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main stream v special school

plumpy

Hiya

I would like some thoughts please, my 7 year old son has a full statement with 2 one to ones at a main stream school, one is leaving (who has been his one to one since reception) I am a bit concerned about the change of one to one, the school its self has had some changes such as a new headmaster and a new SENCO. My son still cannot read, he has problems with blending the words etc. I'm not sure if I should change from main stream to special? The one to one that is leaving is going to to a TA at a special school and commented on how it was nice to see all the children there being themselves, I really dont know what to do as it's always a battle trying to get him to engage with phonics, maths etc. I just want him to be happy.

If anyone has been through this, I would love to hear their experiences.

Many thanks

  • Hi,

    I don't want to hijack this thread, but I think our experience is somewhat related. In my introduction message in September I mentioned we arrived to Bristol from France in August with our ASD 7-year-old son. In France he was in mainstream school part time until year 3 with a teaching assistant.

    Here we found a mainstream school who accepted him in October (with a teaching assistant) and he is on a progressive integration schedule currently with a plan to have him in school full time from December 01 onwards.

    We see that he has behavioural difficulties but he was accepted in school on the basis of his being able to write and read French (slowly). He has a speech delay and serious undestranding difficulties. I would not know whether the speech delay causes his understanding issues or the other way around. Anyway, he needs to catch up in English language on top of this.

    Our request for a SEN (EHCP) assessment was turned down in October on the basis of lack information concerning previous progress (or lack thereof). 

    Due to his lack of language communication skills he could never be tested for IQ or capabilities, so we do not know what his potential is, and we made this clear to the school's SENCO.

    What would be the normal process if the school realises that he cannot cope or lags too far behind the rest of the class?

    Can the school push for a statement? Are they likely to exclude him, leave him to straggle behind or recommend a special school?

    This is our experience Plumpy, more questions than answers I'm afraid...

     Breizh

  • Hi - go + have a look at the special school, if you haven't already.  Is it an autism-specific school?  Ask whatever you want when you're there.  Ask if you can pop back sometime (choose a different time of day) to double check how things are.  Do you think your son wd benefit from being there?  That's the bottom line.  Do you think he'll learn + cope in mainstream with appropriate support?  If not seriously consider the special school.  Do they have a waiting list?  Are there any vacancies now?  My son went to autism-specific schools from when he started to when he left + they served him v well.  Small classes, well staffed with a teacher + assistant(s) with people who understood about autism + how it affected each child individually.  Good luck.