Bruern Abbey - PDA suitable?

[cushionsarelife]

Hi,
I am looking for some recent insight into Bruern Abbey school and whether it would be suitable for an autistic child with PDA profile.

My son is about to be 8, has an EHCP and has done a year out of school previously. He was attending a specialist SEMH setting but this has broken down due to the extreme violence of the other pupils.

He is very bright and when in the right environment, feeling safe and with trusted adults and friends he thrives. However, when he is anxious, feels under pressure or senses loss of autonomy he can lash out and behaviour can be challenging.

we have looked around Bruern and chatted with Admissions and they think that he could be a fit there - but as they specialise mostly in dyslexic and learning disabilities rather than ASD I would love to know if anybody has a child there with ASD and especially with the tricky PDA profile?

How flexible are they if your child just 'can't' and needs a break mid lesson, can they opt out if they feel too anxious? How is challenging behaviour dealt with - do they understand that it's not a 'bad child' but a child who is feeling under threat? are there break out spaces if they just need to take a minute?

Any parents with experience I would love to hear from you. It's such a major decision and I don't want to mess it up!

thank you very much!

@cushionsarelife please do pm me if it would be helpful. I’m so sorry to hear Bruern wasn’t right.

@Letchworthcoffeemum I’ve sent you a PM (hope that’s ok)

That’s absolutely fine @gategate

I have friends with children at the school. They say the pupils can be loud etc but that the school work hard to help them learn how to apply self control. That's the nature of children with additional needs though isn't it? Some over boisterous, some anxious and quiet. (I know this is over generalising!!!). One friend says there are boys in her child's year group with bad behaviour but that the school doesn't appear to be afraid to tackle this head on with the children and their parents. She says they are doing all they can to sort the situation and have been upfront with parents about the new year group this academic year. The girls seem to be settling in and they have had loads of girl tours since the start of term. Apparently some of the boys had to told to stop picking the flowers from the flower beds to give to the girls 😂😂😂

@JaneyBudo you know how they cope with the bad behaviour? What strategies they put in place?

asking my friend, hang on!

@BusyMum357124 They are doing lots apparently. Changed the timetable for that form (it's one form in particular) and arranged another teacher and another room to be available so that they can have break out space for different activities/mixes of children. They have changed breaktime to give more space. Some children can't stay all day as they can focus for a certain amount of time but then need to go home to recharge. They are doing more lessons in the woods-forest school stuff and more art/creatives too.

When you say bad behaviours does this mean physical behaviours? Bullying? My child so needs extra help learning but really needs a calm environment. He had two taster days and said he was frightened by some of the other children and found it all rather overwhelming but he did enjoy some parts of it

If he needs a calm environment, is a specialist school for children with SEND likely to be able to provide that? I’d wonder if he’d be better in a small mainstream prep, one which focuses on nurturing and has a lot of neurodivergent children, such as the choir schools.

I do agree but it’s a challenge with an EHCP

If you need a school for a child with Autism, then have you looked here?
Special Needs School in Oxfordshire | School for Autism | LVS Oxford
It says Oxford in the name, but is in Kidlington, so not far from Bruern.

Or here
Swalcliffe Park School | for Autistic Boys Aged 10-19
Fabulous reputation locally.

Thank you they are both definitely on our radar for secondary

This is why we went to St Chris in Hertfordshire.

We also considered Swalcliffe which looks amazing.

I saw the head changed recently, does anyone know what she is like?
all the information i can find is for the previous headteacher