Feedback on Bredon, St Ed’s and Wycliffe for dyslexic DS

[Wideawakeandconfused]

DS is about to start Year 6 in his very supportive school. Unfortunately the senior school won’t work for him since his dyslexia is quite complex (and he’s unlikely to be offered a place).

We’re now looking at Bredon, St Ed’s or Wycliffe. Does any one have any recent feedback on any of these schools for children with SEN?

Sadly Dean Close wouldn’t offer our DC a place as they don’t have sufficient SEN support. They’ve recruited too many children and haven’t resourced the SEN department to support the amount of new pupils. That’s something to consider when looking at the next steps from Airtherie.

With regards to the support currently received, I didn’t say we don’t have to pay in addition. Some comes as part of the school fees, and some is in addition but it’s all run through the school and during the school day. That continuity can only happen at public school in our experience, and even then there are still very few who can offer it at the same level. unfortunately the support drops at senior school.

I know all of these schools and worked in one of the Cheltenham private schools.
Definitely not Balcarras, great school in terms of academic results but probably not right for a child that needs lots of support.

Bredon has a great reputation for kids who need extra help and I know 3 children who go there - all have dyslexia. I haven’t heard their parents complain about anything.

St Ed’s is lovely, a big advantage being that it’s small. The headmaster is very dynamic, and the learning support department seem on the ball. Communication is good.

Pointless looking at Aithrie as they only go up to age 11.

Wycliffe wouldn’t immediately spring to my mind in your circumstances.

You are going to have to have long conversations with each head. Talk about your child’s personality as well as their needs, what can that school offer that will interest and inspire him? Ask to meet the learning support leads. I think you will get a gut instinct for which is the right school.

Bredon is an amazing school - our DD has ADHD and did a series of summer camps there. She was so confident at the end of them that we did look into placing her there but they weren't overly keen due to her behavioural issues. But a few friends have sent their kids there and are really happy with it.

@Wideawakeandconfused Really small class sizes, for our DD's trial there were only 5 children in the class. Use of tech if they struggle with writing, whole school approach to dyslexia learning, speech and language friendly, so it's very inclusive. They suggested our dd needs extra support 3x a week to focus on the extra needs that came up in our EP/SALT assessment. Big learning support team, in house OT and SALT. I believe almost half the children are on an EHCP, so they really are geared up to support children with a lot of the associated learning challenges that often come with dyslexia.

@Badger1970 thank you for sharing your experience. I didn’t realise they do summer camps - that’s good to know. We’ve had our DC assessed for ASD and ADHD. Interesting that they are unable to support these as they do go hand in hand in many cases. It’s something else to consider.

Thank you @MissyB1 thats really helpful. You’re right about speaking to the head; we need to go in armed with questions and hope that we can have honest conversations about whether DC can be properly supported.

Thats impressive @mumofamazinggirl my DH isn’t keen on Bredon due to the association of it being a dyslexia school. He’s struggled to understand our DCs issues as he’s NT. I think it sounds like the sound of setting I would have loved. The class sizes are interesting. From a sporting perspective, do they play competitively at all? My DS is very sporty.

If your DS needs extra support both in and out of class in a mainstream setting be aware that he may start feeling uncomfortable at being singled out, this often happens when children start secondary. If he needs a lot of support then a specialist school would probably be better. The issue is specialist schools are generally small so can lack in extra curricular activities.
Re ASD/ADHD - my DS has both along side Dyslexia but doesn’t have behavioural difficulties which would impact the rest of the class so his specialist dyslexia were happy to accept him.

@Wideawakeandconfused i think public schools are very different to independents, you could probably only call about 15 schools Public.
ah that makes sense about paying extra on top of fees, I did think that was an extraordinary offering to be getting within fees never heard of one so good! Yes agree having in house extra support can be good but anecdotally we have also found quiet one to one in own home to be amazing hence the comment about state school plus spending what would have been fees (and extra Sen on top of fees) on SEN support at home . And we used the lady who runs the SEN at local indie who did her own private tuition after school each day

@AlabamaSlam I am referring to public schools, having had experience of independent schools, and state school.

And the offering at our current school is extraordinarily, even without paying any extra, the support included is far greater than any indie or state. We also have a home tutor.

I didn’t realise dean close was a public school. Apologies.

Is Shiplake still good for Dyslexia? It used to be.

www.shiplake.org.uk/

@AlabamaSlam i don’t know if Dean Close is a public school, my DC don’t go there

@Wideawakeandconfused Sorry I am so muddled now I thought you meant DC senior couldn’t take your DC after prep! Guess you must mean Cheltenham then. That is great to hear they have such significant SEN support for prep at least.

My daughter is at Bredon, we love it - no holiday clubs there, she is very happy, and yes they do sports and play matches against other local schools - they is a good percentage of students there that are NT x

@Ancientgrain I haven’t disclosed the current school so please do not make assumptions. I have specifically requested information about three specific schools and would appreciate that my OP doesn’t get derailed

If you're on the Worcestershire side of Cheltenham, have you looked at Bowbrook House?

Hi, could you please share more? As I am going to apply a boarding place for my 11 yo son. Thanks!