Any views on the suitability of Dorothy Stringer for a child with special needs?

[tiredbrightonmum]

Hi everyone, am just going through the application process for secondary school. I have a son with individual learning needs, not statemented, but he will require support to function effectively in the classroom. We love both Stringer and Varndean but need to put down a first preference - does anyone have any personal experience of the SEN support at Stringer? I met the Inclusion Manager and thought he was fab, have done the tours and like the environment in both schools but am interested to hear some personal stories. thanks!

I can't tell you about those schools my experience are with hove park and blatch mill.
But I did go to varndean and it was ok, but that was a good few years ago.
If he isn't statemented how do they regulate the extra help he gets, have you pin pointed them down to a numbwr of hours per week?

Thanks for responding - yes hours per week are hard to pin down for a non-statemented child. I did get a really good feel for Stringer when we visited and the Inclusion Manager was great, talked to me like an adult! That's always a bonus!

I wish I had seen this sooner, we also loved Stringer & are hoping to get DD in there as we know friends whose kids go there & they are very proactive with stamping out anything like bullying & supporting the DCs who go through it, which to my mind bodes well for any SN.

My own DD has some SN due to health problems, but not LD, so we were very keen to get a feel for the pastoral care angle of the school & were very impressed.

Varndean, not so much, we have a friend who's DCs also go there & one DC is AS & he had bullying problems from day one & they were slow to act, the HT is apparently a charmer, so talks well, but doesn't back it up, though it was sorted out eventually, to my mind it took too long though we do know other DCs who go there & love it, but they don't have any SN.

We put Patcham down over Varndean & we don't want DD to go there at all.

Patcham is a lovely smaller school & our friends DS who has Down's syndrome goes there & he absolutely loves it, he's had no problems & his DM thinks its the best choice she made, they were also offered Cardinal Newman, even went to church for over a year to secure a place, but went for Patcham in the end & she did a LOT of research & works in education too & he's in year 7 now, so it's all current.

I'm still hoping for Stringer though :)