Despite the head mistress at Jubilee School telling my friend who
put in a
Subject Access Request that “the Trust will not tolerate the making of repeated
requests for information” a pile of heavily redacted papers has landed on his doormat.
The covering letter emphasises that he should not show the contents to
anyone but I read through it yesterday and can understand why the Trust would not be wanting
the contents known more widely. The final page had unsurprisingly been endorsed
“Absolute lies” which may well be fair comment.
Among them are several accusations that my friend, allegedly a bad parent
neglecting his child, gets annoyed when faced with teachers who are unable or unwilling to
help him. It looks to be more than a little contradictory. Would such a parent care?
I will spare you the detail of every accusation false or otherwise and relate
only the big one which Bexley Council’s Social Services found to be completely untrue.
It was that my friend’s bad parenting extended to a failure to co-operate with
medical professionals such that the boy was not being treated for his autism and
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Throughout his son’s eight
years of life I have watched my friend chasing various pediatricians looking for
help from the best of them yet a failing inadequately managed Trust reported my
friend to Bexley Council for investigation for not providing medical care.
Obviously the pediatrician and the GP gave my friend a good, almost glowing,
report and far from not administering medication had given full
co-operation when
new courses were proposed. When he asked me what to do next I could only suggest seeing a libel lawyer.
Quite clearly the best course would be to find a new school. Jubilee might
improve on its current Inadequate rating if pupils it is unable to handle were not there
and the child might benefit by receiving at the very least a rudimentary education.
More easily said than done.
Three special schools have been approached so far. Two said the boy’s
condition is not bad enough to warrant attendance. Throughout my visit yesterday
he was playing quietly with his toys and only once becoming tearful when things
did not go right for him.
The third school had no vacancies.
A proposal to find a fourth school has been languishing with an unresponsive
Bexley Council for several months. What good does bragging about funding two new
SEN schools in the borough do while they do nothing to fill them?
Maybe it is something to do with the nearest of them in Halt Robin Lane being run
by the same inadequate Trust as Jubilee School.
if you say so Beverley…
The CEO of Trinitas Academy Trust was invited to speak at the recent Communities Scrutiny meeting but preferred to pass the job to a subordinate. Sounds about right.