Is private or state school better for SEN

Please be very careful with Private Schools. I know from bitter experience that they can convince you that they are for you, promise you the world to get your money and just throw your child out on a whim as they decide they cannot meet your child's needs. Also some will expect you to provide extra help or employ a TA and your fees could easily which in my area could easily amount to around £30,000 a year. There is a school near me with a separate SEN area which costs £5000 a term on top of fees. If the Indie is only at Primary level you will also need to be mindful of whether there will be provision in the Indie sector for Senior School and if the school does have Seniors whether your child would have automatic entry or you could find yourselves high and dry.

I am not saying avoid Private at all costs or to be the voice of doom but I am just saying to be very careful. Private schools generally will expect your child to fit in with them whereas State with good provision will be mindful and obliged to meet your little ones needs. Personally we went for a tiny rural state school and it has been amazing!

They generally stay in the same classroom as much as possible with support if needed. My son had a 1-1 learning support assistant with him during his early years at school and she stayed pretty much around all his junior school years.

Some schools have autism hubs where children can go to at lunchtime or for extra lessons in social skills...they would come away from the classroom on those occasions but they try to keep all children together where possible,

I think in Primary school you will have less problems. Most primary schools manage children with SEN very well because of smaller number so far children.

My advice would be to find a state run nursery/pre-school when you first get back here as they will do a very thorough assessment of educational needs. Once you've got that it will give you a better idea of what support your son needs to acccess the curriculum. If your DS is school age then a mainstream school will do exactly the same.

There are a few schools run by the National Autistic Society which are supposed to be excellent and run privately. However, if your child's needs cannot be met in the state sector (mainstream or special school) then local authorities can and do fund places at them.

There are also special schools around which might suit him. Often places are at a premium and this is why there tends to be a lot of fighting with the local authority. The special school my son attends is excellent with him and he has come on in leaps and bounds with them. But yes...I had to fight for that placement as the LEA default position seems to be "mainstream is best".

IME, Private schools around here won't accept dc with SEN (I presume you are talking about 'mainstream' private schools and not specialist provision?). I work in the Pre-school sector now and we come across lots of families that are "advised" by the private schools that they will "get better provision" in a state school

How old is your ds ?

Hello there, my son is 14 and was diagnosed with autism, ADHD and dyspraxia at age 7.

A lot will depend on how academic your son is and how difficult or not a private school would be for you financially,

Definitely the state sector have much greater input in the primary years and my experience of this has been good. My son was extremely well supported during those years. However I have spoken to others who haven't had the same experience.

Secondary school was a nightmare for my son, even the smallest school in the town was too big. Coupled with a SENCO who was lovely but totally ineffectual.

I went to war with the local authority (or at least that's what it felt like) and my son is now in a special school and thriving. However he won't be doing GCSEs there as they just don't offer those. He may not have reached those even in mainstream.

When I was looking at the private sector (I could have fought the local authority for a private placement if no state provision could be found) I found relatively few special schools local to me. The ones I did find looked fantastic though.

I am hoping someone who has used private schools will post here and tell you their experiences. But for me the State sector was fantastic...up until secondary provision.