Thank you for asking. Just after the last time I posted I discovered dd had been self harming, which was such a shock as we honestly thought she was getting better. But she was obviously just coping with things in a different way. I don’t think she’s done it again since we found out a couple of weeks ago. She’s generally ‘ok’ and has been a bit up and down but more up than down. I have a call with a local service who the GP referred us to on Monday and I think they offer different types of therapy so will hopefully be helpful for us.
We got to visit MNHES yesterday and it was really positive. The staff are so lovely. It’s very small and calm. There were a couple of lessons going on when we were being shown round and one had 5 kids and the other had 3 so very small groups. She’s able to wear her own clothes and they call the teachers by first name so it’s a bit less formal which is nice. They start at 9.30 and have 20 minutes where they play some games to settle in then the classes are an hour with 10 minute break in between. They go on walks around the park and do forest school, and have sessions where they do baking and crafts etc.
She’s going to visit again next week to do an assessment so they can see what level she’s at academically then do some settling in sessions before Easter break. They are keen to get her started before half term otherwise it’s a really long wait for her and might cause some anxiety.
From the sound of it I think they are more used to having children who are behind academically - wether that’s down to being out of school for so long or due to learning disabilities - and they were talking about putting the Y7 children with their KS2 primary school age group but they think dd would be better off with the older children which I agree with as she’s very mature for her age. She did so well in her SATS and was in the top set for everything at secondary and she’s so keen to learn so I’m hoping the actual work will be a breeze and very positive for her.
We’re going to ease her in gently and start with core subjects then slowly build up the amount of time she’s spending there. Currently the ‘goal’ of her current school is to have her back, but I honestly can’t imagine her going back to full time mainstream school.
I got notification that her EHCP application had been rejected, but school SENDCO called me and said the comments they made seemed odd and she realised some of the information she had submitted hadn’t gone through on the portal, so she’s spoken to them and they are sending it back to panel with the missing information to be reviewed again in 2 weeks time. I am fully expecting it to be rejected again because that’s the way it goes, but we will see.
Sorry that was long! But generally positive here at the moment.