STATEMENTING

[tinalee]

after many years of battle with my sons catholic primary school i have taken him out and moved him this sept to a new school. the new school is great but feel they may not be able to cope with my sons extreme behaviour. so at long last we are requesting a STATEMENT!!!! lol. its almost like xmas has come as i have long believed jamie just needs a different teaching environment (as in one to one, small pupil groups) and he will do really well.

has anyone been through statementing and what should i expect? the request goes in after easter hols, then 6 weeks to panel, then min 26 weeks for the statement itself so with luck and a fair amount of nagging by me we could be starting yr 3 in sept with his very own statement!! whoop whoop!!

[MATTSMUM]

i hope you have more luck than we dad my son is 5 yr 1 put in request. community peadatrician requested stuff like educational psychologist report, info from teacher about behaviour in class, education inclusion service testing, speech and language therapy report so all this went in with parental request for statement. after 6 wks it was knocked back!! my son is too clever although only 5 and socially 3-4yrs academically he is 6 1/2 yrs!! so no statement despite there being issues in school days on the yard and outside the classroom where he has no structure and routine. They say kids need to be in bottom 1% to receive a statement, wanted to appeal told not bother by local parent partnership as still wouldn't get 1.

try and get a caf form done asap too
good luck

[toxic_lolly]

I hope you get on better than we did... My daughter's primary school could not control her extreme behaviour at all, she was only 5 or 6 ! They put her forward to be statemented, we waited ages and in the meantime found her a smaller ( better for her needs ) primary school. The problem was that they could not find anything wrong when they interviewed her teachers and when they came to see her at home although we aired our concerns she was as good as gold... the final result was that they felt that she did not have aspergers... now 10 years later guess what...she is waiting again for a proper assessment (18 month waiting list) and all this time the bullying and the hastle that she has had to put up with at school has gone from strength to strength, her secondary school is hopeless... if they kicked out all the horrible kids there would be hardly anyone left ! I really wish that they had diagnosed her years ago, but apparently it is more difficult to diagnose girls?

[wootlebug]

Unfortunately statementing is a postcode lottery. Some boroughs will get it done in weeks, others six months or more. You may be able to get a statement faster if you make yourself a pain in a neck with the local education authority but be prepared for a lot of bureaucracy and indifference.
As always, it is good to keep the school continually updated with your progress.