment]

That's outrageous . Have PM'd you .

[vesti]

A statement usually says 1:1 or small group support.

Not all classes have a TA as standard.

You do not say which year group your child is in but in my experience a full time class TA beyond Year 3 is unusual (without a child with an EHC/statement in the class).

It could be argued that the TA in on a Friday is primarily supporting your child.

This is not to downplay the fact that the school should have communicated with you.

Try Southwark Parent Partnership or Ipsea.

[????'s Mrs]

That's interesting Vesti - I will double check the situation in the other year 5 class but I believe they both have a TA and teacher with no statemented children in the other class. There is also the issue that the school explicitly told me she isn't receiving support despite this being set out clearly in her statement. I have contacted parent partnership but not IPSea, so thanks for the tip.

[vesti]

Schools vary.There is no requirement to have TAs in classes.

Odd to have said child has no need of support on a Friday!

If your child is in year 5 and has a Southwark Statement their Statement should be being transfered to an EHC this term,which would give you the opportunity to meet with the SENCO and the local authority and revisit support and how it is delivered.