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starting school

silver77

First off, hello everybody, I'm completely new here!

I wanted to ask some advice about how I can convince the education authorities that my son is not ready to start school next autumn.

My son is 4 and will still be under 5 come starting school time next year. He will be assessed for autism in November and is to be registered for school in January. I have already raised concerns with the nursery, and several therapists, support workers etc that are involved with him, all official sources have told me that they will not give him an extra pre-school year regardless of diagnosis and he must go to school. He has many autistic traits that make nursery very hard, although, they are fantastic with him and I firmly believe that without their help and support he would be a lot worse. The school he would be attending however is a different story. I have known children in the past with autism who have not been supported in the school and were moved to a specialist school as they couldnt cope. The specialist school for our area is not, again from knowing children who have attended it, satisfactory. To make matters worse the school he will be attending is closing for a year for refurbishment and all children will be bussed to an empty school some distance away. My son is terrified of setting foot on a bus and would meltdown if I were to step foot on it, never mind getting on himself. He will not get in a taxi or unfamiliar car but is happy to get in cars owned by my family. I dont drive myself so couldnt take him there every morning or be able to get to the school easily if there was a problem with his behaviour. Besides, the school has anounced that nobody will be alowed to drive their child to school and that they all have to get the bus.

While all the official reponses are he has to go, many people have told me that they cannot force him as he will still be under 5. I honestly believe that another year in nursery would allow him to progress to a point where he will be more equiped to cope with a school environment and that attending school next year will be damaging to him, but I dont know how to convince the people who make the decisions. Maybe I'm wrong in my assumptions but if I cant even get him to school then how can he attend?

If any of you have experience of this please could you give me  some advice on what I need to do or who I need to approach to secure an extra pre-school year for my child.

Thank you in advance and I'm sorry this is very rambling. You may think I'm looking too far ahead but every week or so we are experiencing an incident which raises my anxiety over his ability to attend school and it is on my mind constantly. Maybe I'm just distracting myself from his upcoming diagnosis!

Cheers, Silver

  • Thank you for your responses, I will be checking out both resources mentioned.

    I have also been told by another source to be assertive and put my foot down and that regardless of what the authorities are telling me, it is my call. Specifically, in this area at least, there is a focus on preventing children being held back as they seem to believe they have strategies in place to support children who are on a different level to their peers. I'm not seeing the evidence of these strategies or their effectiveness, hence my concerns.

    Thank you again, it is a comfort to know that I can ask for advice in an environment where my anxieties are understood. I have many wonderful friends but not many of them can relate to my family's situation.

    Silver

  • Hi silver77,

    this sounds very stressful, and unsatisfactory that you aren't getting proper answers about your specific situation. The NAS Education Rights Service should be able to advise you about your rights and what the school and local authority should be doing. Their details are here:

    http://www.autism.org.uk/our-services/advice-and-information-services/education-rights-service.aspx

    On a personal, non-moderator note - my daughter's primary school relocated because of building for over a year. She was in the nursery at the time and they were moved to a nearby building so they didn't have to be bussed to the temporary school. One of her classmates in nursery had autism and should have been starting reception that year but because they felt the temporary school wasn't appropriate for him he stayed on in the nursery for an extra year. So there are definitely things that can be done to avoid children for whom the relocation is going to be very difficult having to go through that.

    I hope the Education Rights Service can help identify some other options for you.

    philippab - mod

  • hi silver77 - I'm no expert on your situation but there is a website "ipsea" which I think people use for education issues.  bw