Private school

[Brieandcamembert]

My 3 year old (adopted) twins are in independent school in pre school at the moment. They absolutely love it & are thriving as irs small classes & outdoorsy. I dropped some hours at work to manage 2 small children who have hospital appointments etc.

My wife has a well paid job but between us it would take every penny we have to keep them both in there when they get to school age. Does anyone know if there is any funding for PLAC children for attending independent school?

The only way you'd get private school funded would be via an EHCP, if you could prove it were the only place that could meet your children's special needs.

I'd be very wary of private as you get further up the school, and more academic anyway, as you could suddenly find that if/when things get rockier in terms of health issues, trauma etc, they push you out. Private schools can be very academic, even if they appear nurturing in younger years. Private schools don't get pupil premium plus etc, either.

If it's a private SEND school, you could go down the EHCP route, but it would likely take tribunal.

Look to see if the school offers bursaries but these are usually income based.

Adopted children in England qualify for pupil premium plus funding in state schools but you won't get it in a private school.

Obviously I don't know your children, but are you confident that they won't need additional support going forward? Private schools vary re how able they are to support additional needs. At 3 you won't really know. But the fact the Gov gives adopted children this funding says a lot - it is because the early life experiences often impact adopted children.

My two adopted children have just left school and no there is no funding for private education

We sent DD to a private school because the state school wasn't meeting her needs even with the pupil premium funding being available. In my own experience state schools are very reluctant to spend the pupil premium money on the actual adopted child and come up with all sorts of excuses.

The private school met her needs completely but obviously at a huge financial cost to us.

Post adoption support wasn't great either and we have had to fund quite a bit of mental health care ourselves too.

As others have said bursaries are available but if you are managing to pay school fees now I doubt you would meet the criteria. We certainly didn't

Pupil premium money is rarely spent directly on individual pupils. It is pooled to pay for support staff or services that disadvantaged children in the school could typically benefit from eg playground supervision.

I looked into this & sadly couldn’t find anything. If you find out please let me know as we will be sending our little one now age 3 to private. Thank you

Pupil Premium Plus is different to pupil premium, and they do have to show how they've used that funding to benefit those eligible. That there is bad practice from schools doesn't make it universal, or what's supposed to happen. Private schools don't get that funding at all, even if named in an EHCP.

Thank you all. I thought that was the case.

The boys are a little behind but it's a non selective independent. I can image them in the calm abd small class sizes of an independent much more than in a state primary with the bigger array of needs and behaviours. This is their second year there and they are thriving.

Fair enough, but if it's a struggle financially I would look at local state schools. They can be very good too. My daughter's school had its own swimming pool. Orchestra. Over 60 after school clubs. Lots of resources like quiet rooms, playground facilitators, on site counsellors. Great sports facilities. Ofsted Outstanding. It varies of course but it's not necessarily awful.

You might find your twins are the ones with the array of needs and behaviours, and having schools where this isn't their first rodeo might be a blessing.

Sadly I agree. The gov gives pupil premium plus to all adopted children for a reason. It is really hard to know or imagine a child's future needs when they are 3 of course. But I adopted over 20 years ago. Both of mine ended up with EHC plans. We had no idea. Most of my adopter friends did too.

Lots of my friends balked at my choice of school for my oldest, it had a poor reputation andany wouldn't touch it, v deprived area, had a capacity of 30 in each year but reception only had 11 becasue noone chose it.

They've been amazing, nothing is a shock to them, they value having a calm school with lots of work on emotional regulation, they don't put pressure on parents and children- all school trips are funded, no dress up days, all equipment is supplied, have a uniform but relaxed about it and all the kids wear trainers. The school family worker grew up in care so truly gets it, and they have a club for LAC/PLAC, its discreetly named and run but my daughter really values it. Is it perfect? no, but I'm very glad I chose it, my daughter is doing great, no ECHP or significant needs, she could probably cope most places but she thrives here.

Sounds ideal. I sent my older daughter to our local infant school. It was a lovely small school, and the head was super supportive. The junior school they transferred to wasn't though - long story - and I sent her younger sister to the nearby community school. It was huge - three form entry - but this meant it had so many resourced. Little Junior school had not anything like it.

There were benefits of both, but basically I sent the right child to the right school. Neither would have coped in the other.

And neither would have coped in a private school. Being behind often actually means gaps in my experience, and for us, these just widened over time. Both ended up with ehc plans.