Support for adopted children from the Literacy Support Service

May I take a few moments to congratulate what the Learning Support Service has achieved at our son’s schools thus far… Our middle child was adopted at 16 months, and has attended the mainstream education provision within Brighton & Hove City…

Our three adopted children placed by the Local Authority have complex issues. Numeracy and literacy are the main reasons why they struggle in mainstream. Our middle son is receiving the expert care and attention of the literacy support service within the school setting.

Without this service we can categorically state that our 8 year old would still be unable to read or write what little he can. The deliverance of this specialised service is done in a timely, appropriate and expert manner, by staff who are properly qualified, over vary many years, and have much training, who are highly motivated and posses a wealth of expertise which is second to none.

Very sadly you would be mistaken to opt in for “shortermism” as a cost cutting venture now; to then end up with teens who are still unable to read and write and are passed through the education system like a sausage factory with no basic skills to remain in mainstream;  having to then to implement emergency high value measures at a latter date to get children to attain their potential goals, is a flawed and costly strategy.

The primary school teachers are stretched to their limits trying to meet; goals, parents expectations, delivering the national curriculum and endless standards, most are simply firefighting and managing; not having the time or expertise in teaching the children who require it most, these children need the expert intervention of the Learning Support Service now and in the future.

Support for children with dyslexia, from primary to secondary school, from the Literacy Support Service

We have recently become aware that proposals have been announced to do away with the Literacy Support Service.

Our son was assessed and diagnosed with Dyslexia by this service and has been supported by a teacher from the service for the past year at his Primary School and through the transition to his current Secondary School.

This service has been invaluable in terms of enabling him to fully access the curriculum, supporting his school with access arrangements for his SATS and to give him all the necessary support including specific targeted vocabulary work, mind mapping and technical advice as to what devices and software would best match our son’s specific learning needs.

We appreciate that there is a serious budgetary deficit within Brighton and Hove, but we sincerely hope that for the sake of our son and many other children served by the Literacy Support Service, that this proposal can be reconsidered.

The story of a boy with senori-neural hearing loss supported by the Sensory Needs Service

Our son was diagnosed with a severe sensorineural hearing loss just after his second birthday. The Sensory Needs Service became involved straight away. His Sensory Needs Teacher worked with us at home, offering strategies for supporting our son and helping him to tune in to sound, listen and develop his language skills  as well as encouragement and hope (based on her expert knowledge and experience). When he started Nursery she was there on an ongoing basis, equipping them with the skills and strategies they needed to support him.

Our son is now in year 4 at a mainstream primary school. He is a popular boy, loves school and is doing well. His Sensory Needs Teacher has been supporting him right through his school path, and without her he would not be included in the way that he is now. Her ongoing advice, support and feedback enables his teachers and staff at the school to understand his needs and to make sure that his learning environment is one which he can be a part of, and play a full part in. To recognise specific challenges, advise specific strategies and train teaching staff requires the expertise and experience of a specialist teacher.

At the beginning of a new school year, with a new teacher, our son’s FM radio mike was not functioning. This enables him to hear the teacher’s voice directly into his hearing aids. It is essential equipment because hearing aids work best in a quiet environment within a two meter radius, and beyond that speech can become unclear and can blend in with background noise. Our son did not feed this back- he was possibly not aware what he was missing out on. His teacher reported that he was not engaged in his learning and was spending long periods daydreaming and staring out of the window. His Sensory Needs Teacher identified the problem and we were able to get it sorted out. This had an immediate effect on his engagement with learning.

On one occasion another parent told us that her son had said that he no longer bothered talking to my son as ‘he never listens’. This parent spoke to her son about hearing loss but also flagged this up to us. As a result, my son’s Sensory Needs Teacher in consultation with us went in to that class and through teaching and role play gave the children some further deaf awareness training. All the children were reminded how to make sure that my son (and any other people they meet who are deaf) knows they are talking to him and are aware of the difference that having a hearing loss makes. This has had a big impact on our son’s quality of life.

I feel that the proposed re-structuring of these vital services has been proposed by those who are not fully aware of how our specialist support teachers work, and what a difference they make to the lives of so many children and their families. Our child, and many others, are successfully included as a result of the knowledge, skills and experience of our specialist teachers. To withdraw this level of service or water it down, would make it impossible for the needs of our child and those like him to be met. Both long and short term outcomes would be affected.

G and A

Petition: Don’t cut children’s rights to a specialist teacher in Brighton

Please sign our petition here: Don’t cut children’s rights to a specialist teacher in Brighton

The story of a delighful little boy with cerebral palsy, cortical visual impairment and social communication needs supported by PRESENS

Here is the story of a delightful young boy who has Cerebral Palsy, Cortical Visual Impairment and Social Communication Needs. This story was written by his father.

Our son was born 3 months premature weighing less than a kilo (just over 2 pounds). He also suffered a bleed into his brain and had a procedure to try to remove the toxins of this bleed. While in hospital the doctors warned us that there was a 50% chance that he would have quite severe physical or cognitive disabilities, but compared to those odds we have, in some ways, been lucky.

