Managed out of independent

[gentileschi]

My 5 year old son is being managed out of his independent school, we effectively have 2.5 weeks to get something for Sept or come up with home ed plan. Any advise on how to navigate this? My son has an ASD diagnosis with PDA profile. He is not a school refuser and is up, washed and not in burn out or anything which is all I see advise for on pda sites. He just won't do anything he doesn't want to or isn't interested in. He is bright curious and interested in the world, his learning is coming along steadily. I can't see any places at any school let alone consider if he would fit there. Can online learning work at 5 years old? Is there a home education governing body? Who is supposed to look after us? Can you give advice on what I should be doing?

Not small schools!
Go where the funding is!
Ideally, with an asd Base
Re: home Ed post on thr home Ed board. It can be transformative for dc but also hard on the parent(s)

Apply for an ehcp and then get him into a school with support in place (I realise this isn’t easy but if you start now even if it takes a few years and you have to go through appeals he is only 5 now). You don’t sound very sure of home Ed and is it something you want to be doing for the next 13 years? Home Ed should be becuase people want to not because they are pushed into it

I personally would not choose to home ed, but I am dedicated to doing what is right for him. I'm hoping to out source some and have more fun play and less school stress with my son.

@unlimiteddilutingjuice I can tell you know! This is so helpful thank you.

Thank you everyone. I'm utterly overwhelmed. This is a huge task. I think I'll recruit the school to help while I've still got them.

How can you tell if the school can provide for my son? I can't exactly call them and ask how they feel if he does what he likes the whole day and is that cool?! The ehcp will be done by the end of term, do you show them and ask?

So we've experienced local state school, a more selective independent and a non selective independent where we are all, 2 different ND children and parents, much happier with.

Not all independent schools are rubbish at SEN, it is the reason some exist as with the fees they can provide the support needed.

That said none of them, bar a very small number of dedicated ASD schools, cope well with frequent disruptive behaviours. What they often do well is provide the accommodations that limit the disruption occurring.

Please look into if your son needs a more focused educational setting. I've been there and it's tough for you too and you sound like an amazing parent for your son to have.

Do you mean they're rushing an application for an EHC needs assessment? They can't rush the process of assessing and (possibly) granting an EHCP, that is out of their hands. Once an application is received it takes at least 20 weeks to be processed, and that will be extended by the summer holidays.

EOTAS is home education provided by the LA. This might be by things like tutors, TAs, therapists, online tuition etc arranged by them, or by providing you with a personal budget so you can organise them, or a combination. You can only get it if they are satisfied that there is no school that would be appropriate for your child. It tends not to be full time teaching, because 1-1 tuition is more intensive than classroom learning.

For socialisation, most people look into their children joining local activities like sports, swimming, cubs, drama groups etc.

Search Facebook for your local town name and home education. You will probably find a local group and can ask in there what is happening.

There are some brilliant learning apps for his age. Teach your monster to read. Reading eggs. Maths monsters. CPG books are quite good. Join your library for reading books they usually have a phonics reader section or you can buy some.

I have a PDA child who was managed out of school. Illegally off rolled when it's not an independent school- happens far more than it should. We are at 2.5 years from applying for an EHCP and still have no school place. Don't expect this to be a quick or easy process.

Have a look at the Education Otherwise website. They have lots of useful information.
https://www.educationotherwise.org/
Also, if the local authority recommend a special school you can try arguing for them to pay for a place at an independent Steiner or Montessori school. Google a few schools to see if they could meet his needs.

Ehcp and asd provision. You will find he will not cope in mainstream, but you need to do this part first to get the LEA to agree to appropriate placement.

My son is PDA and excelling in an ASD independent.

For primary he moved to an ASD provision within a mainstream.

He was very much doing his own thing before the above, now he is working towards attaining for his year group.

There are 6 in his class, all placed based on attainment level, not age.

Good luck, it's an exhausting process.

Is there a montessori or steiner school snywhere near you?

Which is fine now when he is 5 or 6 but less so when he’s 15 or 16, and honestly as a parent of a 14 year old who battled the sen system since year one before you know it another year goes by. By all means home educate now but so it along side fighting to get him the school place and support he deserves. Whst you don’t want to happen is home Ed for a few years get to a point where either it’s no longer working or you want him to go to school for other reasons and then have to start your fight from there as it could potentially take several years

You need to look at alternative provision - look for places that do forest school learning - the real thing not just outdoor time.

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/contact-ipsea

Contact IPSEA parent helpline, they have trained legal professionals who can advise you in next steod.

