Excluded boy misses 15 months schooling

Jordan Hookway, nine, of Crowhurst Lane, was diagnosed with attention deficit after exclusion from All Saints Primary in February 2001.

Mum, Sarah Hookway, 29, has been fighting for a school place for Jordan since.

Jordan spent the first six months of last year at home while East Sussex county council assessed his educational needs.

He was diagnosed with a form of autism and found a place at New Horizons, a school for children with behavioural and learning problems.

Sarah said:"Because the place was there I had to send Jordan, if only to prove it wasn't suitable. I took him out of New Horizons in December because it didn't suit his educational needs. Jordan also found it hard to interact socially with his classmates.

"He escaped from the school on several occasions and was sent home for bad behaviour. He had been smoking at school and getting into nearby flats. At one point he had his nose broken."

Jordan was re-assessed. His mother said: "A consultant at Eversfield Hospital, Hastings, specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry said Jordan has attention deficit disorder, oppositional deficit disorder and pervasive developmental disorder."

Sarah has been pushing since December for home tuition, without success.

And no solution has been offered, despite the mounds of letters sent and the numerous telephone calls to the Local Education Authority.

Sarah said: "People cannot say I am not trying to get Jordan into school. The education service has offered Jordan a place at Philpotts Manor residential school, near Haywards Heath, but I felt it wasn't suitable. It was more of a care facility."

A place was also offered at a residential school in Southampton. But Sarah said: "I don't want Jordan so far away from me. Why don't we have better provision for needs here?"

Sarah has also asked if Jordan could try a mainstream school with additional support.

A county council spokesman said this week: "We are very close to providing a school placement for Jordan which has the agreement of all parties involved."