POST ELECTION TRAUMATIC PARENTS' MEETING DISORDER

Well half a year late, with a report that looks like it was written by a junior school pupil, the Annual Parents Meeting finally took place on May 12th 2005, under pressure from the DFES.

Are you thinking what we're thinking?
Are we stinking like they're stinking?
Are we all sinking like they're sinking?

(1) The poor parent who complained of a lack of letters and communications - oh have you turned the spotlight on you, poor soul. They reluctantly gave you the school dodo website, but as we all know that leads you directly to here, so... welcome. I doubt if they believed your question wasn't set up, so you may now be targeted as "one of us" Still if you're clever you might be able to turn it to your advantage and get whatever you want for your child, like several other parents have!!!
We need to know from other parents who suspect they are not getting all the school letters etc, so we came compile some good statistical evidence.

(2)VERY UNSUBTLE PSYCHOLOGY from the Governors, who expressed a wish that lots of parents attend  (really)

Its a war of attrition, unclear messages all leading up to enormous changes in Special Education which they have singularly ommitted to tell the parents about. New parents don't get to meet up with more experienced parents and no doubt end up with much weakened statements, which cost Essex significantly less money.
Unfortunately this results in the parents being unable to network about anything else

(3) PARENT'S ROOM  or PARENTS' ROOM ???
BT was hot on grammar, but for some perverse reason when this one was pointed out  she refused to change it, presumably her little joke was only one parent at a time allowed in the room. It is a symbol of the parents' exclusion. When questioned as to why this room is so often unavailable, the usual wishy washy, unacceptable answers were given.
The minutes of various meetings are supposed to be freely available for inspection, by any parent who so desires. Are the lights in this room still wired up to a tape recorder, as we know BT was able to recall everything word perfectly when she wrote no notes, inspite of being in the 50's amnesiac stage of life ?

(4) THE WOEFULLY ABYSMAL AND LATE GOVERNORS REPORT 2003 -2004
Did the Governors deliberately produce this hugely embarassing specimen, so it would draw parents  attention away from other issues. Not that we were fooled.
Questions were asked about Lack of Health and Safety reports in this report,
                                                NMSS designation for HF in 2007!!!
                                                Lack of communications
                                                Ventilation,Drinking Water, Hydrotherapy Pools   etc
So what will OFSTED and DFES make of this child-like Govs Report???

(5) HARLOWFIELDS WILL OFFICIALLY BECOME A
                 NEW MODEL SPECIAL SCHOOL  IN 2007    although in many ways it already is

So what ? I hear you weary parents saying. How will it affect my child ?
More than you might imagine. Isn't it odd that the school have neglected to tell you any of this
like they never mentioned Privatisation at any stage.
So what will happen? Essex are claiming to be UK leaders in this field , but if you look back at Nov Extra 2003 you will see a parent looked round a very well run NMSS school and was impressed
                  INCLUSION  is the key word
there is no problem as far as we can see with the Model, but there are of course many questions associated with the practical implications. Each family will be affected differently, but overall it goes like this

Some pupils like PMLDs and Autism need specialist teaching programmes and will be taught on the premises. The rest will be INCLUDED as much as possible. Broadly MLDs and the like will be based in Mainstream, hopefully with their own SEN teachers and will make sorties into mainstream lesson some of the time. I supose the big argument will be which children can tolerate this setting and what happens to the in-betweens  - one suspects much sorrow. But prove us wrong.. please.
 
I'll finish at this point but continue the discussion next month which gives Tim and the Govs a chance to be upfront and tell ALL parents by snail mail or a meeting even, what exactly NMSS entails, and don't make the excuse that you don't know. That's a lie.

(6) Somebody thinks they may have discovered a clue as to where Pam Gander went
Special Meeting May last year of Personnel and Finance Committee with 2 LEA people present. Very soon afterwards Pam Disappears  without so much as a goodbye ???

(7)The coincidence of this tragic story and what happened to several of our parents at exactly the same time is not lost. Read it and weep. One parent actually knew this woman and can verify that she was a good person.
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