SEND in schools in Ireland

[Glowerpower]

What is Send provision like in Ireland in primary and secondary? I can’t take the heat in south east England anymore. I’m looking up house prices on daft.ie and dreaming about moving back but dc10 is autistic and dyslexic and struggles in school.

Hi Glowerpower. Is your DC in mainstream with support or in a specialist ASD unit?
Both are options here, and although your diagnostic report would typically indicate what might be the best setting for your DC, legally, you as the parent have the right to send your child where you wish.
That's the ideal.

On the ground, provision varies widely depending on where you are.
There are lovely schools which trumpet their inclusion policies, but when the rubber hits the road, will treat your child's needs as "behaviour problems".
There are inclusive schools where parents have flocked with their children with additional needs, and the SET teachers and SNAs are over-run.
But, you also have fabulous mainstream primary schools with ASD units attached, who will turn themselves inside out to include your child in the mainstream class.

Really, really depends where you plan to be, and your DC's level of need.

I've a little boy with asd but he is only six so no idea about secondary schools yet. He is in mainstream with a special needs assistance and gets brought to a resource teacher each day. School are great but he needs extra help so we are looking to move him to a school that has a specific autism class that will only have six children in that class but where he can also access mainstream when appropriate . I was a bit late coming to the decision for this year so the move will happen next year hopefully. A lot depends on where you want to move to and the individual school. Just from being on MN I get the impression that schools and the whole education system here is very very different compared to England.

Ideally we’d live somewhere in Munster but I’ve had wildly varying descriptions of support available.

@FionaMacCool this all sounds very similar to our experience. DC is in mainstream, needs some support but is eager to learn. School advertises itself as being inclusive. It is overwhelmed by the amount of SEN children there.
@SparkyBlue a special school with classes of 6 sounds amazing. Do you have to have an Irish version of an EHCP, used to be called statement of educational needs, to get in.
Thank you both very much for your replies.

@Glowerpower it wouldn't be a special school but it would be a special class within a mainstream setting if that makes sense . They were initially called units but now being referred to as autism classes or often called something like "the meadow class" or that kind of thing. So he could join the main class for some subjects depending on his own needs. My DS has no cognitive issues but zero concentration skills and I mean zero (we are get him tested now for adhd) so we feel that this type of class will support him better. To get a spot your initial report needs to say that your child does need a place in a special setting. I'm in the Munster area as well so pm me if you have specific questions. Also some great Facebook pages that will answer your questions autism mamai Ireland is a good one.

@Glowerpower there is no equivalent system of EHCP here. Places are accessed on foot of recommendation from psychologist usually. If you google ‘NCSE’ and ‘special classes’ you should be able to see the printout of which schools have ASD classes in each county.

Glower here there is a Student Support Plan - formerly and still called an IEP (individual education plan).
Supposed to include info from Psychol, OT, SLT etc. as well as the school curriculum goals.

This is supposed to outline the child's needs, goals for the school year and plan to meet them.
Seems to be honoured more in the breach of plans than their implementation.
To be fair, many schools are doing things to the letter, and are really excellent. Some go above and beyond.
But, some are woeful.
I dont know where in Munster you have in mind, so wherever, do your research, when you get here.
Most (especially good) schools are open to you coming in to have a visit.

Some children with ASD are in special schools, some in autism units/classes attached to mainstream and some within mainstream itself with support.

The setup here is patchy and you can be very lucky or unlucky depending on what's available locally and depending on the supports your child needs. There is a shortage of available places in special schools and units - there are children with no school place for Sept. This has all been in the news a lot lately with the government trying to fast track more places - so you could have a look at news stories over the last few months for more info. But in some areas this won't be such an issue.

For autistic children in mainstream classes it's also difficult, especially if the child needs lots of additional support. Where we are, access to SNA support in mainstream is generally shared between a number of children, and teachers and students are thus under a lot of pressure. It's hard for an SNA to provide adequate support to 3 or 4 children all located in different classrooms for example. It actually translates into no additional support for much of the day...which may or not be okay depending on the needs of the children, but in practice is often very far from okay.

The model the government is promoting is inclusion, but they are failing to provide adequate supports to allow this to happen properly!
Teachers are begging for more SNA support (in particular) for their mainstream schools and they're just not getting it. Spending ages filling in application forms only to be rejected. It's a disgrace tbh and I feel very sorry for the children involved. Many are being very let down, not by the teachers, but by the government.

I would echo the advice of a pp and visit the school you are interested in attending. For all the usual reasons, but also because - if a unit is the setting you choose - some of them attached to mainstream are geared towards autistic children with an intellectual disability and others are more suited to those without, and you will need to get a good match for your child.

Agreeing wholeheartedly with @OakAshBeech advice above.