Schools with helpful attitude to SEN

[madameweasel]

We have recently moved back to the UK after several years abroad. DH has got a job in South Cambs so we are looking for a house in this area (or possibly to the west of Cambridge). DS has sensory issues/ADHD and is very bright, so I'm interested in people's opinions of schools in the area. He doesn't have a statement but he did have an IEP with classroom accommodations (and I'm hopeful that this will help us to get appropriate help for him when we move). He'll be going into Year 5 so I'd mainly like to know about the secondary schools as I'm hoping this move will be long term.

I've heard Comberton is good for SEN.

I would second Comberton (and I suspect the new Cambourne Village College will be run on similar lines, if it's still headed by ex-Comberton staff).

Cottenham (maybe wrong area for you?) is also good.

I would usually heartily recommend Sawston, but the new and weird 'vertical tutor system' is causing more social problems than it's solved at the moment, in my opinion.

Thank you very much, that's very helpful. I like the look of Sawston (Comberton seems quite big?) but there don't seem to be many houses on the market at the moment so I think we have to keep our options open.

Comberton is indeed big, but it's well organised and it's split into two halves for timetabling (or it was, anyway - DS left a couple of years back). I think once you're down to the individual group sizes, the overall size of a school matters less.

My daughter is in year 9 at St Bedes inter church school . She is severely dyspraxic, we came from an international school background and I would say St Bedes learning support is exceptional .

Comberton is not as big as it used to be, with 8 classes in year 7 next year (peaked at 10 or 12?) making it more comparable with other schools except St Bedes which is much smaller.
I've heard both are good for SEN.

You might need to look into what are the requirements/application processes for high level support, if that is what you need. Comberton has high level provision called The Cabin, which has an additional application process as far as I know.

St Bedes is difficult to get into and you really need to have a statement I think . I would write to the council to see if they will accept your IEP.
Our girl is academically strong at humanities but weak at maths and science . The school is incredibly supportive and she loves it , so much so we might stay another two years to finish .

The Cabin at Comberton is for Asperger's and autism rather than ADHD, but they also have good general SEN provision.

Have you considered LInton Village College?

Impington Village College is well provided for SEN kids, and I believe is soon to have a specialist ASD-centric unit on site.

Would you specifically recommend Linton for SEN these days, Lintonian? I know it has a new head, but suspect it has the same Senco it's had previously.

I'm sorry, I've only just seen this.
I do have (a positive) experience of LVC but not specifically for SEN. I hadn't seen it mentioned so threw it in for your consideration as it's in the area you mentioned.

Mmm. Linton's attitude to our son's SEN (some years ago, hence my question) was 'You can put it in his statement all you like, we're still not doing it.'
We went elsewhere.