ADHD/bright/achieving potential

[pleasekeepcalmandcarryon]

Not sure whether I should post this here, in SEN or Secondary Ed.

My 7yr old son has ADHD/ASD the ADHD causing more issues than the ASD at the moment. He has been dx since age 3 but is not statemented.

He is in Yr2 currently and although his teachers tell me (and I know) he is bright he struggles with producing the expected level of output. For example he has recently been part of the Every Child Counts maths programme and the assessments show his ability as being near a level 3 but his score on the practice maths SATs paper was less than a level 1 (mostly because he didn't answer many questions).

The school are putting in a lot of effort with him and he is improving week by week (they are actually brilliant he has a super teacher). The aim of the ECC programme is that the children on it will achieve at least a 2C in KS1 SATS.

Anyway getting round to the point of my post lol...I have been thinking about secondary school options (early I know but his brother is going up next year so it has been on my mind).

Assuming he keeps improving so his output reflects more closely his ability what sort of school might suit him?

The other DC will go the local comp but I am willing to consider sending him private if this would better meet his needs, alternatively there is a nearby school (not in catchment) that has a large SEN department that is supposed to be good (it is in a less affluent area so receives quite a bit of funding for SEN I think). I am a bit worried that being a predominantly hyper/impulsive type ADHDer he will be more vulnerable to bad behaviour/wrong crowd etc..he can be quite troublesome himself but is also quite naive and easily led (if that makes sense).

Is he likely to benefit more from a Comp that has good SEN provision or a private that probably doesn't have as much but might push him more? Would a private school even take him? He is a talented athlete so private might cater for this better?

I know it's not possible to know how things will be in Yr6 but if private is going to be an option I probably need to start budgeting now LOL.

Does anyone have thoughts or experience on this?

I have some relevant experiences, & my gut feelings are:

It's okay if your children attend different secondaries. I really don't think you can make any decisions until your Y2 child is close to secondary school age, though, you can't assess what would be best for him until then. At that point:

Visit the state Comp with good SEN provision and talk about your son & his needs & what they can do for him.

If you want to investigate private for the Y2 child, look for private schools that focus on good pastoral care rather than academic results; no child will achieve his best if his emotional needs aren't being well met.

Thanks for the advice. You are right about the pastoral care, I'm not bothered if he doesn't get A's at GCSE I just want him to have a fighting chance. He seems to thrive better under stricter more regimented conditions and he is definitely better one to one or in small groups- he struggles a bit with large classes/lot of people.

As you say things can change over a few years. I might start a saving fund just in case though!

Hi there,

I have ADHD and for me at that age it would of made more difference to me if i had a better peer group to associate with rather than the quality of the SENCO or SEN dep. As at that age kids with ASD and or ADHD crave the attention of others may get that attention from the "wrong group" as to speak.

I think that taking more action now to help him improve academically will give him more options later on.

I have one of those - it can be like juggling jars of unstable nitroglycerine.

Firstly to be considered for a local authority school able to meet his needs you need a formal statement. Without that your son will not have priority for a place if your outside the main catchment area- be aware these can fluctuate yearly.
Read not only the OFSTED reports on the schools SEN policy but also any parents whose children fall under this. Some schools are good with physical needs, some MLD and others with ASD so do not assume a good SEN reputation means they can cope with ASD+ADHD.
Unless you are as rich as Cresus or can secure LEA funding forget private SEN - get things in perspective do you have £12K [thats just for dyslexic tendancies] upwards spare per annum? And to think UNI seems costly. sigh
Its even more for a child whose behaviour is in the AS and can be sparky [my eldest son who is now doing Uni courses cost the LEA £75K p.a.]
If your in a private school you will not be able to ask CAHMS to step in and help in the same way and you will have to pay for Ed Psych so read all the small print with great care.

LEAs can offer SULP and other interventions and support from specialist VT teams and a heap of extras that are out of the reach of most parents like an OT to help with fine motor control or a specilaist nurse for kids suffering almost school phobia. It also means your child is known to them if the whole thing did go horribly wrong and they would be obliged to locate more specilaised provision.

The funding for SEN has nothing to do with the affluence of an area- it has to do with how many kids they have on the code of practice or SEN register. A statemented child can have extra attached to meet their individual needs.

My younger son who has ASD and ADHD could easily have passed for the Grammars here but he did not want to sit the exams and preffered to go to a Comp that offered Tech [gifted in the extreme in all aspects of engineering, maths and science- my house seems to have become his lab!]
Its been a tad firey at times but since his last AR and good deal more differntiation and G&T sat schools offered by the school he seems a lot happier.

Start researching the local schools and local provision as a first step and keep communicating with his primary school as the SENCO should be aware of what secondary schools they feed into can offer what.
Good luck.

my 10 yr old son has certain traits of mild adhd. His issues are mainly
with short attention span and distractability. Its having a big impact on his school work. Its become more evident with his preparation for the 11+. I live in the kingston area and i don't know what i should do now to get him assessed. With the 11+ exams coming up so soon time is of the essence.