Choosing a school (for 2013)- yes, I know I'm early, but bear with me!

[Galena]

DD was born at 27 weeks and has mild cerebral palsy. She is not affected cognitively (taught herself to read at Christmas aged 2yr 9mo - I know that doesn't make her a genius, but she's bright), however, physically she was a late walker, not walking till 2yr 2 mo and still very wobbly. She can't run, jump, etc and tires easily. She has a wheelchair for distance use and barely copes with a morning at playgroup before she collapses in a sobbing heap because she's tired.

There are 3 local schools near here - let's call them A, B and C.
A is the church school connected to the church we attend regularly. There are 200 pupils on roll and it has an 'Excellent' Ofsted rating.
B is a school which was in special measures a number of years ago (2007), however now has a 'Good' Ofsted rating. It has 100 pupils on roll.
C is the closest school. It is a separate infant and junior school. The infant school has 210 pupils and 'Good' rating, the juniors has 300 pupils and 'Excellent' rating.

I plan on contacting each school soon to visit them. However, I have no idea how to go about choosing a suitable school for her. I don't know what questions to ask them. Any suggestions?

I would look at:
Access - is the site flat, could she use a wheelchair if required(some schools will not allow this), is it a single story building or are some classrooms upstairs? (more likely in the separate junior school from experience)
Consider how you will get her to school if walking distance is an issue? If by car what is the parking situation (my dc's primary is dreadful!)
PE - how would the school cope with her problem (inclusive/ adapt to her needs rather than making her watch!)
Are reception taught separately rather than mixed with year 1 (may be the case in school B as very small). I don't have a problem with mixed classes in general but in your case she would probably be better getting used to school without older and bigger children barging around her!
Does reception have a rest area for the tired?

Ask to speak to the SENCO, tell her all about your DD and what problems she might have at school and what help she might need.

And in general choose the school which you feel has the best SENCO.

Firstly I think you need to think about her mobility problems & which school would best serve these. Will she be using a wheelchair at school? How is she with stairs? I'd be asking about location of Classrooms, dining rooms, toliets (stairs, ramps, distances etc)

Then I'd be interested to know about their settling in sessions & how they might cope if she got very tired.

• could she defer (depending on birthday until January say?)

-do they do mornings only for a while, could she do this if she needed to?

I would also want to get a 'feel' for the schools & which you instinctively feel would best suit DD.

You also need to consider how likely you are to get into the three schools. Is there any obvious reason why one would meet her needs better? Say classroom on the ground floor & she struggles with stairs. If there is you may wish to include this in your application WITH supporting evidence from her Consultant, physio etc.

Hope this helps.

I would tell them all about your daughter and watch the reaction. I would think that would be the key aspect.
I know my DCs school would be enthusiastic, and willing to discuss what accommodations could be made. I also know it would be obvious at some schools that they would be less than happy to take on the challenge, or would have limited aspirations.

On the inspection reports one if the things they give marks for is how a school fares in terms of SN provision.

I'm not really a league tables person (at all!) but I was interested in this rating.

Obviously you should also visit the school, and ask tommeet their SN co-ordinator.

Best of luck :)

DD1 just got her acceptance letter for school in September - it's such a big thing, a whole new phase of their lives about to start.

I agree with mummytime. Put aside the Ofsted reports, visit all of them, look them in the eye and ask them about your daughter. I think you will quite quickly get a gut reaction about which have the right ethos to rise to the challenge.

And I wouldn't worry about school B having been in special measures in 2007. If it's got itself up to "good" already, it's firmly on the upward curve.

You can also try asking them whether they have had any children with mobility needs and what they think any issues might be, whether they offer additional help, e.g. At our school those with SN go swimming in a hydrotheraphy pool + horse riding. I agree if any of them are already fully accessible then that would be great. You also need to ask about their admission arrangements, do they have a category for special needs above e.g. Siblings, catchment etc, if they don't then even if it is a perfect school for her she might not get a place.

Thanks all - some really good suggestions here. :)

Very interesting - I spoke to all 3 schools today to organise a time to be shown round and speak to the SENCO.

School A - SENCO only works on a Monday and she is teaching all day Monday so no, I can't speak to her. The secretary will show me round. Tours of the school are at 10am and 2pm.
School B - SENCO works Mon am and Tue pm. Yes, of course I can come and talk to her and look around. Would I like her to phone me beforehand to discuss anything? Even asked for DD's name.
School C - Put through to the head. SENCO works Tue/Wed. Yes, of course I can come and look around and talk to the SENCO. As soon as I mentioned CP they asked if she was a wheelchair user. Arranged a time for me to go in and chat. Have had wheelchair users in the past.

