Looking for a school for children with high functioning Autism

Hi @ 13lucky

Thanks for that guidance.
What in terms of pastoral/ Sen team stood out for you? Did you only look at your local schools or did you consider schools that can be bused/ driven to?

Did you use the Sen schools guide? I’m thinking of buying a subscription but not sure how useful it will be to try and identify schools to visit.

Thank you for sharing

My advice when looking at Secondary Schools would be to ascertain what their Student Support / SEN / Pastoral Team is like...then look at the rest of the school. This is how we chose the school for our HFA son. There was one school which stood out, head and shoulders above the rest...it is a Super Selective State Secondary School and luckily he scored enough to go there without too much hassle but it was a heart in mouth moment for us when waiting for the results because I knew it had the best pastoral set up. Ds started in September and it has lived up to my expectations...I would have chosen the school had it been Grammar or not just because of the strong pastoral team that I witnessed on the three times I visited. Good luck.

Hi @GrammarHopeful,

Thank you for responding, I wasn’t sure anyone would.
It looks like an EP with an EHCP can help extend the time with exams. Amazing that your DS wants to sit the exams and sounds very grounded about the next stage of school where the “kids might be more academic and sensible...”
Have you worked on anything to help get him to this calmer space? Mine seems to have an anxious outlook and can display by refusing to go in.

May I ask where you are in the country and how you found the selective Private schools interested in your DS? I’ve found private schools very stand offish once I say High functioning ASD here in west London.

Hi, @Notsoyummymummy12

I have a 11 yo DS with autism as well, and we are nearly done with the 11+ process. I can't yet tell you how successful we were (although he passed at least one of the grammars so far) or whether that's the right choice, but simply that it may be doable.

We do have an EHCP, and had an EP report we luckily commissioned just before COVID, so DS was granted 25%/10% extra time in most of his exams, both for grammars and selective independents. The more selective independents, interestingly, the better the engagement and granting of extra time in my n=1 case. He has pretty high IQ, but slowish processing speed and executive function. In other words, typical "spiky" profile.

English is definitely more of a challenge here. So are friendships, or lack thereof... Although, he thinks that he may be able to form some going into Y7, on the basis that he expects other boys to be academic and sensible.

Time will tell.

Opps it got sent before I’d finished.

I really appreciate learning from parents who have been through this or experiencing it now. Feeling very stressed by this and the whole EHCP process.

Thanks for reading

Hello,

I’ve just taken to Mumsnet to find out from other SENs parents what to do about schools and found this thread. It’s now Dec 2020 but my B7 has High functioning ASD, is in private school and is doing reasonably well academically, less great on friendship forming. But worried about the step up in volume as he gets older as he has dislike of writing which is going to hold him back! Did any parents here find good schools for their children? We are based in west London but willing to travel or even move for 11-18 age schools.
Not sure about going for 11+ as he’s bright and tracking well but think he’d not survive having to write English tests to a tight 45 minute or 1 hour deadline in exam conditions for the top schools!! Want to try and find the better options now to review so we can be better help him to find the best place for him.

A systematic way to get a sense of what is available is to pick a Local Authority and look at the "Local offer" and at the list of private schools where they placed the children. There is also a list of independent special schools on DfE website and a list of independent schools under section 41 of education act...
There is also the equivalent of good schools' guide for SEN. Sorry I don't have the links to hand, but they are googleable.

www.autism.org.uk/services/nas-schools/thames-valley/learning.aspx in Reading. A friend's child is now at college doing a BTEC after attending here.

Grately house school near Andover might be what you are looking for.

Primary or secondary?

Egerton Rothersay School

I think you need to give us more indications of what you are looking for! For example some areas of the UK still have academically selective grammar schools. Many aspie kids perform well in the sorts of tests these schools use, and these schools may actually have strong SEN units.

I sympathise, it is a very hard task to navigate the maze of choosing the school for a child with HFA. There was a recent thread with some answers here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3355892-Private-Secondary-schools-in-London-for-HF-ASD

Any preferences where?

Two which spring to mind are Fairley House in London (day school, expensive, pupils usually stay for a year or two whilst they learn to strategies and skills so that they can transfer successfully to mainstream.

Or St Bede's Eastbourne (day or boarding, which is not a specialist school but which has a good reputation for support.