mainstream or mld school

[mum2rob]

Hi My dc is at junior school in year 4 and has problems with speech/language and learning. He has a statement of special needs (16 hours). At the moment he is working below level 2 (1a) in all subjects. His reading is coming on well now (maybe a year behind his peers)but he finds it very difficult to communicate what he understands either verbally or in writing -handwriting and spelling are poor and he has great difficulty putting a sentence together. His attention is very poor too. We feel he has dyspraxic/add problems but SENCO feels it is all down to learning difficulties.

We are beginning to look ahead to secondary school. We had always thought he would go to mainstream school with support but SENCO has said if he is working below level 3 by year 6 he would never cope and we should look at a mld school.

My question is are there any parents of older children with similar learning problems and where did you send them & how is it working out?

Thanks for reading this!

[flyingmum]

Hi
I just typed you a big long response and lost it! So here goes:
I'm mum to a SEN kid (dyspraxia, dyslexia, ASD, S&L) and a secondary teacher.
It is possible for very low functioning children to be accommodated in secondary school BUT you need to consider the following:
If their communication skills are poor then they are not going to get the main benefit from school which is the social side. They will have a particularly tough time in year 7 and 8 where their peers are often too immature to deal with others being 'different'.
A child who is very low achieving but socially fine can get on (although I have to say often becomes very disaffected by year 9 and in KS4 because the lessons are so over their heads)
Often they tend to get taken out of lessons for 1 to 1 support so they are not in the main class anyway.
They become very reliant on one to one support.
BUT they are mixing with their peers and you need to judge how your child will 'fit in' with the peer group being offered in a mld school.
There are special schools available for cognitively 'normal' but with difficulties - for speech and language Moor House in Oxted is an example that I know of.

My advice is to start researching options. Look round as many schools as possible. You know your son best and what he is like at home. There are a wide variety of options and there are independent special schools as well (most junior school SENCOs have never heard of them - neither had I until I discovered my son's). There is a long way to go until year 6. I do think though that if they are not getting level 3 in Science by year 6 then that is very low achieving (sorry to be blunt but I've got my teacher hat on and we do get a tiny minority of children in who frankly would be much better served elsewhere). Your son my well qualify for a reader and a scribe in all his SATS and they should be using this now and he should be learning how best to use one. If his scores are dramatically better when he uses a scribe then that validates the view that a mld school is not the right choice. If, however, his S&L difficulties are what is stopping him communicating to a scribe then you need a school which will provide S&L provision and is geared for those types of children and again that might not be an mld school.

Good luck.

[yurt1]

My son moved from a mainstream school to a special school (SLD/PMLD though) and our life & his improved enormously.

Have a look around & talk to other parents etc. The other local SLD school would not have been appropriate for our son.

[Reallytired]

I think you need to visit the schools and go with your gut feeling. Some MLD schools are better than others.

I work in an MLD school as an ICT technician. Most of children there are extremely happy. The children who aren't happy probably would not be happy anywhere.

The school is small enough to care. I think that children with learning difficulties can get a bit lost in a large secondary school.

Unlike a large secondary school the teachers in an MLD school have chosen to work with MLD kids. Sometimes in mainstream secondary school the inexperienced Newly qualifed teacher or the PGCE student gets given all the bottom sets.

Also in an MLD school the kids get the chance to be on sports teams or in the school play.

Prehaps a disadvantage of an MLD school is that your son might not do GCSEs or only do GCSEs at foundation level. A lot of the kids at the school I work at do entry level qualifcations because they can't cope with GCSE. Special schoool often do not have such good facilies as mainsteam schools.

[nickToD]

What about a mainstream secondary school with a special provision for children with speech and language difficulties? They will have specialist teaching and mainstream staff who are experienced with sn children with difficulties such as your son has. There are several such provisions in essex where I live- perhaps that might be an alternative you could explore where you are.

[mum2rob]

Thank you everyone that has replied. It does really help reading other people's experiences.

I guess my gut feeling is that my dc might not fit in either option. He is a happy go lucky boy on the whole but I think he would struggle socially at mainstream but I am worried the mld school wouldn't fit either.
Over the summer I got him to do a keystage 1 paper -after being frustrated by the school telling us he can't access the tests. With me scribing and having lots of breaks as his attention is very poor. He came out at a higher level (2b)-still along way behind his peers but it did back up our feeling he understands more than he lets on. Obviously I am not a teacher but a tried not to lead him at all.

I think he needs an environment that deals with his speech and language problems first. I am pretty sure he wouldn't qualify for a language unit place as the experts are still not sure if his speech and language difficulties are the route of his learning problems or along side them if you see what I mean.

I have googled independent special schools and we could never afford the fees. Has anyone every got their LEA to fund their child at a independent school even though they could of been placed at a LEA school? If so was it hard to prove the LEA provision wouldn't be adequate?

Thanks again for your views -they are really helpful. I just don't want to make the wrong decision!

[Reallytired]

The MLD school I work gives children a trial week to see if its the right school for them. Maybe the special schools in your area would do this.

[flyingmum]

No one can afford the fees at an independent special school. You fight the good fight (and it is a long and bloody battle not for the faint hearted) and get the LEA to pay. I would, as other posters have suggested, visit as many schools as poss - there is such a huge variety out there. don't be put off by fees, etc, just yet. Find the right provision and then move from that as a base. Lots of the SEN mums (me included) have battled and won - it can be done and you have the advantage that you are starting to look now so have plenty of time.

It's also only the start of year 4 and a level 2 is OK, I think, at this time of year - he certainly won't be the only one on that level. I found Eye Q fish oil stuff worked a well on my chap for attention. Cranial Osteopathy was also of benefit (not a miracle cure but it did help).