Holland Park or Chelsea Academy or any other state secondary

[Stringbean70]

My son has mild autism and hence a statement of special educational needs. As a result, we are fortunate in that we can 'name' a secondary school anywhere in the area and they pretty much have to take him (we think), provided of course that they can cater for his needs (which are not major - just in-class teaching assistant). We are thinking of Holland Park or Chelsea Academy. The latter is more convenient to get to but we've heard Holland Park is better. Any views from parents at either school would be hugely appreciated. Or other options (but NOT free schools - they're untested and a huge gamble in our opinion). Many thanks for any help.

Holland Park is more academic, because they use a banding test and CA don't. I don't think HP is the better school pastorally. I know an autistic boy who was bullied throughout his 5 years there.

I would get an informed opinion from a professional or contact the schools themselves and see what they have to offer. I believe Kensington Aldridge are setting up a unit to support autistic children, so you might want to check that out if not too far away.

www.kensingtonaldridgeacademy.co.uk/autism-centre/

Here. School is opening in September (Latimer Road tube if you don't know the area).

Yes yes to Kensington Aldridge's autism unit. I'm sure your Senco will advise you to visit it in the autumn.

Thank you so much. Didn't know about autism unit at Kensington Aldridge. Not sure I want to take a punt on brand new school though but definitely worth investigating :-)

Pastoral care for regular pupils at Holland Park is almost entirely absent (or possibly in negative figures) - I've never before encountered a school that paid so little attention to the non-academic side of life as HP does. Perhaps it is better for kids who are SEN, but I wouldn't bank on it. A lot of the teachers are very, very young.

I think it depends on what your DS is like and how his condition manifests as to how well he would get on there. If he's very academic, very self-contained, and really doesn't care about stuff like extra-curricular activities, it's possible he could do very well indeed there. If you are after a more broad education, and if the extras matter to you, I'd say look elsewhere.

Don't assume HPS will take you if you name them - we named them as one of three schools locally (DS) but were turned down. We opted for a new, local school, bit of a gamble but it has paid off. DS (NT) has followed DD there too. I happen to know they too have since turned down some other applications from statemented kids - nothing is a given. Don't know much about pastoral or academics at CA but I understand properly Christian so you have to be sure that is what you want. Lovely building, and if you can stomach the god stuff a good time to join as I think full now?

I think pastoral care for Holland Park is ok if you have a defined problem like being bullied or you have a particular problem that could benefit from seeing one of the health professionals such as the school nurse, counsellors or the Ed psych. The previous Senco was very good but a lot of teachers didn't engage with her.

In general it is not a kind supportive place. The SLT are quite harsh and the school is very strict. Most of the communication is negative - in assembly for example which mainly consists of criticism. My DC got the message that they would die starving in the street if they didn't got As - very pernicious as the school has a mixed ability intake.

There tends to be a perennial group of golden children who take all the prizes, go on trips etc while the vast majority are treated like an inferior species.

I do know of an autistic boy who was treated as a pariah and badly bullied. There are other high functioning autistic kids who seem to do OK but only if they are academically able and behave in class.

The school recently became an academy, told locals in north Kensington that their kids are no longer welcome at the school and basically continue to behave in a wasteful an deplorable manner.

Chelsea Academy has worse behaviour on the whole. Not sure about pastoral care but I think generally they are not as robust as Holland Park in dealing with bullying and bad behaviour.

Both schools have the distinction of having Governors who are out of touch with reality.