Left Brain Right Brain

And so, we’ve now submitted the final parts of our thoughts on Megan’s Statement back to the LEA, we’ve confirmed we’d like her to go to the mainstream Primary School we specified in that Statement and they’ve confirmed they’re advertising for someone with SEN experience to fill 32 and a half hours a week.

The next steps now are to liase with Autism Outreach Team who are helping us and the school formulate a plan of change so that the transition for Megan goes as smoothly as possible. This will include training for all teachers and a phased introduction for Megan as well as the instigation of her Individual Education Plan.

So far, so good.

Yesterday we went for a look around the school we hope Megan will be attending. We also had a meeting with the Headteacher and a representative from the LEA.

The school was great. I downloaded and read the Latest OFSTED report before we went and it was excellent and paid particular note to how well they meet the needs of kids with SEN.

When we began the meeting it became clear that the LEA rep and the Headteacher had had a little meeting of their own prior to our arrival and the LEA rep had obviously been quite negative about Megan as the Headteacher started off by saying that he didn’t feel the school could meet Megans needs but that if we chose to send her there the school would of course welcome and do their best by her. To be honest, thats fair enough at least he’s being upfront but Naomi and I were irked that this LEA rep had obviously had her 2pence worth without any comeback from us.

Naomi and I were quite forward in explaining how much Megan had changed in the last year and that we didn’t feel that one 40 minute assessment over a year old was a good indication of where Megan is now.

So we moved on and then he said the magic words:

…the LEA are prepared to fund a special needs worker(s) for 32 and a half hours per week if Megan attends here.

Fantastic! Thats exactly what we wanted- all we need to do is not get too excited and ensure that this is documented in her Statement, not just implied.

We really believe that this will be a good school for Megan. Its local, has an excellent rep for SEN, gives her a chance to mix with both mainstream and SEN kids and she has the help she needs to make a go of it. At least she now has a fighting chance- if it turns out after a term or two that its not working we can think again. We’ll also be phasing in her attendance rather than all day every day straight away which makes good sense to us.

So, great news!