Parents and carers are often in the best position to comment upon their children. Your report is an important contribution to the Assessment.
You can:
- Talk about your views with your partner, other members of the family or with a close friend before writing your report
- Write it in whatever way you choose
- Get somebody, ie. a friend or member of the family, to help you to write the report.
The Parent Partnership Project also offers support with writing the report. Visit the website: www.parentpartnership-sengroups.org.uk or contact them for further details:
Unit C
International Clothing Centre
Annesley Road
Hucknall
NG15 8AY
Tel/Fax: 0115 840 0081
Fax: 0115 840 0026
or
Suite 5
Clarendon Chambers
Nottingham NG1 5LN
Tel/ Fax/ Minicom: 0115 9482888
E-mail: pppnotts@aol.com
The following guidelines may help:
- If English is not your first language you can ask for a translator, or make your own arrangements
- Write as much as you like. Some parents/carers prefer to write in note form, others write several pages
- Write in the way you wish. Some parents prefer to write in note form, or to write with headings or in paragraphs. Some prefer to write as if writing a letter
- It does not matter how you write your views. Your feelings about your child’s needs are just as important even if you are not happy about your writing or spelling. If you think your writing will be very hard to read, you may prefer to print or type it. You might prefer to ask another member of your family to write down what you want to say
- Your views about your child and your child’s needs are important. If you have very strong views, you should write these. Sometimes parents/carers are worried that others may not like what they have to say. This does not matter; you should say what you think about what your child needs
- Sometimes parents/carers do have different views from each other about their child and their child’s needs. You may decide to put your views together when you write your report. You may decide to explain in the report that you have different opinions from each other. You may wish to write your views on different forms. If you do this, you should sign the forms separately
- In families where parents are separated, both parents may still wish to discuss and write their views about their child’s educational needs. If anybody else has parental rights you will need to tell the Local Authority who they are so that they can be asked for their views.
