DS has been granted a SEN in September. It has fallen at a strange time as we are also in the middle of secondary transfer. We have decided to leave him at his present school for the rest of this school year and concentrate on his secondary placement. There are quite a few secondary schools in our area and we have been to see the SENCOs at about 5 of them. What we had not realised is that they really do not wanted statemented children. It seems there are 3 schools in our area which have a good reputation in regard to statemented children which has made them a victim of their own success. We have been told they are taking in so many statemented children that resources are being spread too thin with the effect that they no longer feel they can do a good job for any of them.
Each of the schools has tried to put us off them without actually saying they will not take him. We have not taken it personally but it is really disheartening. We thought getting the statement was the hard thing but finding a school that actually wants him is even harder. The SENCOs have said that as he has such complex sensory needs they just cannot see how he can cope with going into a school with over 1200 children and with having to move from classroom to classroom between lessons as well as other issues.
This has left us between a rock and a hard place as we are being told his issues are too complex for mainstream school but his intellect is too good for a specialist school. We have visited specialist schools and have been told by them he does not meet their criteria. The Specialist Teacher has told us he has so many problems there is not a school that will meet all of them so we have to go for the best we can get.
We have now named the school that has the best provision for statemented children and will wait to see what they come back with. I think if they say they cannot help him we will have to start looking at independent schools but that in itself will be a battle as no doubt the LEA will not want to fork out £40,000 a year to educate him.
Has anyone else had this issue of not fitting in one or the other and what did you do. Are there any independent schools out there who can deal with his sensory issues as well as educate him at the right level.
