The parents of a nine-year-old boy are taking Monmouthshire county council to a tribunal over his permanent exclusion from Deri View School’s special needs resource base.

Bernadette Clarke and Ivan Gaston, who live at Clydach South, have also taken up the case with Monmouth MP David Davies.

Bernadette says their adopted son Brandon has not been in school full-time for nearly a year.

“Brandon started out in mainstream education at Llangattock with his older brother but as he moved up it was obvious he couldn’t cope and, because Powys County Council couldn’t provide him with the additional support he needed, he was moved to Deri View in April 2014,” she explained.

“Brandon is adopted and we don’t know everything about his background - but it seems he suffered a brain injury at birth following a cardiac arrest. He’s dyslexic and has other learning difficulties.”

At first things at Deri View’s SNRB - the only centre in Monmouthshire designed for moderate learning and social and emotional difficulties which MCC is proposing to close next year - worked out well.

But following incidents at the unit where Brandon took out his frustrations on staff, in October 2014 Bernadette and Ivan were told the school could no longer meet his needs and it was recommended he go to a school in Penarth which deals with children with severe social and emotional difficulties.

From November 2014 to February 2015 he was put on a reduced timetable at Deri View - attending only in the afternoons - a situation which continued until he was permanently excluded.

“Our lives were turned upside down by this decision and we wrote to MCC saying we’d had enough,” said Bernadette. “Ivan had been made redundant and couldn’t look for another job because he was having to look after Brandon in the mornings.”

MCC then recommended that Brandon go to Headlands School in Penarth, which caters for children with severe social and emotional needs.

But Brandon’s parents are concerned that the school is 50 miles away and isn’t suited to his needs.

“We’ve worked out it would cost the taxpayer £125 every day for the three-hour round trip. Surely they could provide the level of support he needs at Deri View for that kind of money?

“On day one of his assessment he was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head by another child and had to be taken to A&E.

“On day two there was a major accident on the motorway and it took from 7.30am to noon to reach Penarth.

“We’re taking our case to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales to dispute both the journey time that will be involved every day and the appropriateness of the Penarth school to his condition.”

The move is costing the couple thousands of pounds to provide expert witnesses to defend their position.

Bernadette says she fully appreciates that, in certain circumstances, a child might need to be excluded from a special needs unit for bad behaviour but she thinks Deri View should have been aware that Brandon needed extra supervision due to his brain injury and that an educational psychologist should have been called in to assess the situation before such a drastic step was taken.

A special needs teacher with many years experience, who prefers not to be named, has told the Chronicle that she and her colleagues deal with children who lash out at them in temper or frustration on a daily basis and that she was surprised such behaviour would warrant permanent exclusion.

Bernadette and Ivan have their own take on why it has happened.

“We feel Brandon was an inconvenience to Deri View because he couldn’t be put back into mainstream education.

“Why don’t they look into the options of boosting the school rather than running it down? At no point does MCC’s online consultation document mention the well-being of the children. It’s all about money.

“A lot of people feel very strongly that these vulnerable children shouldn’t be shoved around.

“Adopted children are even more vulnerable than birth children when you’re not aware of the background to their problems.”

She added, “Initially we were reluctant to move Brandon to Deri View but we were really impressed when we visited there for the first time. It’s a wonderful, state of the art resource with its own kitchen, sensory room etc.

“But we’ve noticed recently that the sensory garden has become neglected and you get the feeling things are being run down prior to closure.”

Bernadette says there is a school in Penmaes near Brecon which would suit Brandon’s needs but because of his permanent exclusion from Deri View they’ve refused to take him on.

Meanwhile signatures on the online petition, launched by parents to oppose the closure of Deri View SNRB, have reached 811.

For a link go to the Abergavenny Chronicle website or Google ‘Deri View petition’.

Sarah McGuinness, Chief Officer for Children and Young People told the Chronicle, “Our vision and strategic direction for children in Monmouthshire with Additional Learning Needs (ALN) is to place the child, parent and the school at the centre of a process which will enable us to meet the needs of as many Monmouthshire pupils as possible and ensure all achieve their full potential.

“The numbers on roll at the Deri View Primary School SNRB have declined for the last five years and this trend is projected to continue. Also, it is the view of the authority that as many children as possible should be educated within inclusive mainstream environments that are within their own community. Therefore, wherever possible, pupils should be educated with the appropriate level of support to enable them to receive their education alongside their peers and within their community. However, for a small minority this may not be possible and alternative specialist provision should be considered by the authority in consultation with pupils and parents.

“We are currently following statutory process by consulting on the proposed closure of the SNRB and this is taking the form of drop-in sessions and the opportunity for all interested parties to give us written feedback.

“The local authority cannot comment on individual cases but we confirm we are maintaining standards of service at Deri View Primary School SNRB and we will continue to fund it at the current level until the consultation process reaches its conclusion.”