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Turned Away from School

Breizh

Hello all,

As I mentioned in the Introduction message I posted last week we arrived in Bristol from France in August with our 7 year old son who has ASD.

We are currently trying to find a school for him and we have just been turned away by a school in which were supposed to have a place as notified by the City Council Admissions department.

The headmaster clearly does not want our son in his school and plays the guilt angle on us: 'I do not have resources available and if I accept your son - which I cannot technically decline - I'll have to deprive another child with SEN in the class of half of the support time he is currently getting in order to look after yours'.

I suppose we could force our way in and impose our son on that school but we feel that if the staff does not want him we are headed for failure right from the start.

Reading the comments on this discussion board I understand that SEN are difficult to get for some autistic children.

We have an ASD diagnosis from a French child pshychiatrist. Would this help obtaining a statement in UK?

Does the educational system in UK require a child to be in a school before applying for SEN, or can it be done even if we do not currently have a school place?

Thanks for any help,

Breizh 

  • I'm certainly going to report this to the council's school admissions department.

    We had a bad feeling with this person right from the start during the interview. I don't know how the admission process should normally work but refusal was made up front, without a look at our son or at the work he did previously (writing, math). 

    Obviously language is going to be a significant difficulty and I'm not sure French-speaking assistance can be easily found to help with Benoit's speech delay.

    We have contacts with two more mainstream schools who do manage their own admissions. One of them at least seems to show some interest in trying to see what can be done to addess Benoit's needs.

    We are to meet the other school on Thursday (Head Teacher and Senco). If we hit the budget wall again I fear we may have to keep our son out of school altogether.

    Breizh

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hmmm,

    Not sure how budgets get allocated for late arrivals in the admission cycle. It may be that the budget was fixed before you applied.

    However, having said that, it is shocking that you should be told this. Register a complaint at the city council and ask their advice about how to proceed.

  • 'I do not have resources available and if I accept your son - which I cannot technically decline - I'll have to deprive another child with SEN in the class of half of the support time he is currently getting in order to look after yours'.

    Its almost cetainly untrue...im sure the school gets budget for SEN according to how many children are useing such...and not technically your problem even if it is true....He's got no business telling you this.

  • Hi

    I don't have the experience or knowledge to help myself, but there are loads of very knowledgeable parents at the Bristol autism support group, you should be able to find their Facebook page easily enough. If you aren't on Facebook let me know and I will check with them if you can contact them any other way.