HFA/Aspergers friendly primary/ greater Glasgow area /Stirlingshire

[lionceau]

Hello,

I'd be immensely grateful for any advice from the folk here on Scotsnet; it's my first post, please be gentle.

Our little family of three will be relocating to Scotland in the next few months (we are waiting for the lifting of the lockdown and the ban on travel), and I am finding it very difficult to shortlist prospective primaries for our 7yo son who has high functioning autism/Aspergers. I would normally rely on my gut feeling after visiting a few schools but that is currently very difficult due to all the restrictions.

In a nutshell, we are fairly flexible as to where we could settle as long as it has a good commute to Glasgow. My preference would be for a semi-rural setting, a house with a couple of acres, preferably within a friedly community. My husband would love to have some decent pub and a train station within walking distance (priorities, eh?). Not sure how realistic it is to have all in one place. We are keen on Stirlingshire, particularly Dunblane area and perhaps Strathblane, though really, we are keeping an open mind.

The most important consideration would be to find a small-ish, supportive school for our boy. He is currently attending a larger-than-average mainstream state school in London, which has been fantastic in supporting him, however, last year it became obvious he's really struggling to focus in an extremely busy and noisy environment. He doesn't currently have an EHC plan though the senco is now confident that he will get it when we apply; he requires someone to assist him with a sensory circuit, needs to have a quiet 'reset' zone and generally benefits from some support to regulate his emotions. He's very bright and keen on learning otherwise.

I understand that even if we get EHC, it doesn't really transfer into Scottish system so it would be fairly important to find a primary which already has some experience in supportin SEN children without learning disability. The move itself is a stressful factor and I can't afford to make too many mistakes in finding his next school.

Please, if you have a child with a similar profile, and had a good experience with a primary school, could you share it with me?

Riverside primary in Stirling great school, it has a communication base so has access to autism specialists if needed and generally knowledgeable staff.

Just saw you mentioned Dunblane avoid Dunblane primary it struggles with kids that don’t fit in their boxes. At Mary’s may be better.

Thank you, that's very useful. St Mary's is one of our prime 'targets' in the state sector, though I expect it's not the easiest to get into due to small size. Riverside sounds great, I will look into it.

Someone close to me had children at St Mary's. The school roll is dropping so you might get a place pretty easily if you are within the catchment area.

However, I know of 3 families who have removed children from the school in the last year due to bullying issues that were never addressed by the school.

You’ll have no issues getting into st marys

Thanks so much for the intel, the plot thickens! I loved the location and how small St Mary's is when we visited Dunblane last time but haven't actually been inside or spoken to the staff. Dropping numbers and bullying sound rather worrying, though I think I might give them a call to get a sense of their approach to nonneurotypical pupils anyway.

We are also seriously considering one of the private schools, however, it's on the south side of Glasgow which is the part of the world I know nil about.

It feels though like we will find the school this way or another though, which is a relief😀 thank you again to everyone who contacted me here and privately.