any suggestions on a good school for my asd son

[levent]

Hi i'm new here. i'm having a hard time finding a good school for my son. He is academically clever He needs speech therapy and social skills. is eagle house any good? he is 12 years old. we live in london.

[ChunkyMonkeysMum]

Hi levent. Is this Eagle House in Mitcham ?
If so, I don't know if it's any good, but we were due to have a look around when we were looking at schools for our DS1.

We were lucky in that another placement was agreed for DS1 at a private school in Tadworth - Papillon House - so didn't view Eagle House in the end.
We are in Caterham so come under Surrey for education. There were no in-county placements available for DS1 so we were able to look at out of county & independent ASD schools & were very lucky to have his placement agreed.

Whereabouts are you ? How profound is your DS1's ASD ? Papillon House is for profound ASD. DS1 has transport to and from school by taxi as it's about 20 mins away from us. If you're less than an hour away and your DS has profound autism I would highly recommend a viewing & can certainly give you more info.

[sugarcandymountain]

Hi, if your DS is doing well academically, will you be expecting him to sit GCSEs? I think Eagle House don't offer GCSEs, but ASDAN and Entry Level GCSEs (for those who would not be able to achieve grade G). There is quite a difference between schools with deal with more severe autism and those which deal with the milder end of the spectrum.

For a child with ASD and at the middle/upper level of academic ability, I'd look at these schools (all independent special schools):

Centre Academy take a mix of ADHD/AS/dyslexia and offers GCSEs and SALT/OT.

There is a new Priory school opening in Roehampton for ASD.

Hillingdon Manor is a school for AS. It has had good reviews although the intake is quite broad - from non-verbal to those taking GCSEs. They are also opening another school in Bexley.

Blossom House is also supposed to be quite good, although they don't deal with challenging behaviour.

Stanbridge Earls School is worth considering if your DS is at the milder end of AS.

The Moat School is mainly for dyslexics but also take some children with mild AS.

[Ziegel6]

I have just visited a lot of these schools this year as I have 11 yr old twin with ASD.
Blossom House was already full last year for this year's September intake when we applied and we are on a waiting list of 14. They don't really like ASD children is my impression but have good speech and language provision.

Eagle House have a new school opening nr Sutton. It will have 2 sections - one for less able and one for very able. They weren't very helpful and said my boys wouldn't fit into either category really and that wa only from looking at the paperwork and without even assesing the boys so I didn't think that was great.

The Priory School in Roehampton looks very smart but is very, very expensive. The head teacher is very experienced, used to be at Heathermount in Surrey. Think they are aiming for quite academic children.

There is also St Dominics in Surrey - academic but ASD specific.

There are 2 More Houses - one is boarding in Godalming and the other is in Farnham and totally unrelated. the first is speech and language (we didn't look as it was boarding) and the other takes quite able children - my boys didn't do well on their assessment day but our middle son subsequently did a day's assessment and has been offered a place (he is 8 and higher functioning than my twins).

My twins were offered a place at Centre Academy and will be starting there in September.

Good luck, its so hard finding the right fit for each child as the schools definitely take varying levels of language/behaviour etc. Best to look at them all if you can.

[StarOfValkyrie]

Have a look at Cambian education, although I think they are mostly bording.

this school is supposed to be very good - priory group

[StarOfValkyrie]

Are these schools all accessed by tribunal though?

[silverfrog]

I am not that impressed by Eagle House, although admittedly dd1 was at pre-school, not school.

we told our LA that dd1 was onlygoing ot Eagle H0use Mitcham over our dead bodies... we found the EHG pre school to be very prescriptive, and totally "our way or no way". awful place.

we looked around Papillon too - not sure how wel they would cater for academically able. I didn'tget the impression they had much experience in that area. Beautiful though, and avery peaceful place.

[sugarcandymountain]

Star, that link goes to an article about Academies!

Priory schools are good, although I found them quite clinical compared to Cambian schools.

Generally parents have to at least threaten tribunal for these schools, but I've heard of LAs backing down before a hearing or agreeing to fund when no other school could take them and the child ends up out of education for years. The smaller schools like Centre Academy sometimes have parents funding their own places.

Ziegal6, well done on getting places at Centre Academy. It sounded like a nice little school to me and would have been good for DS if his behavioural needs weren't so severe.

[silverfrog]

whether you get the schools named without a tribunal fight depends on a lot of htings.

eg, my LA had admitted dd1 needed and ASD specific SN school.

the state places were full (had ot fight to get that admitted, though) and so they had to look at independents.

when her papaers were sent around for statementing, they were sent to: Eagle HOuse, Papillon HOuse, THe Link School in Beddington (hasnt been mentioned here - isn't ASD specific but is a communication difficulties specialist, a bit like Blossom HOuse, I guess. don't know what iti slike,as they nevr eturned our calls ), Jigsaw school near Guildford and another one - sorry can't remember!

And we argued against all of those for one reason or another. but it was generally accepted by LA that they would be paying for independent school for dd1.

[StarOfValkyrie]

sorry, meant this one

It is where I'll move to and fight to get ds into if the MS goes tits up!

[sugarcandymountain]

Ah, I visited that one. 'Tis very nice, huge grounds and very academic. But they don't deal with challenging behaviour so wouldn't offer DS a place.

[flyingmum]

St Dominic's in Hambledon is good and has fantastic therapy. It is also non maintained so therefore not as expensive as a full on private school such as a Cambian or Priory therefore LEAs might be more likely to consider it. I've been told about Philpott's mannor in West Sussex. If you are in Surrey then the LEA special school Sunnydown might be worth a try - it is very good and takes aspies.

[Marne]

We live near a Cambian school, i had a look around last year and thought it was great (huge grounds, great therapy etc..).

[Chocolate999]

Hi everyone. I know it's an old post. Please can you post latest suggestions for academically able boys. I have 8yo son with ehcp, goes to mainstream school. Looking for high functioning schools/ academically able school in surrey. TIA