Where is there an excellent mainstream secondary school for an autistic boy who requires some support?

Honley High School in West Yorkshire is a mainstream state school with an internal autism specialist unit that I believe is very good.

https://www.honleyhigh.co.uk/rp-welcome

Wow, I stand corrected :-)

i wonder how they cover all the gcse subjects

I would also focus on getting the EHCP with 1.1 support specified. Most mainstream schools are busy, underfunded places with large classes, students with difficult behaviour and few teaching assistants.

Maybe somewhere like Churchill, a special state school for kids with high functioning autism. It is in Suffolk. You would need an EHCP to access it and might have a battle on your hands.

Just looked at the aforementioned Samuel King's School out of curiosity - PAN is 22...

My ds sounds similar to yours in some ways but is managing in a state school with ta support set out in his ehcp. We are in an inner city area so the school isn't small (6 forms per year) and behaviour is a bit mixed. However the school is nurturing and inclusive and that has made the difference. If private isn't possible is there a school near you that is a bit more nurturing? Is there a possibility of starting the ehcp process?

A PAN of 50 can be viable. A minority of schools have a PAN of 50. For example, the XP schools mentioned above. Although XP schools aren’t necessarily that accommodating of SEN, IMO.

The state system is supposed to cope with a fairly wide range of needs, and EHCPs are designed to cover anything beyond those needs. It’s not really an indictment of the system, though I think it is too hard to get an EHCP.

A secondary state school of 50 pupils a year wouldn’t be viable - in remote areas like the scilly isles, pupils are shipped to the mainland or to the largest island for more senior schooling, I think

Honestly? Probably not many in England. The Scottish highlands and islands, maybe.

Cape Cornwall is tiny; so is Samuel King's in Cumbria at around 80 pupils in the whole school. I don't know how good either would be with SEN.

I have to say that my autistic child did better in a much bigger secondary (nearly 2000 pupils) with the staff and the space and the spare budget to accommodate him rather than just huffing at us and digging their heels in. But he had a statement (old-style EHCP) that included full-time 1:1 help, which would be like asking for gold-plated caviar for school lunch these days.

More House in Frensham isn't a dyslexia school. It's a specific learning difficulties school. Have a Google.

The vast majority of boys there now,are funded by their various local authorities via a EHCP. I would doubt many get in without a tribunal.

However I do have a child in a paid independent specialist school via my LA with no appeal. Getting a ehcp takes time. Going through each appeal step right now can take years. The listing for a appeal date is currently at a year. You could appeal to assess, then appeal to issue and then appeal the contents ( Inc named school).

Maybe Moore House in Farnham area. If he's 3 years behind in English he may qualify for an ECHP. Moore House is for dyslexia and focuses on literacy but they take well-behaved kids with other SEN needs.

It's private but I know of people who have got funding from the local authority to go there. They had to take the local council to court, all three of them. But in the end the LAs have all paid up.

So there might be a chance there. It's a very good school and sounds like the kind of place your DS could do well. Try calling admissions and see what they say. Let us know how you get on if you do call.

This. I teach in a lovely, small, non-selective independent with small classes and what would generally be seen as good behaviour. But teenagers are teenagers. They arrive late, push boundaries, thrive on drama and trying to buck the system, make a lot of noise etc. I would be pushing hard for an EHCP and a specialist setting. I have a young relative with a similar profile who ended up being asked to leave a state school because of his behaviour (which was mostly due to him not coping with the chaos and noise and other children breaking the rules and his reaction to that). He is now in a specialist setting but in the 'top group' within it, and they are being pushed academically so that they should get the good set of GCSE results of which they are capable.

You need to get into the state system, get assessed and then they can name a school that's suitable for him in theory. Coming from overseas you will need to take whatever place is available where you are living initially, you cannot even apply until hes resident in the U.K. all state schools have similar class sizes, though the number of classes varies a lot from just a few to 500+ students per year group.

Based on your description I suspect he'll need a unit in a mainstream school or special ed, neither you can apply for from overseas

You want small classes.

State schools don't offer this unless medical need which you currently can't evidence.

It's not really an indictment of state education that they don't offer small classes. It's pretty much always been the case that if you want that you need private.

Very few teens are quiet and compliant and to be honest the private schools will only be a bit better than the state. Teenagers as a group are dramatic, have unending friendship issues and are not compliant.

You are not going to find classes full of quiet compliant teens anywhere because frankly it's a contradiction in terms.

Would you meet the requirements of a Catholic school? Some are more pastorally minded and I know of one that has a nurture class most year groups for kids who struggle academically and socially. Usually 8-16 kids in it. A boy in my family went all the way through in this class and though he never loved school he also never had the massive issues that we thought he might before he started there.

What about somewhere with an integrated resource? There's two in Sheffield. Don't know what they are like though. Mine aren't secondary age yet.

The environment which would seem to suit him the best would be a small quiet class of quiet, compliant pupils with a teacher who understands ASD and implements strategies eg set routines, doesn't expect high social skills & theory of mind.

The Holy Grail of classrooms. Unfortunately any small class such as you describe will be for children who have similar needs to your ds and will therefore be unlikely to be quiet or compliant much of the time.

I don't know if this is normal but in my middle sized London comprehensive we have "nurture classes" for KS3 for subjects such as English when students are behind.

The problem does however get passed down the line as students join the regular GCSE classes in year 10.

We have got some parts of London with falling rolls and relatively high school funding but I'm guessing the house prices would prohibit a move here? Have you considered house prices/housing costs? I think I'd do that before trying to find a school tbh.

Teacher.

The provision in most state secondary schools falls into one of three possibilities:

Firstly mixed ability classes of around 30. An increasing number of state schools do this in year 7 and many now do it into year 8 and 9. By definition this is not a small class of well behaved students. If maths is average in English is 3 years behind he should be able to access the maths and stem ok but would need support to access the English.

Secondly grouped by ability. Most state schools that do this put more kids into the upper sets and fewer kids in the lower sets. The lower ability groups tend have more students with behavioural problems. As he is average for maths he'd be in a middle set for maths/stem and bottom set for English/history/RE etc. in my experience these bottom sets contain students with adhd, ASD, physical illnesses such as epilepsy who have missed school and are behind, global developmental delay and learning difficulties. They are small classes. They do not contain compliant students who he will learn with well.

Either of these provisions are "mainstream". He is very very unlikely to get any TA (1:1) support in the classroom without an EHCP as the current education system in the UK is underfunded and he doesn't have the paperwork he needs.

The third option is a unit alongside mainstream where he has small classes but all the students with have SEN probably ASD. He would be able to attend mainstream classes to partially integrate. You have zero chance of getting a place on one of those without at least an EHCP and probably a court battle as well.

In Surrey but you'd need an EHCP

www.kedlestongroup.com/our-locations/schools/brookways-school/home

To be honest, given his profile, I'm not sure a private school would be the best setting for your DS anyway. Unless the private school was a specialist setting.

As other people have suggested, I would recommend looking at a resourced based provision attached to a mainstream secondary. They are all run on different lines though so no two are the same.

My DS is in one. It works well for him. He has 1 to 2 support at all times, attends most lessons but there is the support there if he gets overwhelmed. He also has speech and lang. once a week and has somewhere he can go at break/lunchtimes.

I know you say you're happy to move but as a starting point it would be worth contacting your council for a list of resource units - and specialist provisions - and try to visit them. That way you can get a feel of what they offer and can judge if they might be appropriate.