Really interesting how unhelpful the (vastly oversubscribed) church school was (bearing in mind it has a S&L unit attached to it). Also how friendly the other 2 schools were. Going to see school A this afternoon, school C next Tuesday and school B the Tuesday after. Will be looking very carefully.

I was in this position a couple of years ago (my ds is now in year 1). As you say, it is never too early to look round - we did so the year before everyone else due to our extra needs. My ds has CP and is a wheelchair user. I looked round our 5 nearest schools, and found it was very easy to rank them in my head. Some were so welcoming, detailing exactly what they could do for my ds, allowing me to meet the senco etc. However, one when I phoned up, saying my ds was a wheelchair user etc just listed exactly when their open days were, with no intention to give me any sort of personal chat etc with the head / senco. One came out as a clear winner, just in terms of the fact that they were actually enthusiastic about having him, as well as having good disabled access / facilities etc. We were able to get him in there because he has a statement (as we didn't quite live within the catchment for that year) and I have not regretted it for a moment so far. They have been absolutely fantastic and he is thriving. So, in summary, I think it is all about how welcoming they are when you look round and your gut feeling about the whole place. It sounds like you are already getting the idea just from your initial phonecalls!

"Really interesting how unhelpful the (vastly oversubscribed) church school was (bearing in mind it has a S&L unit attached to it). Also how friendly the other 2 schools were."
Hello there my dd was born at 27 weeks and also has a medical condition (probably unrelated as there is a family history) and I found something similar. The most oversubscribed outstanding (non church) school locally said that they supported children with this medical condition etc. but their body language implied that this was only true in theory not in practice. Whereas the satisfactory school had good pastoral, inclusive atmosphere and gave the impression of really caring for the child and not just the SATs results.
The other thing I would ask if she is getting tired easily after a morning at pre-school is about the starting reception settling in period at school. Some schools allow children to start with half days and some may extend this for children with "additional needs".
I would also find out from the LEA if there is a "Social and Medical Needs" (or Exceptional needs) admission category in your area. This would make sure that any school you are offered is able to cope with a wheelchair user.
I would also find out if the school has any disabled parking spaces for parents of disabled children to use as this may be helpful too.

I think it is good you are starting early. You may find that when you have looked at one, you suddenly have questions you hadn't even thought of. It will also help you to prepare your application if you will need any special paperwork to jump through the application hoops!

I looked around a high school recently, and there was a wheelchair user (potential student, not parent) in my group. It was illuminating to see how the school treated her. I wasn't 100% impressed, though it is supposed to be one of the better schools in the area. They weren't blatantly rude, but we missed several parts of the tour as it would "take too long" to get there with ramp/lift. And in some we were shown places and she missed out.

On tiredness, both my children (no special needs) got very tired in reception. Luckily our school allows children to be on half-days for as long as they need in discussion with their teachers. My DD did her first full week in the February of reception.

"They weren't blatantly rude, but we missed several parts of the tour as it would "take too long" to get there with ramp/lift. And in some we were shown places and she missed out."

I would consider that to be blatantly rude.

Our school has 2 floors but accommodates wheelchair users or children who would find stairs difficult or tiring by putting classes with no wheelchair user upstairs. Means that sometimes a year group is split (2 form entry) with one class upstairs and one downstairs but that's no problem. Also meant that had to do some work to make the handrails up the stairs safe for use by younger children (ordinarily would only have ks2 upstairs) but the school is a community/maintained school and the borough paid.

Just worth taking not account - 2 storey doesn't necessarily mean not wheelchair accessible iyswim.

Yes, AThingInYourLife you are quite right. I worded it badly. It was all done in such a breezy way - "we are so pleased to have you, and it is dull there anyway" sort of thing, that it was only when I got home and thought back on the day I realised how much we'd missed. They were excellent at giving a glossy welcoming appearance, and you couldn't quite pin anything on them that was wrong, but actually it was pretty rotten.

The more I learn about the school (Ofsted outstanding, award winning, but with an elliptical catchment so they avoid the poorest areas) I think it is probably the case in many areas of school life.

