Has anyone decided to home ed for the first year?

[Marne]

I was speaking to my portage worker today as dd2's appointment for the Ed phyc has just come through, i asked her about the choices we have re education for dd2 next year. At the moment i havnt got a clue what to do, do we:

• send her to main stream?
• Send her to the local SN school?
• keep her back for a year (if possible)?
• Home ed for a year?

I am worried about making the wrong choice, i don't want to put her in MS and then she struggles, i don't want to send her to SN if she's too bright.

I am very tempted to try and keep her back a year and keep her in nursery but this isn't always possible.

Would i be mad to consider home ed for a year? She has done so well being at MS nursery, i think she needs to mix with other children but i am so worried that she will get pushed around at MS school .

Have any of you decided to home ed for a year to give your dc more time to catch up and yourself more time to decide on schools?

[Jo5677]

Hi Marne,i home ed one of my daughters (have done for 7 years now).

I have a son on the autistic spectrum though who i don't home ed.I was very worried he might find it hard in mainstream but i sent him in the end to try it out with a view to taking him out if i felt it necessary.

I would say that you should do what you feel is best for you and your child as you know her best.

I don't know where abouts you are but i found Wiltshire LEA were very supportive when i rang them and disscussed my son's options with them when trying to decide.

Just signing of for the night now but i hope you get some helpful replies, Jo x

[Marne]

Thank you Jo, we are in Dorset, hopefully the LEA will be helpful, its so hard not knowing how dd will be by next september, she's improved so much over the past 6 months but will she still be too far behind by next september.

[sickofsocalledexperts]

We do half and half - mornings at home witht ABA therapists, and pm's at mainstream school with an LSA. I also managed to get him year delayed, which has definitely helped as he has a chance of keeping up with his younger classmates. Everyone told me I'd never get that delay agreed, but actually I built a reasonable case and they said yes. To me, this is the best compromise between socialising with other kids, and intensive one-to-one learning, for my DS at least. The special schools I saw were all crap, and set their sights way too low for the autistic kids imho ("oh we do lots of swimming" no mention of anything much else).

[TotalChaos]

could you explore possiblity of a split placement between special school and mainstream, or her going to mainstream with a unit, with a view to her going to some classes in the mainstream school outside the unit? I suppose I'ld be concerned that it would be harder for her to start mainstream in year one than in reception.

[Marne]

If she goes to MS it will be at our village school (so no unit), its a tiny school (only 70 children), her sister (AS) goes there so it would make sense to send dd2 there.

We also have a great SN school (70% of their pupils are ASD) and they would also do outreach if we decided on main stream. We have looked around this school and we know the dep head but most of the children seem more severe than dd2.