Secondary Education in England - Mainstream versus Special Schools

A good specialist school might be the best option but the bad ones get bad, (Example) and the diffrence is not necessariy obvious, you need to be very careful and have frequent contact with your child. Always ask about what they learn and did to be aware of any developing problems. 

My daughter is 16 has been statemented since she was 11 and diagnosed with autism at 13, she went to mainstream school from 4-13 and learned absolutely nothing, she could barely write let alone read, it destroyed all her confidence, At 13 she was allocated a place at a special needs school, best thing that ever happened. She has thrived so well its hard to believe its the same child. Today we collected her exam results and im so proud of her shes passed them all, :) i can honestly say special needs schools win hands down everytime, they treat each child as an individual n they make it their  job to see that every child is helped to their full potential, i hope ur son is thriving  well whatever school u decided to send him to. :) x

There are other forms of education to consider. Hotel california mentions Open University, which is a sound well recognised qualification. They are however quite demanding, in terms of coursework content, the amount of information supplied (often to very high standards but a lot to take in, including some of their simulations), the rigour of the phase tests, and exams taken in unusual central venues. And that's a long term option beyond GCSE/ A'Level.

There was an initiative to create a work experience practical based option to GCSE and A Level called 14-19 Diploma, although it seems to have been allowed to fall apart under the present Government. The UK unlike much of Europe, lacks practical work based courses, but UK schools did not support the idea. It would have given pupils options that were less 'academic' and more employer orientated, and the initiative was driven by industry, especially engineering.

There may be ongoing 14-19 diplomas around, but it varied a lot with local authority.

Another approach is Higher National Diplomas and Certificates, which either mean attending at a Further Education College or doing distance learning (like Open University). These lie between A Level equivalent and first year university - an HNC can usually be topped up to a degree by completing second and third year modules.

A further option are Foundation Degrees (not to be confused with foundation courses pre-University) which equate to completing a second year at University, and can be topped up to a full degree with one year's further study.

Then there are vocation based courses under City & Guilds.

I mention these because some local authorities' ideas on special schools is to place autistic spectrum kids in classes mainly orientated to learning disabled or mental health, where they are unconnected with their peers, and where sometimes the number of A Levels available to study is small.

But also, whether in mainstream or special school, if a child runs into difficulties at A'Level there is a terrible barrier that rears its head that all chances of going to university are thwarted.

This is not necessarily the case, as there are other pathways, such as HNCs and Foundation Degrees. The problem is these are outside the normal scope offered by schools, that are rather blinkered towards the A Level then University rat race (also the options don't suit their performance table expectations).

The best way to find out about the options is to look at the Learning Skills Councils (the Government has changed the system a bit but they read across to new websites). These relate to the longer term career area. So, for example Construction & Built Environment caters for the building and construction industry.

I think there needs to be more help and flexibility towards career path options from people on the spectrum for whom the conventional do A Levels then go to University may not work out favourably.

Hi Road 99

I faced many of the issues you are facing several years ago.  I decided to send my sons to mainstream for two primary reasons.  One I couldn't find a special needs school that catered for A level - all stopped at GCSE and secondly special need schools focus a lot of social skills and the softly softly approach to academia.

Having said this mainstream schooling has not been an easy road.  If I was to do it all over again I would want to know the percentage of students that started in Year 7 with special needs who are now in their VIth form.  If they are no longer there chances are the school was unable to offer the support they needed (there maybe other reasons, but I believe that we generally don't move our children unless absolutely necessary).

Next find out if there are teachers at the school who have autism (you'd be surprised... I was).  In my case it was like putting petrol and fire together and I had to intervene to everyones' relief.

Get back in touch with the LEA and have your statement amended to allow your child to do their exams in a quiet space together with additional time for breaks.  Made a huge difference for my sons.

finally, it's no good just complaining... be proactive.  Come up with strategies that you believe will help your child, no matter how daft they may sound.  Make sure they are implimented and adhered to.

When I eldest started at secondary school, he would not sit any exam or do any homework.  If he thought he would not get 100% he was a failure.  Now he is in Year 12.. He achieved 11 GCSE's at A* and A grades.

My second child is just starting an OU course whilst at school as he doesn't partake in drama , art and pe.  Sometimes you need to think outside the box.

If you need help with more ideas for support in secondary school, let me know.

good luck.

My son attended a mainstream secondary school. It was really tough. It is a brilliant school with a lot of experience of ASD children and it was through them that he was diagnosed (they spotted it and referred him for diagnosis) and also he was Statemented in Year 9. However it was also a big school 1,000+ pupils, and he came very close to permanant exclusion several times. Happily the SEN staff were committed to keeping him there and eventually things settled down. He left at 16 because the VIth form was A levels only and he is not suited to that sort of academic pressure. He then went to a local college which is a different story altogether.

For us the choice did not include Special School because as you say some special schools do not really push children, and at the time we had to choose he had no diagnosis. The choice was between our local comp and the one he went to, a faith school 13 miles from home.

I am still glad we made the choice we did.I have lost count of the number of parents I have met who say our local comp wasn't interested in helping their child and eventually they ended up in a unit for children with 'problems' which didn't stretch them at all.

I do know of one child who has a dual placement. He is registered at a special school, but goes to a comp for certain subjects that he is good at. He has been doing that for a year and as far as I know it is still working well.

If you don't have an ASD specific special school near you it might be worth looking for a comprehensive which has experience of ASD, but even that can be hard to determine. I know of someone whose child's school said they had experience of ASD but they weren't as knowledgeable as they claimed.

Can your Ed Psych give you some pointers? They can't recommend schools I don't think, but they can steer you towards ones with a good track record.

Sadly I cannot help there, road99. Apart from my schooling being 45 years ago and in Scotland, my peers discovered I had a propensity to over-react to sudden or complex noise and movement, and I lived out a precarious and unproductive existance, and only caught up academically in my 20s. Bullied to destruction in other words.....

Hi - it is difficult.  Is the special school an autism-specific school?  The ideal would be for him to be in such a school which had high but realistic expectations of him.  Some autism specific schools are like that but may not be near you?

Thanks Longman,

First of all I do not want to give the impression my son will overly achive, as i think he will struggle academically.

However if I may ask; what secondary education did you go through and what was your impression of it? Would you recommend one type of school over another?

Thank you

I'm not commenting as a parent or from a schools background, but I do wonder if there are parallels to what happens in higher education.

University is much less intrusive on how someone studies and how the complete their tasks to meet the overall assessment. But that does give rise to certain conspicuous problems for students on the spectrum.

Most obvious is some failure, often not readily predictable, to meet all the conditions required to complete the learning outcomes. Some people on the spectrum (myself included) "blank" (for want of a better word) some aspects that it ought to appear obvious are necessary - don't do a piece of the work set through obliviousness to it. Others ignore a piece of the work set intentionally, perceiving it as unneccessary.

So they don't complete enough of the work which risks putting them close to the pass margin or below it.

The other common occurrence is a break down in written communication. Again this isn't predictable. The way they express themselves in assignments falls well below expectations, even though previous work has been good.

In school environments the work required is more prescriptive, and there may be more check points at which to find out if a pupil is having difficulty in meeting the grades.

I do wonder if special schools, with some of the prevailing assumptions about what ASC is versus the actual experience of individuals, are really geared up to subtle shortfalls.

On the other hand mainstream schools, while having check procedures in place for a variety of potentially underperforming pupils, may also not understand what goes wrong sometimes.

So I must watch the ensuing discussions on this. What causes pupils on the spectrum to underachieve if otherwise seen as capable?