espelli

Sillywoman, I completely agree that referral should be made for assessment as soon as possible and believe me the vast majority of SENCo's would too. However as I tried to explain in my previous post a referral may be made and take a year or more before anyone sees the child, let alone assesses them. Schools are asked to provide their own evidence to show what additional support they have given and the impact (or lack of) that this has made on the child's learning before an assessment will be done. This all takes time. Headteachers and SENCo's have been told by certain Local Authorities that they are referring too many children and it is not possible that this many children have SEN. At the last school I worked at we referred so many children for SEN that the Speech and Language therapists came in to "train" us to properly spot children who were having language difficulties as we were referring too many. Budgets are tight and if a child is diagnosed with an additional need Local Authorities have a legal obligation to meet that need. A cynical person may say that is why the bottle-necks exist in the system. Given that Dyslexia can only really be reliably diagnosed from KS2 onwards that gives primary schools 4 years at most to get a diagnosis before the child goes on to secondary. Some schools buy in assessors and do it in house - but this money comes from the SEN budget and it is a luxury few schools can afford. The rest of the schools need to go through the process above which can take time. I am not doubting that with the SENCo acting effectively as a gatekeeper to assessments, diagnosis and support it is difficult to see why there is reluctance to act, and of course some SENCo's are more pro-active than others but I think they have a very difficult job to do and it is not always their reluctance to act that is the problem.

I would also recommend you contact the school SENCo. The few weeks wait mentioned in the post above seems rather optimistic in my experience. Recently in a neighbouring local authority the wait for assessment by an Educational Psychologist was over a year. Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) Teams are usually equally overstretched and so expect schools to provide a lot of the intervention work themselves before any testing or diagnosis. This is also sometimes why problems do not seem to be "picked up" at primary level.

These are some of the books that I have recommended and/or read to classes when I taught that age range. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Spiderwick Chronicles Beast Quest Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar (almost anything by him really) Lemony Snicket Series Lionboy Trilogy (although quite sophisticated - nearer age 10 than 8) Horrid Henry books Horrible Histories Captain Underpants Alex Rider books Anything by Anne Fine Hopefully there will be something there to tempt him!

There is a slang phrase: "Going for a McPee" - going into McDonalds to use the facilities without buying anything - so many people do it that it is generally accepted as normal. Declan and Reetpetite why is it more acceptable for a boy to be peeing in the street than a girl? Peeing on rubbish bags is disgusting, I'm not defending it, but I am questioning the gender distinction? Is there a reason other than it not being ladylike?!

VSO have offices in Putney that they may rent for an evening session. www.vso.org.uk

philip walker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- Again the doctor said I > should not see an osteopath or massage therapist, > commenting that they do not have enough knowledge > of anatomy and physiology and could make it much > worse. That is very interesting, a number of years ago I lived in a shared house with a couple who were osteopaths. One of them was coaching her younger sister through medical school. I remember her saying that while medics spent a month on the anatomy of the leg, osteo's spent a term. I'm not sure if that is still true and am no expert on anatomy myself! I can't offer anything more helpful I'm afraid but I hope the MRI scan is helpful and that you get relief from the pain.

I'm on Barry Road too and haven't always received it. We got it for a while and then didn't but got one recently. It seems very patchy, I quite like getting it but find out more about local things on here really.

http://www.inficom2u.com/images/hp58lg.jpg

Sydenham Esher Sydenham Omaruru (Namibia) Sydenham Bristol Sydenham East Dulwich Velidhoo (Maldives) Male' (Maldives) Sydenham East Dulwich

How about this... Robot construction kit

Congratulations KK and thank you Georgia for organising last night. It was great to meet some legends of the forum (Moos, Giggirl, LadyMuck, SeanMc, Jah Lush, Floating Onion and CitizenED, it felt a bit like being among celebrities at times!) as well as some new people. I was sorry that I didn't get to talk to everyone - I would have liked to meet Annaj. I had a lovely time and am looking forward to coming to another one once my head has cleared and my feet have recovered.

Ymenik21 - I completely understand your reluctance to act but if listening to the shouting through walls and in the safety of your own home has left you shaken and upset imagine what it is doing to that little girl. She cannot escape from it and she needs your help. Put yourself in her shoes. Please do not wait until something irreversible happens. The NSPCC will keep your identity confidential and if she is too young for childcare or school this may not get picked up any other way and may continue for years.

It is very much a public issue. Due to a couple of children at school contracting rubella, due to their parents not having them immunised, it put two members of staff at risk who were pregnant at the time. Birth defects or miscarriage are not minor inconveniences. Not to mention the ill health of the children.

Don't know about a professional service, but Lice Attack from behind the counter in larger Boots and other pharmacies is excellent. It is coconut based and basically suffocates the lice. You treat the hair every seven days over three weeks to catch any of the recently hatched lice and break the life cycle. You use the nit comb but only to comb out the suffocated lice. Hope this helps.

There is an occasional train that goes from Nunhead to Blackheath, but I don't know what times they go. You may also need to come back a different way, I have never managed to do that journey in both directions!

There is an occasional train that goes from Nunhead to Blackheath, but I don't know what times they go. You may also need to come back a different way, I have never managed to do that journey in both directions!

From memory a police warrant card is slightly bigger than a travel pass wallet and dark blue/black in colour which opens up to show a large metal crest type badge (similar to the one on the front of a policeman's helmet but can't remember if it has a number at the bottom) That flips over and under it is a passport/driving license style photo id with name and other details of the officer. I hope that makes sense. I don't work for the police so don't have one in front of me. This sounds really worrying though, a horrible experience.

In my experience most schools have a Holiday permission form that you would need to fill out before going away. Not informing the school could trigger the school contacting other agencies as your child could be considered "missing" which would mean you having to go through all their checks until they were satisfied etc. Most schools now do not authorise holidays in term time, which doesn't mean you can't go, it just means the absence will be recorded in school data as unauthorised absence. This in itself should not really be a problem unless it causes your child's overall attendance to fall below 85% which would mean that the school would have to report it to the Local Authority. Your child's attendance and any further absence would then be dealt with by the Attendance and Welfare Officer (or equivalent). You may then need to show medical certificates for each absence after that. It is worth talking to the school. They will have their own procedures for term time holidays (and you won't be the first who has asked!)and the information above is pretty much worse case scenario. This probably would not happen if there are no other issues with your child's attendance. I really wouldn't advise pretending illness though as it is really important that parents and schools trust each other for the benefit of your child's education.

Lice Attack is very good. It is basically a coconut shampoo which you leave on and then wash out. You have to do it 3 times, each time 7 days apart. It is not a pesticide and basically works by suffocating the lice. You can get it in Boots but it is quite pricey. It is the only thing I have found to work reliably after trying all sorts. (I am a primary school teacher!)

Ludoscotts, did you report this to the school or anyone else at the time?

Lakeland?

Loud, Ugly and Crap

Sounds like you need the help of these chaps

Thank you Pugwash, that is really useful information and I will try to attend the next meeting.

Isn't there a Barry Road Residents Association? I live on Barry Road too and they might be the people to talk to to start a local campaign/contact the council etc. It may be that there is already something in progress. I have no idea how to contact them though - Does anyone know?