Do suitable Special Schools exist when you are High Achieving & High Functioning ASD?

I am on the search for whether there are actually special schools out there anywhere in the UK that fulfil the needs and academic potential of kids with ASD when they are predicted to get straight 8+'s (A's in old money) based on SAT's and cognitive scores.

Having looked at every special school (whether state or independent) within about 30 miles of me I haven't found any that give me a great deal of confidence.

My son is a Year 7 (just going into 8) boy with High Functioning ASD who is refusing school and has just (today) been approved for an EHC assessment so I am trying to work out options depending on what comes back.

I am expecting the recommendation to be that he has some reintegration work followed by extra support in hs present mainstream school.

Although this is probably the best chance he would have resultswise, I doubt this will work for him as he is not keen to return (even though it has a tiny 3 place ASD provision onsite he could go into - he sees this as a prison for weird kids!). He doesn't have 'behavioural problems' as such, but will meltdown if a specific type of situation occurs (say every 3 weeks or so in school) and and it does scare them a bit as he is 6ft tall!

A possible second path could be some home tutoring/online learning combined with me continuing to deliver his education (this isn't ideal for many reasons, mostly because I fear the lack of socialisation).

Our big issue is that academically he is off the scale (KS2 SAT's at the highest national standardised score or a point off, CAT test 137 etc) so I am concerned that from what I can see he is only likely to achieve that potential in a mainstream setting, though I doubt he can deal with that on an emotional level.

So I guess my questions are:

Has anyone faced this situation, what did you do, and did it get you a positive outcome?

Are you in this or a similar situation now, and what are you doing/planning to do?

Does anyone have a high achieving child attending a Special School and is actually fullfilling that potential by beng on track to get some really good results (or has a child that has done so)?

If so where is this school, and does it specialise in high functioning/high achieving, or cater for a wide range of disabilities?

Any other relevent comments or advice welcome!

Lee over 7 years ago

Thanks all for your advice - it seems little has changed over the years and I think your experiences are still very valid in the current climate.

I am expecting the EHCP to come back saying support in mainstream school, which in actual fact will translate to what we are doing now as I can't see him willing to go back in (so a continuation of work sent home which I augment with online/workbooks + series record on BBC Four for anything interesting!). They may send a tutor to aid reintegration..... this would be avery long term process, something that the Educational Psychologist and I agree on.

Unusually there is a special school about 8 miles away that has a mainstream supported ASD unit attached to it, so maybe we will get lucky.

I think our biggest obstacle is that my son is still in denial (even though we had a diagnosis at 8) and getting help makes it too real, so he is not keen on any intervention/assistance at all really, and puberty doesn't help! As alluded to in one post, mental health is the most important thing and that is also where my priority lies.
Cassandro over 7 years ago in reply to NAS36609

I was a year ahead in mainstream schools and fortunately avoided bullying - also no diagnosis at that point (many years ago), and teachers put it down to me 'not being challenged'. I agree with what NAS36609 says about local placements, so it's good you have the EHCP and the choice.

I just want to add that it's probably a mistake to prioritise academic achievement above social development; in my experience it gets to a point where the first is difficult without the other, anyway. So, basically, wherever your son seems happiest. Maybe there's another mainstream school with a specialist support unit (and support and autism training for the teachers).
NAS36609 over 7 years ago

I also began to refuse to attend school at around 13 years old, due to the incessant bullying I had experienced from 4 years old. The difference is that I wasn’t diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at that point, and though my teachers had their suspicions, there was no additional support in place for me. For me we decided to move schools as I wanted to be away from certain individuals, though this did mean that I missed out starting my GCSEs a year early as had originally been intended.

Unfortunately I was bullied again at my new school and as such my attendance remained poor. I did at one point have home tutors but I didn’t get on well with them (I think they were too used to dealing with naughty children who had been excluded/couldn’t be bothered to do their work, as opposed to a child who was bright and wanted to do well, but just couldn’t stand the bullying in school). My mum simply did not have the means to educate me at home, though it would have been my preference (I ended up mainly self-studying anyway). In the end I attended just enough to get my homework and hand it in, complete any practical work, get my revision books and appease the Local Authority. I didn’t find GCSEs hard, so I had no problems achieving top results mostly from studying revision guides at home. I then got my diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, which along with my GCSE results did mean my teachers were somewhat more amenable to my lack of attendance during my A Levels. I also did well in those, though I admit that I would have likely done better in further maths had I attended that class more (I missed all classes for the last module of it).

So it is possible to miss a lot of school and have no support but still achieve good results. The main thing in this situation is that you need to be motivated to do the work by yourself, and ideally you want teachers that can accept that you may miss some of their lessons but that you can still succeed - the best teachers of mine saved all relevant work and handed it to me when I next saw them, the worst tried to force me to drop their subjects! For me personally, if I could have homeschooled I would have preferred that, but it’s not for every child and not every family can offer their child that.

Some special needs schools do follow a mainstream curriculum and have pupils that attain top results. Here is one that I am aware of for example:

https://www.priorychildrensservices.co.uk/find-a-location/rossendale-school-ramsbottom/education-services/curriculum-information/

I think the problem with special needs schools is that there aren’t enough places for those who need them, and trying to find an appropriate school for your child near where you live can be a massive challenge.

Hopefully someone else will be able to advise you regarding support in a mainstream school and how well that works (as I never had any additional support in school, I obviously don’t know how successful/helpful that is with these issues).