The case study looks at improving communication between parent and school.

The parent of T first contacted SENDIASS in May 2023, concerned about her daughter’s school attendance. T had received numerous exclusions and after further discussion with the parent the school had not always been following exclusion guidance. Information regarding the legal duties on schools was sent out with other resources explaining further the responsibilities of schools in supporting students with SEN.

Although T at this stage had no formal diagnosis of learning difficulties, it was clear to her parent that she had additional needs that the school were not investigating fully or putting in place support to meet those needs.

As the parent of T worked full time, with permission SENDIASS communicated with school on her behalf to establish what SEN support they had or were intending to put in place. The impact of the regular exclusions from school were having a significant impact on the whole family and putting the parent’s own job at risk.

Communication between the parent and school had been challenging so SENDIASS first sought to establish who the key members of staff were that understood T and were involved in the planning of the support she required. One of the issues identified by the parent had been that there appeared to be little or no communication between the SEN staff at the school and regular teachers. This was causing a lack of consistency for T, and the different approaches to dealing with her behaviour were causing confusion.

SENDIASS also discussed with the parent the possibility of a “managed move,” how this works and some of the advantages/disadvantages they may have for students. At this time mum felt it was best that T remain in her current school and that they were encouraged to involve other professionals to better understand her daughter’s difficulties.

SENDIASS liaised with the senior SEN staff in school and supported the parent in arranging a multi-agency meeting to include CAMHs who were currently working with her daughter with her issues around attention and managing her emotions. Unfortunately, due to other service commitments a SENDIASS worker was unable to attend the meeting but instead supported the parents with what questions to ask and how to prepare for it, again using the SENDIASS fact sheet resource on achieving the best out of meetings.

Following the meeting the school put together an action plan to further explore T’s needs. Following the meeting she was seen by the educational psychologist and a SPLD assessment would take place. Following this the school would look at potentially submitting a request for statutory assessment to the LA, if they felt it was needed. The parent of T felt happier that the school were no longer simply punishing her daughter’s challenging behaviour in school but trying to understand the causes.

In conclusion the parent felt that because of direct involvement by SENDIASS with the school that communication had improved significantly, and the resources and information shared by our service gave the parent more confidence in challenging the actions of the school.

Another positive from this case is that the school are reviewing their communication with parents and are keen to involve SENDIASS in improving how they work with parents on a day-to-day basis. The school are keen to work with SENDIASS to look at their systems in SEN and particularly about how they communicate with parents and how this could be improved.

You may wish to read our factsheet number 3 “Preparing for School Meetings”.

Listen to our SENDIASS Podcasts - Season 1 Ep 3-4:

You may wish to read the following:

Fact sheet 3 - Preparing for School Meetings

Complete our website contact form: