SEMH primary schools London and south east

[Montues]

I think we are coming to the end of the road for mainstream for our 6 year old son.

This is a long shot but could anybody recommend any good SEMH primary schools in London or the south east? Main difficulties are sensory overwhelm, emotional dysregulation (often resulting in hitting/large meltdowns in a school environment), needing lots of scaffolding with peer relationships, and chronologically behind in learning but a bright boy. Also recently diagnosed ADHD, not on medication.

thanks

Hi. Does he have any ehc and does it say semh as his main need? You say he is behind but bright. What did the ed psych say?

Just wanted to mention that my elder daughter was marked down as semh until we got her assessed privately by an Ed psych who diagnosed her with a moderate learning disorder. This meant she went to a mld school for secondary rather than semh. Everyone had considered her to have behaviour problems but really she couldnt access the curriculum and didn't understand what was going on.

My other daughter was not considered needing any support by her primary school but I got her privately assessed by an Ed psych, OT and SALT and she got an ehc and a place at a speech and language school. She also didn't understand what was going on. School SALT just signed her off.

It is too easy imo to put adopted children's difficulties down to behaviour.

Anyway, usually the LA will have semh units in certain schools. For secondary it would be a PRU. Most people won't want one of these because of the other children having severe problems too.

So you are better off pursuing a diagnosis that would get him into eg an asd unit or school.

Or speech and language. Check out Blossom House in Motspur Park.

My children go to SEMH secondary schools, which are nothing to to with PRU. They are both amazing schools, yes the kids have issues or they would not be there. Both went to the primary of the schools they are in and have thrived. OP your LA should have on their website a list of all schools. Make sure you look at surrounding LA'S too, one of mine goes out of county

Sorry, I'm not in your area, but my youngest is in a specialist provision and it was so stressful to choose and advocate for her!!

Are there any fb groups run by parents (not the LA run one!!) and if it's decent can you ask on there for people's experiences? From my professional experience in our LA for example, the maintained primary SEMH is brilliant but I would steer very clear of the secondary. However the secondary PRUs are amazing, yet many from other areas would recommend against PRUs due to awful experiences in their areas. Posting anonymously and saying your child is adopted will hopefully get some feedback.

From a choice of 2 I went with the school that wasn't the best fit academically (daughter is more able than their usual intake) but it was amazing pastorally.

Thanks everyone for what you’ve shared. It’s all helpful. It’s so complex isn’t it working it all out. He does have a EHCP and it’s already at level 6. So far this has been used for constant 1:1 support. He’s spent most of the last year on his own in a room with his TA and any attempts to do a bit more he’s really struggled with. We are waiting for an ASC assessment. EP and other assessments really highlight difference in his capacity to learn when he’s regulated vs dysregulated, and in mainstream unfortunately the dysregulation is frequent. Sadly this term he’s withdrawn much more after a couple of big incidents that I’m sure really scared him. We requested an emergency EHCP review today. Our borough is not v well resourced but neighbouring ones seems to have a few options to look at, some semh schools that are more therapeutic. Some schools more for autism that could be much lower level demand and a more nurturing environment.

My eldest moved in year 6 to SEMH. Like your boy he was in a room with just a TA, highly dysregulated. His emotions were all over the place. 3 months at his SEMH primary and he was dressed as a reindeer reading a Christmas poem in family assembly. I cried! The kids were all self regulating, had cuddly toys, twiddle toys, were spinning, tapping you name it and nobody batted an eyelid, so lovely to see. He goes out of county but it's only 20 mins away (now in secondary part of the primary), 4 kids in his class. It's not for everyone but mainly he feels safe and cared for and listened too

Thanks @Patchyman1 - that’s really good to hear how much of a better fit it has been for your son. It’s a rollercoaster at the moment and also a sort of grieving process I think.

Has he had OT or SALT input? These are the most important services to help children regulate to the point they can learn. If your son is academically able, he needs a sensory environment where he can be calm.

Blossom House, which I mentioned, is full of OTs and speech and language therapists, sensory rooms etc.

Is there any chance you could get him privately assessed by a SALT and an OT?

In any case, I would recommend that you consult with an educational charity like SOS!SEN who can advise you on the next steps. The next move will be crucial and it will be worth getting advice to make sure you get it right.

Thanks @Arran2024 he had a full multidisciplinary assessment a while ago and from that has had weekly sensory integration sessions in school with an OT. He has regular SALT in school too. That’s really helpful re SOS!SEN - I hadn’t heard of them. At this point I’m definitely finding the more SEND advice more practical and relevant than the more trauma focused approaches - although of course it’s both. His school have also been supported by fortnightly sessions for his support staff with therapists from our adoption agency. They really mean well in his school but it just physically and on a sensory level isn’t right for him at all, and he’s much more aware now of being different to peers. There’s a new SEN teacher in his school who previously worked in specialist settings so she’s been really helpful too - both for helping in interim and options that might suit him

We found that attachment based stuff was not very helpful - it was getting useful diagnoses and using these to access services. Asd is the most useful diagnosis but adoption services often refuse to accept that adopted kids can have it - they insist it's attachment, and it's not helpful as most teaching professionals don't understand it or have services for it.

So I would agree with you about focusing on sen.

Which borough are you in? The SEMH provision at primary level tends to be organised quite differently in each of the boroughs I'm familiar with.