This morning I found an invitation to a workshop day tucked into Harry’s rucksack. We get quite a few of these sent home from school and quite often they will lie about the house for a few days before one of us thinks to pick it up and actually read it.
This one is about: “A new way to help young adults to plan what they want for their future: a single assessment process and ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ bringing together support for children and young people from birth to 25, and focusing on better life outcomes beyond school or college.”
Well, I’m breathless just reading it, let alone trying to comprehend what it’s all about. And the thing is, this is typical of the literature that gets sent to parents of children with SEN whether via school or by external agencies. You have to read everything three times over to analyse whether it is relevant to you and your child. Then decide if you can work it into your schedule.
Taking a second (and a third) look, I can pick out the phrases national Pathfinders, Green Paper and then ‘Support and Aspiration – a new approach to special educational needs and disability.’ This all sounds very familiar and pretty important and so I Google the phrases and the agencies who are involved in running the workshop.
Hey presto! Only the very issue that got me so fired up last week. Very, very important. I’d better e-mail my acceptance and make childcare arrangements: after all the only way that I can attend a full-day workshop is if my husband can be here to meet Harry’s school transport. And if our daughter can go to her grandparents after school instead of being collected by me.
And then I realise that the event is in four days’ time…. I’d better start reading that Green Paper!
Autistic Kids Grow Up 
Yep. I know that feeling – Drop everything and swallow an encyclopaedia – quick! Thanks for reading & following my blog.
The more of us speak out the better. Us SEN parents have got to stick together!