Southend High School for Girls / Westcliff grammar - aspergers/HFA

[Valkyrie99]

I have a DD in Y5 that has mild high functioning autism/aspergers.
Academically she is doing ok. Somewhere in the middle. She occasionally gets put into the top group then gets moved back to the middle. Her spelling and reading age are several years ahead of her actual age. Maths and English is at 'expected standard'. Science she is 'exceeding expected standard'.
Her main problem academically is focus, although this has improved with age. So she has to be reminded to stay on task to get her work done. She does not have a statement.

She has recently started some one-to-one tuition (just for a bit of a boost) with an experienced teacher who assessed her and says she is bright and able to go for Southend High School for Girls or Westcliff. This came as a huge surprise to me.

Does anyone have any experience of having a child with aspergers/autism in either of these schools ?
I'm posting on here for traffic really but AIBU to consider one of these grammar schools ?

I don't want to send her to a school in which she is the only child with SN, where the teachers will get easily frustrated with her which will undermine her confidence. On the other hand, I also don't want to deny her a great opportunity if she will do well there and is supported, so Mumsnet i'm asking you for a bit of advice really.

There's a Facebook group for Essex mums called " 8 out of 10 mums....ask " you might get a better response there

Thank you Chocolate

I would ask to speak to the SENCO of any school you are interested in to see what, if any, support they can offer. We looked at a grammar for ds1 but the attitude of our local one to children with an ASC was diabolical and that is being polite. However, it would be wrong to tar all grammar's with the same brush and perhaps some are more amenable to offering support to help children with an ASC reach their potential. I might add ds1 passed their entrance exam with flying colours so it wasn't a question of not being able to cope academically but rather needing extra help to reduce anxiety and with social skills.

I wonder if the lack of focus could indicate inattentive type ADHD?

It’s quite a common comorbid with HFA. Might be worth looking into.

Thanks all for the advice. That's good to know OneInEight. Very useful. If i'm seriously thinking of going down this route then I agree, I need to speak to the SENCO.

notvilestepmother She originally got diagnosed with ADHD but this was overrules by the autism team. I do feel that she has a bit of both.

Girls with Aspergers at this age can sometimes suffer from ADHD but a lack of focus in allot of cases is down to ADD not ADHD. My friends daughter is 8 and her anxiety is the biggest problem she sits alone most of the time in the playground, and ends up on the budying bench until a boy or girl comes and gets her to play with them. She's way ahead of the other children and even runs a school club, she likes allot things boys like that are the same age perhaps the first sign of gender confusion maybe which is also an Asperger's thing. Children with the condition might benefit from smaller class sizes and as there are less faces to remember girls can be very nurturing and help her understand the world better and be more successful than boys with the condition, allot of boys and girls will sit alone or hide at lunch time at secondary school to chill out and recharge there battery's or it's just down to their demand avoidance kicking in. You need to ask the girl what she want she has to make the final decision for her self you her parents and the LEA Educational Psychologist are their just for support for advise after all where all very independent our brains have just grew too fast and where like 18 year old's in ways at by 10, I've got it as well I hope this helps........