Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
  • A quick call out to any STW Parents with special needs kids…
  • ski
    Free Member

    We are in the middle of getting an educational statement for our youngest, who has special needs.

    I would love to here from other parents who have been through this process.

    Special needs School or main stream? looking for help in making a choice?

    If you would prefer to email me directly then that’s fine btw.

    Thanks in advance..

    Scott

    MicArms
    Full Member

    Depends very much on the level of special needs required.. My son has apsbergers. high functioning autism. we managed to get him intoa a school with an autistic base, but has then moved on to main stream classrooms with TA support..

    we had a major battle at the tiome when he was 6 with stamenting for the austitic base access, email me and I’ll reply later as at work and fairly busy..

    missingfrontallobe
    Free Member

    Ski, no personal experience here, but a close friend has a son with severe autism & epilepsey. He has just progressed into high school age. He attended a unit within mainstream, something his parents struggled to get the LA to go along with, but has had to move into a special school for secondary education as there is no suitable provision within high schools. My colleagues husband is a special needs teacher, so came at things from a PoV of working within the system, and wanted Richard to stay within mainstream as much as possible.
    I realise that this does not help with your decision, but good luck for you & your family for the future.

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    ski
    Free Member

    Thanks Mic, will do…..

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    My wife is head of primary at a special needs school (PMLD and SLD), works with SENCO’s in a number of local schools with children with special needs who are still in mainstream education and also teaches reception/year 1 aged children at her school.

    I’m sure if you wanted some advice/information she’d be happy to help.

    My 2p – you need to be honest about your child – there are a lot of children in mainstream schools who would receive an education (and, more generally, ‘schooling’) far more appropriate to their needs in a special school but their parents can’t accept that this is the case. My wife’s school has classes of 5 or 6 with at least 2 TA’s in each class and the childrens work is planned each day to be appropriate for that child – there’s huge focus on tailoring the work to the child, not just having a TA going round trying to help them ‘keep up’ with the other kids which is what often happens in mainstream (from my understanding).

    [edit] on the other hand if you feel that your child’s needs are best met in a mainstream school then the LA has a duty to procide support to achieve this.

    Anyway – email in profile and I’ll pass your details on to her if you’d like.

    antigee
    Full Member

    if you’ve not seen some of this org’s literature is helpful

    http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/

    anokdale
    Free Member

    My wife has emailed you some info, good luck.

    ski
    Free Member

    Thanks for all the info above, will sit down and reply to all the emails when I get home from work.

    What makes the whole process harder, is me & my Wife have a slightly different view on what’s best for our daughter’s education.

    This I know, we will sort out & have worked through differences in the past, but I am sure this is not the first time this sort of thing has happened.

    GW
    Free Member

    only with mild learning difficulties so mainstream. Help is a bit on and off, school actually has no learning support just now and progress varies massively from teacher to teacher. last year felt like a struggle at times (shit teacher) but this year has been far better.
    Sorry, can’t really be of much more help.

    FB-ATB
    Full Member

    Hi FB jnr has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and speech impairment. We went through the statement last year when he was 3 to get additional 1-2-1 help for nursery/preschool.

    Be prepared to wait. I think they allow 26 weeks from start to finish. FB jnrs took 28 as they gave themselves a bit extra to cover xmas!

    We were advised to not be too positive on the forms. It goes against your nature to mark them down, but if you’ve gone through DLA & blue badge forms, you’ll know that the more positive you are the less assistance your child will get. All the various therapists that provided reports know this and play the game, so be prepared to be a bit disheartened when you get the report.

    At first we didn’t recognise the boy some of them were talking about, but after discussing with the physio & OT (who are always positive & encouraging in treatment) they confirmed that they were erring on the side of caution.

    We’re in the same situation- looking at schools. Our local SN school isn’t too hot academically, but has better access to OT/physio and even has its own hydro pool. One of FB’s friends with CP has just started mainstream, and needs regular physio. This is given by the assigned TA who has been shown treatments by the “proper” physio who will then come to review after a couple of months. Not quite as good as having it from the professional.

    We’ve been told FB jnr is bright, but obviously his physical impairments hold him back, but regular therapy sees improvements (he’s managed to pedal a SN trike by himself at therapy this week for the firat time), so we have the dilemma of sending him to the SN school where he may not be challenged mentally, but has better access to physio etc.

    One of the freinds we made at antenatal classes taught at this SN school and said that she often saw kids that had been in mainstream for a few years and struggled and eventually transferred to the SN school and have flourished since they were no longer at the lower end of the ability scale.

    There is a school “locally” that caters for SN and has a good academic record, but it will mean approx 1 hr journey time each way for Fb jnr. We’re not sure if that’s fair on him and somehow I can’t get my head around leaving him on his own in a taxi with a stranger.

    If you want a chat, my emails in the profile.

    Neil

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Neil – my wifes school uses minibuses and a number of the helpers are also TA’s at the school so the kids do get to travel with someone they ‘know’ and who are also trained to deal with any medical issues that may occur during the journey (a lot of the PMLD kids at her school have complex medical needs) – it might be worth finding out what the school does for transport if this is a big issue for you. I think it’s often the case with SN schools – they have a large catchment area so children end up spending a long time travelling compared with going to a more local school.

    MicArms
    Full Member

    FB-ATB, just as a side note, if child needs a taxi to attend a school, there will be an escort person provided .

    mogrim
    Full Member

    wwaswas +1 – my wife teaches in a special needs school, but has also worked in normal schools, and the right answer to your question is “depends” – you really need to be honest about how serious your child’s problem is, if it’s borderline a normal school would probably be fine, but if it’s more serious the full-time support a dedicated school can give you will be far more suitable, and your child will achieve far better results for it.

    Aus
    Free Member

    Our youngest was special needs in his early days at school, and the medical profession and LA were keen to statement him. For a number of reasons we didn’t, the school have been brilliant and his ‘needs’ have diminished so, aged 9 he’s pretty much non-special needs.

    What struck us was (a) how he’s changed himself over time with lots of great support from school etc and (b) how important the school attitude is to a kid with ‘needs’ – our school was unequivocably welcoming and supportive, irrespective of statementing or not (and the complete contrast to another primary school who’s attitude was, “legally he can come here but it won’t work for him”). The role and attitude of the school (prob determined by the Head?) has been massively influenctial for us.

    Hope it all works out well

    alanl
    Free Member

    I’ve emailed some comments, probably not appropriate to post on here.I’ve had just the same with my daughter.
    Alan

    FB-ATB
    Full Member

    wwaswas

    The closest SN school has minbuses and is c20mins away. There’s a child up the road from us that used to go there and I used to see the bus each morning. The other school is c30-40 miles away and has a wide catchment, so there are unlikely to be many children from the same area.

    Mic- thanks that’s useful to know

    Aus- we’ve found that with our 2 closest primaries 1 v helpful the other not. They wouldn’t arrange for their SENCO to be available when we visited, we have to go back for another appointment.

    ski- sorry for the slight hijack!

    Neil

    Xylene
    Free Member

    You really need to think carefully about the mainstream school route.

    Is the school really prepared for her, do they have enough TA’s and/or the funding for a dedicated carer if needed?

    I know at my current school the lack of TA’s is causing issues with a couple of the statemented kids.

    The down side to a specialist school is that they miss the school experience and there may not be many around in the near future.

Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)

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