Good mainstream school with autism unit

[Looking2Move]

Hi there,

Just wondered if any parents with a child with ASD (autism) know of any good primary schools in Bucks. We currently have our 4 year old in a primary school in London but he is struggling.
We're looking to move to Bourne End, Flackwell Heath area as hear some schools have additional provisions to cater for him.
Hoping any parents in the same situation may have some first hand experience.
Thanks.

I don’t have a child with ASD but I am a SENCO with the local authority.

Does he have an EHCP already? If so, what is the primary need specified on the plan?

Hi LookslikeImstuckhere,

Thanks for posting. We've just submitted the first EHCP draft to out LA. His main difficulties are around speech, social and communication.

Thanks

Juniper Hill in Flackwell Heath has a unit with the primary school for children with additional needs - also a lovely village

Claytons in Bourne End is a great school and has a small unit for children with social communication difficulties.

Juniper Hill’s unit is for children with physical disabilities. Claytons and both Carrington Infants and Juniors have units for children with social and communication difficulties.

^^what they said. Juniper is for physical disabilities but Clayton and Carrington would be perfect for social and communication.

The only difficulty you may have is that if it is a speech disorder then they can be a bit funny about mixing needs on entry to an ARP. They like it to be a pure need. I would visit both Carrington and Clayton asap to ask what their view on this.

Also bear in mind that some ARPs have limited number of hours for the children who are in them. For example, our ARP has ten spaces and each child gets 10 hours in the ARP each week. They then don’t get anything else unless a further need is diagnosed post entry acceptance to the ARP and they still meet the banding criteria. Many of the children not in the ARP get up to 32.5 hours of support within the mainstream provision which is very important for them. Each school runs their ARP differently and admission criteria is very strict so you need to check this out. Possibly before the EHCP is finalised...

Thanks so much for all the advice!!

LooksLikeImStuckHere Hope you are well. Just wondered if you know of Aston Clinton ARP as we are starting our search around this area?