AIBU that the system is leaving a whole group of children behind.

[Sendhelp20]

I know this will be down to location to but wow my mind is blown. We are in the middle of being allocated a secondary school for DD11 and there doesn’t seem to be a school that exists for her 🤣( I should not laugh but If I don’t I will cry )

she is academic although not advance and has gaps in her learning which does mean she is mildly behind this is due to missing 3 and half years of primary school.

all the schools consulted in a radius of 1 hour of our home which including

Sen schools - with different specialities
mainstream schools with units
and mainstreams have all come back
they can’t meet her needs

some she is “too academic “
others she is too complex

so now they are suggesting a mixture of home tutoring / online education but she wants to go to school 😭

where are the children who are inbetween going 😭😭

Sorry- I’m a bit unclear- does she have SEN? Why did she miss 3 years of school? Will a standard comprehensive not take her?

From your post, I assume your DD has an EHCP. What are her needs? It sounds like you might need to travel further out for a suitable school. Why did she miss 3 years of primary school?

Yes Sen but academic sorry I’ve been crying and my brain is mush 🤣🙈

she missed 3 and half years due to health and Covid.

Impossible for her to be any further than an hour from from home :(

YANBU - it's not right there just aren't enough school offers. Do you have a local Sen Facebook group? Find out what others did. Are there any private schools in the area you can get named in the EHCP as sounds as though you'd have a case.

Are there groups for meet ups you can join to I've access to making friends?

yanbu. This is why many parents if they can go private.

It sounds like a really difficult situation. What are her needs and what sort of adjustments would the schools need to be putting in place for her to accommodate them?

What do you think? Do you think she’d manage in mainstream or is it a hard no? Do you think the EHCP reflects her needs accurately?

it’s an awful situation - what about your work and career!

I agree look at independents, ask other SEN parents in your area and maybe consider moving house.

Yes there is independent schools but due to locations these tend to be very academic and affluent schools.

the only 2 independent Sen schools are both only for academically average or advanced with primary speech and communication needs. So very specific.

YANBU GS6 now home ed as we were told he didn't have the right sort of asd to receive any sen support or adjustments and a 4 year plus assessment and red tape to get through.. Hoops to jump through for very little in return children's lives are being dragged along because of Government policy and lack of funding. Yet SEN school transport is allegedly contributing to bankrupting councils.

Completely agree. There is not enough provision for SEN kids with LD. But there is even less for SEN kids without LD. The kids who can’t cope in mainstream/mainstream won’t take, but equally specialist provision won’t take either as learning needs not great enough. It’s awful.

Have you been to see them?

If you're confident that no school exists locally that would be better than home school and online learning, then you've got to join other groups to meet the social need and focus on finding those.

Interesting that several of the first posts have said look at independent as the solution...the same independents that are vilified on the VAT threads as being elitist and the source of all evil!

Anyway, OP, you are absolutely right that it's not fair and there's a huge gap in the system. The idea that any child can get to the point where there is no place for them is a mockery of our "free education available to all" policy. Asking someone to be more than an hour from home is not reasonable either.

I agree by the way - both dc are exactly the same. If mainstream doesn't work and specialist provision doesn't work you're in a no-man's land of difficult choices.

She has a very solid EHCP

how I would explain her is she is very complex and then not complex at all 🤣🤣

so by this I mean she has the following issues

• autism
• speech and language delay
• complex medical needs including equipment and medical devices.
• cerebral palsy
• social and sensory needs

however this is where the issue is she is actually very high functioning especially in the right setting and despite missing more than half of primary she is age appropriate in maths and reading but behind in other literacy like writing.

in the individual elements she isn’t “ severe “ but the complexity is them combined.
so for example there is a Sen school who’s primary needs is speech and communication but average academically and no learning difficulties for the admissions requirement but because the communication isn’t her primary need she is not accepted.

one Sen school which we did think would say yes as she ticked all the requirements but then she didn’t meet the cognitive ability 🙈 they say the cohort is much less academic than she is.

Is it because she has complex health needs? I have known DC do a mix of special and mainstream with 1:1. What provision does your DD have at the moment in primary, OP? There are so many DC who seem to be being failed these days.

The private system chuck them out. My son was managed out of independent and no school places available. I'm now forced to home ed.

Hi OP, sorry to hear this.

This is a bit extreme but as I'm a teacher I actually had to find a suitable school for ME to teach in so DD could go there! It's so hard. I'm going to post a link to the EHCP support thread in a moment as there's a very knowledgeable poster on there who may be able to help.

Have you found any suitable schools but they say they're "full"? That I'd not always the end of the conversation. If they can meet needs they can be directed to take a child.

I think it’s vanishingly unlikely that a private school would meet the needs of a child who had missed 3 years of school?

EHCP support thread no. 4 - www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/5197351-ehcp-support-thread-no-4

Depends on the private school.

This "alternative provision" for example is set up for exactly that purpose. It is online though which is not what OP wants.

academy21.co.uk/

Given the ops update on the physical needs, a mainstream private may not but if it was more a case of reintegration following EBSA or requiring a quiet, calm atmosphere then yes, some do. But it's not universal and I don't want to derail for the OP.

That was a reply to @BananaNirvana.

I should add she didn’t miss school for any other reasons than medically it was impossible for her to attend
she was either in hospital or shielding.

Is she recovered now OP or would she still need to be protected from immune risks in school?