WUS, King's and autism

[SuiGeneris]

Friends have suggested we think about the above schools for DS, 7 and with high-functioning autism. So my questions are:

1. how do we know whether he is cleve enough to try?

2. what support do those schools have for HFA kids and what percentage of children there have it?

I have heard that KCS is well set up and supportive, no idea about WUS, though their SEND policy is very good.

There are a number of spectrum boys at WUS, along with other related issues (dyspraxia, add, OCD etc). I think it is a pretty good place for them, if they are up to it academically as there are a lot of quite quirky boys to blend in with.

On the question of whether academically suitable, that is always hard to know, hence so many people who would have only tried at 8+ doing 7+ too "to see/practice". (Not always a wholly helpful exercise). Perhaps try him on some bond books and see if he is happy on them at a year or two ahead of age (I assume he is year 2?)

Sorry - just saw he was 7!

I went round WUS 5 years ago for ASD DS to go in at 11+. The SEN department was marked by a post-it note on the door and when I asked what their SEN provision was I got fairly blank looks from most of the staff.

It might well have improved in 5 years but I was pretty shocked that in a school with high achieving boys and, surely, a proportion of kids on the spectrum they were so low key in their approach.

Latymer in Hammersmith has a very good SEN department as does Hampton. I don't know about King's.

My DS sat the 7+ for KCS a few years ago. The school told us that although he'd done really well in the exams and scored high enough to get an offer, if that were all they looked at, they had concerns about him based on the open day and felt he was too immature over all so should try again the next year. He had apparently refused to continue playing snakes and ladders when the child he was playing cheated triggering his huge 'sense of injustice' reflex!

I got the impression they were looking for boys who were bright but also quite outgoing and sociable.

Worth being aware of if you have a quirky child or one on the spectrum.

Thank you for the views. It sounds like I need to investigate more and also look at Latymer and Hampton- though I had heard the latter was extremely sporty and more for the sociable types.

I don't completely agree about Hampton - they have a lot of quirky boys there. Boy in my son's primary school went there in the end - now in Y10. He was absolutely sport phobic and has found a great group of friends and is doing really well. Music and drama is very strong there too - they get the LEH girls in for productions so lots of interaction with them. SEN department very strong, with a room for boys who need it to go to get out of the hurly burly, amongst other things.

Mind you - we would have needed full bursaries for Latymer or Hampton and we didn't get them so my ds is in our local comp - where the provision for him (very bright, high functioning ASD/ADHD) has been very good - not always brilliant, but very good. Don't necessarily think that private = better provision and don't necessarily fall in to thinking that a high functioning child can't manage in a state school.

I don't know about WUS, but the senior school is very very good at supporting SEN, including boys who are clearly on the spectrum. LUS is also very good, though has a more robust student body. For a child who is very bright and has a love of learning but who has underdeveloped social skills, Westminster has to be as close to perfect as it is possible to get.

WUS has really changed its focus on support generally recently, particularly under the new master. There is a now a proper SEN person, in addition to the more general "study skills" person and other initiatives, like testing the whole school body for dyslexia and dyscalculia lest there are hidden problems, concealed by high intelligence, which show real commitment.

I suggest you take a look

I concur with what both sleep and purple said above as I have a SEN DS with WUS at the moment, school is really supportive and looking after him well.

I had the same experience, I have a gifted boy, who is a scholarship material, he passed all the 11+ exams Kings, St Paul’s and Westminster but he got zero firm offer. He got Hampton School Edmund Pigeon academic scholarship. Only Hampton accepted and appreciated him. All these schools are saying that they are all inclusive etc. I don’t think they are! They are looking for smart enough, all rounder boys. Probably Albert Einstein or Alan Turing wouldn’t be able to get in these schools if they would have tried because of their profile.. so sad!

I think putting it in such reductive terms is not helpful. I know plenty of DC at WUS with SEN, some quite serious. Not just about the others you mentioned

This is my experience and I wanted to share with 100% transparency. I don’t need to be politically correct, this is what I experienced.

I think you need to give schools some credit. It is not just about intelligence, or about being "all inclusive", but also about fit. What can the school do for a child, is the fit right, will the child thrive?

Schools are not rejecting children, but selecting those that will benefit most from the school or who have a contribution to make. DD getting a sixth form place at Westminster was a complete surprise, not least because she became the most dyslexic pupil in the school, and unlikely to bolster their results average. She was studying science so her place will have come at the expense of another applicant who could well have been much more academic. DD became a sports captain, held a leadership role, and took part in just about everything; the 24 hour 48 mile Lyke Wake Walk, PHAB etc. She lived close enough that she would go into school on a Sunday to study with boarder friends before they all hit China Town for noodles, and so on. One highlight was her giving a talk to the staff room on her experience as a dyslexic pupil. She loved every minute of her time there, and had very strong SEN support.

At least one of her peers was quite disabled by autism, needing help to find his way round the school, whilst another had come unstuck at a similar school but thrived at Westminster. It would be wrong though to say that Westminster did well with all. There was a joke that DD's year was the first year for a very long time that all eight scholars had survived till sixth form. My external, uninformed observation was that the school were looking for a mix. The very bright and often "quirky" who might need support or who might take part in school life if encouraged but were unlikely to initiate/lead, along with some ballast of straightforward kids who were bright enough to keep up and were likely to make other contributions to school life. The school have experience of where things were most likely to go wrong, and will worry that some very bright but more vulnerable or less worldly 13 year olds might struggle with a dispersed Central London campus especially if they also had a long commute.