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Secondary Education in England - Mainstream versus Special Schools

road99

Hi everyone. Me and my wife are now very close to deciding upon our secondary school for our son aged 10. My question relates to the English system so if you are in Scotland or Wales, please hold off from commenting as my wife and I would prefer comparable information and opinions relating to England (nothing against Scotland and Wales here).

I have read some of the posts with great interest but I still feel that my wife and I are missing something. We really would like to know of your experiences of having your autistic children in mainstream of special schools.

Our son is statemented and has delayed communication skills and is on the Autistic spectrum. He is currently alloted approx 23 hours per week support at school.

Will our son cope in mainstream with the academic side, the noise, the constant disruption and possible bullying? Would he even be able to cope with an exam atmosphere or even have the ability to take an exam? He can read and spell as good as his peers but he cannot understand Maths concepts or interpret instructions very well. He is a loner who prefers his own company but normally is well behaved in class, even though he may be anxious and moody on many occasions. Do we, on the other hand, go down the special school route where he, in my opinion, will not be challenged academically. As an example, in mainstream he may get the chance to study French and German but I doubt it will be touched in a special school. Regardless of whether he can pass an exam, do we still push to have him experience these new subjects?

Am I being selfish in being negative towards a special school who have already stated to us that they do not push the majority of kids to study GCSE as, in their words, 'their kids will not be able to cope with exam stress' (the special school we may choose is for kids with mild learning difficulties).

We would really like to hear from parents who have had their kids go through the first few years in mainstream and/or special schools and let us know a.s.a.p your very frank opinions on this. How do you feel on the decision you took and how are your kids coping in either of these environments.

Genuinely, my wife and I are not sure what to do but we have pretty much run out of time on this so we need to make an imminent decision.

Thank you.

Parents

  • 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.

     

     

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  • 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.

     

     

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