Are you sure about this? When was the application submitted? Who has assessed and diagnosed him? How do you know he will not cope in mainstream if you haven’t tried?
My advice would be to get him into a mainstream school for September, see how he manages and then make decisions based on reality, not what you’re presuming. It may well be the formality of his current school that he struggles with.

You're getting really good advice here OP please do listen to the people saying start engaging with the state sector asap. The time may come when you will need it.

Hi @gentileschi
Sorry you are going through this. It must be very difficult and stressful.
Im an ex primary teacher and now home educator of several years and I can answer some of your HE questions.
No there is no body that oversees HE. Your local authority send an annual report for you to fill in and that’s generally it (some LAs are more relaxed than others, some require more detail in the reports etc).

If you join the HEFA Facebook group (Home Education For All) the admins will help you write reports and give you advice on dealing with your school and the LAs. They are very knowledgeable and helpful.

If you do decide to HE, and it sounds like your son would really benefit from a child-led learning environment, you could join your local HE Facebook group to see what is going on in your local area. You’ll normally find things like forest schools, sports groups, social events etc.

Last bit of advice, give your son some time to ‘deschool’. He’s only 5 so it shouldn’t take too long. Let him play, let him lead the way. My DC are teen and tweens now and I have never regretted letting them follow their interests or worried about them ‘keeping up’. It’s very hard for some people to understand but kids just learn spontaneously without a desk and a teacher. Mine learn through real life. They learn geography from traveling, they learn maths when baking, when making things with wood, they learn to read themselves (this one blows peoples minds!) and on and on. They love learning as they learn what interests them. It’s hard to explain in a short post but it’s true.

Socially they are very ‘normal’ and have many opportunities to make friends and to meet a huge variety of different people of different ages and different cultures and backgrounds. In my humble opinion school is generally not a healthy way for people to socialise. Being with exact same age children all day every day is not healthy or normal in my opinion.

I hope this helps. Happy to answer any other questions you have.

Yes but is says no behavioural problems. To be fair he's fine when he is doing what he likes but I doubt they will take him.

Steiner schools can be awful for SEND due to lack of structure and even Montessoris require a level of self regulation that may be beyond op ds.

You start by deciding to do it. It actually isn't hard with a five year old, you read with him, you do numbers with him, it doesn't have to feel like lessons. You do activities like joining a football/tennis/judo/swimming class or club. Beavers are great. Some areas will have meet ups for home ed people, they can vary and some will be more focused on people who don't approve of schools and others where the kids didn't cope with school.

I did it some years ago so not uptodate with what is available online but I'm sure there will be resources now that weren't available when I was doing it.

Google education otherwise as they are a good starting point.

Good luck.

I am absolutely looking at state schools, I just don't 'think' he will suit them from being his mother. I am hunting for a fit what ever that might look like.

I will check the ehcp,timing I know I can't look at many schools without one, I didn't realise he would also have to fail at state to access a special ed school. That's very odd.

Maybe I'll travel for a few years and come back fresh when he's a bit older, this is the trend in the family that has led to great success. Sweden is looking good. 😄

Schools can help with getting specialist provision.

My son's first school wanted rid of him, so they fought to get rid.

His second school loved and adored him, so wanted the best possible high school place for him, so again fought hard for him.

Both different reasons, but still good outcomes for my son.

I think fighting alone from a H/S point will be even more difficult than with a school's backing.

Strictly speaking it isn't necessary to fail at a state school to access special school.

However in practice children who go to special school usually fall into one of two categories:

Very disabled physically and or mentally such that healthcare services such as portage etc or special needs pre-school are accessed prior to age 5 and therefore the transfer on to special school is already from the special needs system

Or two children who start mainstream and it becomes apparent their needs cannot be met (they fail)

Spaces in special schools are under extremely high pressure and many children who start mainstream and fall out of it due to needs not being met have multiple years out of education while their parents fight for a suitable placement.

If your child is not physically disabled or has learning difficulties it is unlikely special school would be the right place for him anyway.

You'd want an ASD specialist school and the only way to get that that I know of is to go through the EHCP process and in order to get the LA to pay for it (and most schools of this type do not accept students without an EHCP) you'll need to demonstrate his needs can't be met in state ie you have to try state first and it fail.

I'm not sure why people keep posting this.

The two independents my children go to are and I know several others in my area (SE Bucks) which are great for SEN.

My contrast DS's school are useless when it came to his very mild SEN and I had to threaten to take them to court.

Having said that OP, no school wants a child who won't do what they tell them to do. When did he turn 5? Would repeating a year be an option if he's young for the year. If not, I'd look for a non-selective boys school. There are many who have great SEN provision.