What should school for ND kids look like? AIBU to suggest that a one size fits all is wrong?

[Jadebanditchillipepper]

As above really. Do you think that the current school system is right for all children? Particularly those children with SEN.

I have three children. DC 2 and 3 are both neurodiverse and school in it's present form has been at best - not meeting their needs and a worst, harmful to both of them.

The eldest of the two is now 18. They have never been happy in school. They were bullied in primary school and then in secondary school, just had no friends, hated school and were just miserable. When I spoke to the school they weren't interested - as long as they behaved and did reasonably well in school, the fact that they were unhappy didn't matter.....

Eventually, when they started to refuse to go to school, I demanded a meeting. When I suggested that DC2 might be Neurodiverse, they laughed at me. So we moved to a different school who were more switched on.

Initially, DC2 did well, but then there were problems with bullying etc again. Limped through GCSEs and eventually ended up in a small independent school for A levels.

DC3 who is also AuDHD has gone to the same school DC2 did GCSEs in. Struggled in year 7 - reasonable adjustments put in place so managed year 7. Year 8 - total disaster - reasonable adjustments completely ignored. struggling to attend school October/November. School Finally agreed to reduced timetable end of November and now managing to attend 3 lessons (out of 5) per day.

Why don't schools recognise that every child is different and that some need adjustments?

A school of 500 would significantly decrease subject choice, with only 100 per year group that means at most four options groups at any one time. So things like child development, DT, mfl etc will go.

It's a huge spectrum so obviously its not one size firs all my severely autistic non verbal son goes is in year 11 in a special school for children with severe and profound learning disabilities, he's working at pre school levels, it would be ridiculous to expect him to be in a class with highly academic or at least children with average ability due to the fact they both have a diagnosis of autism.

No, they wouldn't.t. Plenty of private schools operate on these numbers and manage to offer a good range of GCSE courses.

Care to show your funding model for a state school receiving £6,000 per child?

Look at the post you responded to. I acknowledged it would cost more, but it would be a worthwhile investment.

Funding for SEN has been at a notional £6K per year per child for years. Look at what has happened to inflation and the cost of living over that period. It's high time it went up anyway.