Hi
My autistic 5yo son has just started Y1 in a mainstream, inclusive community primary school.
He attended reception last year, during which he had a full-time 1-to-1 support provision for which the school successfully applied for Higher Needs Funding. Plenty of challenges, but we made it through. The SENCO / inclusion head told us she was hopeful the increased structure and less “busy” class decor would help in year 1. She also suggested we apply for an EHCP, as it would give us some statutory security of funding for future years, whereas the HNF would be a fresh application each time. We did this, and got full-time provision agreed in the plan, with plenty of extra curricular support strategies.
This year had not started well, however we are getting inconsistency in the reports. His 1-to-1 tells of multople daily meltdowns, but interspersed with some great behaviour, and academically he’s top of class in reading and maths - he has got several stars and merit points. She is clearly proud of progress she’s making with him, but it is hard to distinguish which elements of his behaviour link to his condition.
However the SENCO puts a much more concerning slant on it, that the meltdowns disrupt the whole class, that he is being physical with the 1-to-1 and other children; that he is using threatening language including wanting to squash, to kill or to chop to pieces children in the class (remember he is 5!). Most concerningly he is sensory seeking, and has for instance been observed licking electrical sockets necessitating the school buying special covers for all sockets throughout the premises. This is based on a fascination with electrical pylons and cables. We have not witnessed such extreme behaviour at home or in social contexts, which rings alarm bells.
The school has started to talk to us about not being able to meet our son’s needs, and that we should at least be taking a look at local specialist schools. They are slanting this on our son “clearly having high levels of distress”, being concerned about his wellbeing, and from a safety context in general. On the other hand, we see our boy happy to dress into his uniform in the morning and scoot to school, and he is making progress academically.
However they also dropped into the discussion that they hadn’t received their full funding this year due to government cuts, and that his provision was only being made available because of school financial reserves - next year would not be the case (this contradicts the EHCP). They were very quick in our meeting to disassociate the two matters, but I cannot help but believe they’re linked and this was an inadvertent slip.
So my questions are to seek advice as to what’s best to do, in your collective opinion. My wife is strongly for getting the school to toe the line per the EHCP, and for the 1-to-1 to work on suitable strategies. I’m more open to a specialist school environment, however I am concerned about whether his academic progress would be compromised. I am planning to speak with the council department who draughted the EHCP in the first instance; but would be grateful for your thoughts on here.
Thanks for reading and in anticipation of your thoughts.
Marcus (a loving and concerned father)