Our son, now 4, can walk, talk and is coping well within a mainstream nursery. But he only started walking independently at 3 with the help of splints. He has problems with his vision. His speech is often very repetitive and out of context with what’s going on around him. While he can be interested in other adults and children he is very socially awkward and only recently started recognising people by their name.

At almost every stage of his development, our son has needed additional support to help get him to the next level. And every professional on this journey has always said that the earlier you can intervene to help a child like ours, the better the long term impact. As a parent this means that you are constantly worried about whether you are doing enough for your child right now.

When our son was around 2 years old we faced a dilemma. On the one hand we knew that his social development was delayed and that he would benefit from being with other kids in a nursery (especially as he has no siblings). However, we were also worried that the nursery might just sit him in the corner rather than putting in the extra effort required to get him properly involved. PRESENS have been key to solving this dilemma.

Not only did PRESENS help us get the additional funding for our son’s one to one support, but even more crucially, our PRESENS teacher goes into the nursery to run highly tailored sessions with our son and to help ensure that the nursery staff have a good program of things to do and ways to interact with our son that help bring him along. These ideas have helped our home routines too.

Every term we revise the program of help for our son and our confidence in this process is precisely because an experienced PRESENS teacher is involved. As fantastic as the nursery is, they simply would not be able to develop the kind of highly tailored program of help that a child like ours needs.

PRESENS gave us confidence to put our son in mainstream nursery and the PRESENS program of help within nursery has been fantastic for him. The outcome for our son is that we are now confident that he can, with similar support, do well within a mainstream primary school next year. And because he’s doing so well, we’re also increasingly hopeful that one day he won’t need any significant support when he goes to secondary school, and who knows, maybe university one day.

Our son has been lucky because PRESENS have been there for him every step of the way. But what about the next generation of children? Even if these cuts to PRESENS are reversed in the future (as they would in any decent society) the impact of the cuts on the children affected in the next few years could be permanent.

If you want to tell the story of your child please use the comments box below or email your story to: saveourspecialistteachersbandh@gmail.com

What is this blog about: Specialist Teachers in Brighton and Hove’s Learning and Support Services are under threat

Brighton and Hove City Council is proposing a redesign of its Learning Support Services, consisting of the Autistic Spectrum Condition Support Service (ASCSS); the Behaviour and Inclusion Learning Team (BILT); the Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CCAMHS); the Language Support Service; the Literacy Support Service; the Pre-School Special Education Needs Service (PRESENS) and the Sensory Needs Service (SNS).

Hundreds of children with Special Educational Needs in Brighton & Hove currently rely upon the specific guidance, hands-on support and training that specialist advisory teachers provide to themselves, their teachers, their pre-school settings, their schools and their families and carers.

Under these proposals five support of these teams, those for Autism, Language, Literacy, Sensory Needs and Pre-school, will have their capacity reduced by 50% of their teachers. Moreover, the teams will be deleted and turned into a generic Learning Support Service with advisers rather than teachers. Each team currently provides a phenomenal breadth of specialist knowledge and experience enabling the children they work with to live and learn with their mainstream peers. We believe that the current proposal to axe five teams and replace them with 12 generic SEN advisors, no longer recognised as teachers, will not work. There will be far fewer advisors, meaning that children with educational needs and disabilities, and their families, will receive drastically reduced and less effective support.

Children with special educational needs and disabilities deserve the skills that these expert teachers bring. Generic advisors cannot possibly do the job of specialist teachers, and hundreds of children will suffer as a result. In the long term, this supposed cost saving restructuring, which will be implemented in April 2016, will cost the council more. As when the understanding of these children’s special educational needs and disabilities becomes diluted in schools, many more children will begin to fail in mainstream settings, and this will have a huge cost impact on Brighton and Hove City Council.

We cannot let this happen to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Brighton & Hove.

Please help us save specialist teachers in Brighton and Hove by sharing your stories of how we have supported your child.

Please send us your story using the comments box below or by emailing to:

saveourspecialistservicesbandh@gmail.com

CLICK ON THE NAMES OF THE SERVICES (Autistic Spectrum Condition Support Service (ASCSS); the Language Support Service; the Literacy Support Service; the Pre-School Special Education Needs Service (PRESENS) and the Sensory Needs Service (SNS)) IN THE MENU AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE TO SEE ALL THE STORIES RELATING TO a PARTICULAR SERVICE   OR CLICK ON THE TITLE OF A BLOG POST TO SEE A PARTICULAR STORY THAT PARENTS AND CARERS HAVE SHARED

Thank you.

The members of the National Union of Teachers in Autistic Spectrum Condition Support Service (ASCSS); the Language Support Service; the Literacy Support Service; the Pre-School Special Education Needs Service (PRESENS) and the Sensory Needs Service (SNS).