Any teachers or people in the know?

[Makinganewthinghappen]

My daughter is 11 and has been home educated - all if our children are home ed.

We have been told that she has autism and adhd by her paediatrician but we cant really access any help for her unless she is in school.

Her behaviour can be very confusing, the latest report we had from the doctor described her as behaving like a hyperkinetic 8 year old which seems a fair description.

We have been told that since she hasn’t been in the school system we would have to register her in a normal secondary school to see how it goes.

I was hoping for some advice on what will happen if we try to register her at a school?

I honestly have no idea at all how she will react.

Can we ask to go and look around the school before making a choice what to do?

I dont have any experience of schools and teachers etc and im not really certain what is expected!

Any advice would be really appreciated.

What support are you looking for for your daughter? And where are you based?

Mainly we just don’t know how to help her any further than we have. We think we need outside advice on her behaviour etc anf we are worried that she is so behind in school work etc.

We are in the northwest

No direct experience, but I imagine they would work towards applying for an ehcp for her (educational health care plan). This would document what support she'd need to access ft mainstream education. This would where any 1-2-1 workers would be identified and funding would come through the local authority. It takes a fair bit of time to go through the process. Sometimes a specific school can be listed in the ehcp, so if a specialist school would be more appropriate then it would be listed in the plan.

What type of help were you hoping to access?

I think you should ask to speak to the SENCO of any schools you are considering

You can apply for an EHCP for her without her being registered at a school. From experience I would advise against registering her for a mainstream school if you are considering a specialist school or alternate schooling might be better for her as once registered at mainstream it is harder to get a specialist place or deregister from mainstream.

You can also have an EHCP and continue to home educate her with support from that EHCP if she cannot access school due to her ASD/ADHD and the fact she has been previously home educated. They call it EOTAS (education other than at school)

IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) are great and have lots of online help and advice which might help you, plus an advice line you can call.