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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Can you help me sort my schools dilemma out?

9 replies

Hassled · 11/09/2008 10:58

DS3 is 6, Year 2, will move to a Junior School next year. He has a Statement - verbal Dyspraxia with 20 hours a week of 1-1 support (which he needed in Reception and doesn't really need anymore - I expect that at the next review the 1-1 will be cut). He's mostly intelligible although his speech is quite odd, and there are still times when it's very hard to understand him. He's also bright as a button, sociable and confident.

Do I pick School A which we know and like (older 3 siblings have attended), where 90% of his friends will be going BUT has class sizes of up to 35 and a proven to be poor track record when it comes to SEN children (as in apparent disinterest, lack of communication with parents).

Or School B, where he will know no-one but smaller classes, an associated Deaf Unit, 15% of children are SEN, seems a really happy thriving school. Also much more multi-cultural, which is a Good Thing.

My gut reaction is School B but the friendship issue is important. His friends are patient and supportive with the poor speech, and he might lose all that. We need to decide by 26/9 (Statemented kids get first call).

OP posts:
Seeline · 11/09/2008 11:04

Are you sure that he will now no-one. Does he not have any out-of-school activities where he might have met other children?

MerlinsBeard · 11/09/2008 11:04

i am a bit vague on what goes in a statment but if he isn't going to need extra help (which it appears from your OP) then does it matter which school he goes to? and in that case i would pick school A

Hassled · 11/09/2008 11:09

He might recognise a couple of faces in School B but no more than that.

He won't need as much help as the Statement currently gives, but will continue to need regular Speech Therapy. This involves a SALT coming into the school (private not an option), the local SALTs are over-stretched and unreliable and I don't feel very confident that School A will be on the case if things go wrong.

OP posts:
TotalChaos · 11/09/2008 11:10

mumofmonsters - it's still important because if sen is poorly dealt with, teaching staff may not be sympathetic to her DS's speech problems, may not work well with implementing SALT recommendations.

I would go with school B. IME of this age group (lots of kids on our street!) they are very understanding of poor speech (my DS has moderate language delay), and it sounds as if there will be plenty of other kids with speech/language problems and other SEN.

Seeline · 11/09/2008 11:14

I would go with school B. You say he is sociable and confident so I am sure he will make new friends quickly. I think the other kids will be accommodating to an problems he may have - they often don't seem to notice such 'problems'.

MerlinsBeard · 11/09/2008 11:18

sorry, i shouldn't have posted without properly knowing anything to be useful with!

Hassled · 11/09/2008 11:22

mofm - don't be sorry - I'm grateful for any input because I just DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO and it's driving me crazy. Thank you everyone.

OP posts:
cat64 · 11/09/2008 11:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

LynetteScavo · 11/09/2008 11:34

I would go for school B.

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