Although it shouldn't be a problem, as c is your closest school, you might want to check whether it is a linked junior school, so entry to infants more or less guarantees place in junior school (this would be ideal), if not you need to see whether the admissions criteria are the same, and if your dd was admitted to infant school on basis of medical need, but (hopefully) is substantially stronger that it is no longer such an issue for junior that she no longer has a medical need, are you still likely to get a place in junior. I would also enquire about junior school accessibility.

Although I can see that a two level school could work, as a child I would have found it very annoying that I was never allowed to go upstairs. I know that she will find that there are some places she won't be able to go as she gets older, but I think it would be odd for her to spend three years in a school but only be able to be downstairs.

Well, we went this afternoon to look around school A. There are more stairs than I knew could exist in a school! The secretary showed me round, and having sounded very abrupt on the phone, actually was lovely. Apparently they had a child with CP there a while ago. I have made an appointment to speak to the head about specifics next week, but I just don't know. They really have to persuade me they are right for her.

School B's SENCO can't make the time I'd arranged to look round the school, so phoned me at lunchtime today to have a chat. I'll go to the school in a couple of weeks as planned and just won't speak to her. She used to be a TA in a school working with children with profound physical disabilities and has a child (not disabled) a year older than DD. She also gave me her email address. That school is all on one level.

3duracellbunnies, we are so close to school C that it will not be an issue trying to get into the junior school. However, I know that the both the infant and junior schools have more than one level, although they rearrange classes if necessary to accommodate. But yes, it would be frustrating to be downstairs only...

But if the upstairs is simply class rooms rather than library/ict/etc I wouldn't have thought it would be frustrating. I went to the same school several ddecades ago and for similar reasons my particular class never had an upstairs classroom. I don't recall being remotely put out!

The library is upstairs, the ICT suite is upstairs, I think. Will talk to the head about access.

Do check, because my DCs school is on more than one level, but is definitely the school I would recommend to you. It makes wide use of an internal ramp, and external sloping paths, as well as installing a lift at the lower school. Their senior school, has a lift to a library, and has juggled room allocations for pupils in wheel chairs.

Thanks, I will check but at the moment we are a little uneasy about various things there, so it may not be an issue...

When I was looking round schools a few years ago, (I was on crouches at the time) a school that had lots of steps had had a child with difficulty walking had had stair lifts put in so he or child could attend. Now as a few local schools have been rebuilt I not sure they would necessarily do that. My girls go to a newly built school so it has a disabled toilet on both floors one with shower and adjustable sink all looks flash, but as all staff lockers are in there I wonder how happy they would be for children to use it on their own. I help in the school and have mobility problems and I feel uncomfortable using it especially at the end of the day when TAs are trying to go home.
I would ask how they thought they may have to change the classroom to make it easy for your dd to get about. Will she be able to reach the coat hook if not will they put one so she can, can she reach the planning board. I would want my child to be able to do most things on their own not just getting another child to do it for her.

When you think you have chosen the school take you dd with you (maybe in her wheel chair) and see how the staff interact with her, You can change the children's attitude but if her teacher treats her differently then it may not be the right school.

Galena I wrote you a long detailed post and then lost it! But to summarise, I said - make sure you choose a school that is nearby, a school where dd will mix with the other children well, and that there is good communication between parents and children. Ask if you can talk to one of the other SEN parents at the school - sometimes they will put you in touch.

The best schools are those that listen to their disabled children - watch carefully how they treat your child - do they talk to her or to you?

Further update: Went to visit school B today (moved the visit forward because I was keen to see it). We went in and the secretary greeted DD by name, then said hello to me. The head came out to meet us before a governor's meeting, chatted to DD for a couple of minutes and then began talking to me about the adaptations they'd been thinking might be needed if DD came to the school.

Then we looked round the school and each class teacher greeted both me and DD, and the children said hello. Then we went into the Reception class and DD went to look at the fish, snails and stick insects with the other children. I went to look at the outside area and she went out too, at which point a few of the children put their coats on, came out and played in the sand and water with her - but very kindly and not trying to muscle her out, iyswim. There are 2 steps down to the outside play area in reception, but they think it would be quite easy to add handrails for DD. I'm very impressed, and very keen for DD to go there.

There is a playgroup onsite (although a separate entity), and I've seen the room that they use but the leader is on holiday this week so I will speak to her and arrange a visit next week when she's back. Not sure if we've left it too late to apply for a place there in Sept though.