No, doing the lower tier first won't work financially - she can do the two year Catering course, then she wants to do the 2 year patisserie course. I can JUST financially stretch to that.
If she was to do the 1 yr lower course, then the two year course, then I could only financially do one year of the 2 yr pat course, then she's have to leave college, move out WHEN SHE CAN'T SUPPORT HERSELF, with no help from HB at all as she will be under 25...
No, no option to move her at all. Only place with space in her year is A) Inaccessible by public transport for a DC with SN's, B) Cannot offer her even half the TA time she currently gets, and C) doesn't offer the BTEC's she needs either.
No, the school don't offer science BTEC, only one that does is the one that I can't get her to because it is two buses, involving a town centre changeover, that she can't manage - she still can't tell the time properly! The LA told me that if I moved her, they wouldn't find a taxi for her as she isn't statemented. She isn't statemented because they refuse to even assess her. Yet she needs 25% extra time for her GCSE exams, a scribe, a reader, and the use of a laptop...but her SEN's aren't even worthy of being assessed for a statement, much less given one...
(Yes, I do realise my LA are breaking the law by setting 'blanket' levels for even assessing for a statement, they have lost in court plenty of times on that ground, but I can't AFFORD to take them to court. IPSEA are adamant I would win, because DD has never been more than 1 sub-level above the one that triggers the LA deigning to even assess for a statement. But because she is 1 sub-level higher than Essex fucking LA's illegal 'boundary for assessment' -which is only for English, Essex don't give two craps if your maths skills are those of a 7yo at 12yo - always plenty of threads on TES about it, from special school teachers even, they won't bloody attempt to assess her, or even let her see the fucking EP. Twice in over a decade of being on SA+ have I managed to get the EP to assess, once when she was 5yo, and once when she was 11yo. AAARRRGGHHH)
So the only school offering better EXAMS for DD is both inaccessible AND can't give her enough TA time.
All other schools have enormous waiting lists for DD's year, as there was a school that closed from the year above hers (this year's Y11) until this year (this year's Y7). This put immense pressure on all the other local schools.
The reason she can't do the lower course for a year at the start of college is because it would affect her funding and my benefits.
And getting totally off benefits just isn't going to happen for me, as much as I would like to, as I am disabled and my Neurologist refuses to sign me as fit for anything more than 16hrs a week, light duties only. No way can I change the fact that my finances will always be fully or partly reliant on benefits, and 4 years at college is the most I can fund before I lose all benefits for her. And some of my own through part of my HB being docked for having an adult 'supposedly' contributing to the household, and loss of my single person discount for Council Tax, and also the loss of at least part of my council tax benefits.
She either goes onto the standard catering course right away, or I give the fuck up on attempting to make her a contributing member of society despite her SN's, and she goes on ESA. She will be totally unemployable.
And DD has said that if she can't do the two year patisserie course, then there's no point in her doing the catering course, she doesn't want to work in a restaurant, she wants to work as a chocolatier. It's been her end goal for 7 fucking years, since she was 7yo.
And if you got this far, please excuse me turning into Ranty McRantPants!