St Paul's, Westminster, City - does DS with SEN have what it takes?

[ItsRainingTacos79]

Looking for some advice on how to support DS10.

Background - He is autistic and has DCD/dyspraxia (writing is significantly hampered so he types). He's currently in Y5 at an independent prep school. He comes across as ‘sloppy’ in his work but generally does well at school/exams with little effort. He is bright, although lacks motivation and focus (used to be described as lazy until he was diagnosed). He comes into his own on CAT4 tests - scores around 134. Generally a happy boy, lots of friends, popular in his year.

We are based in London (NW) and DS will sit for the local selective schools. He does well in maths, science and factual subjects. He is fine with English grammar but struggles with inference in comprehension and creative writing - usually achieves average grades in these areas.

I’m sorry, this is long but I will get to the point, I promise.

DS’s Headteacher recently suggested he should sit for some of the super selective schools due to his CAT scores (St Paul’s, Westminster, City). While it is reassuring to hear, and it would be amazing if he was offered a place, I’m not sure how these schools work around children with SEN. DS doesn’t have the ‘polish’ in his work as most children sitting for such schools do. He refuses to let me get him a tutor and is generally reluctant to do any extra work beyond school homework. Even in maths, he refuses to show his calculations, so he makes careless mistakes. He is also not at all sporty or musical - which a lot of super selective schools do look for.

So my question is / is it worth his while to sit for the super selective schools? Would he get a look in? He won’t score highly in English writing and comprehension and even in maths he doesn’t show calculations so he is likely to miss marks. He’s not into sports and doesn’t play an instrument. In fact he does no extra curricular activities, he just doesn’t want to. Do I bother to apply?

@ItsRainingTacos79 my dd seems to treat English like a science or a foreign language. She hates make believe/story telling/reading for pleasure and has zero ability to see pictures/create images while reading, so much prefers films and gets no enjoyment from reading novels. However, she sets her timer and reads 15 minutes a day because the school requires it. Her prep school did a lot of teaching about how to use language effectively, and they created 'toolkits' for creative writing. She was also competitive about spelling/vocabulary apps that the school uses (Spelling bee). At home, she is pretty mono syllabic and very shy around friends/mute around strangers. But as she learned and memorised all the vocabulary and phrases she was taught at school, she got the highest possible score at the English part of the GL assessment. Comprehension papers at 11plus looked very face value to me, though. When I attempted a couple of past papers, I tended to over-interpret, when the expected sample answers were very straight forward 😅

I had same experience this year. My son is gifted, especially in maths, he had disctinction medal from Junior Math Olympiad when he was in year 5, his cat scores are full marks/ 141 for many years. He always make full marks in PMC and JMC. He became Mensa member at age 5. He passed all the exams, ISEB and written exams of St Paul’s and WUS but he couldn’t get any offer from these schools because of his neurodivergent profile. He is very soft, gentle boy, he is not all rounder but he is doing co curricular activities outside of the school, chess, math circles, piano grade 4 etc, but he is a bit immature emotionally. He got Hampton academic scholarship but other schools didn’t care how academic/smart he is. They want smart enough but all rounder, social boys. Of course this is my experience, it may be different for you.