SEN support in secondary schools

[Kateel13]

Hello,

My child (currently in year6) is due to start secondary school in 2023. We are in the process of visiting schools to see what support they can provide. But we are not getting all the information at the moment. Our preference would be a small mainstream with good support in place (if required 1:1 needs to provided). We are in Berkshire. My child is autistic and has an EHCP.
I would really appreciate if anyone had similar situation and can recommend the schools your child is in.
Thank you

The most important thing is getting the support needed specified and quantified in section F - is 1-1 already stated?
When I was looking for DS I spoke to the SENCO at each open evening and described DSs needs and what support he needed. All but one SENCO stated they couldn’t meet needs. The one who said she could was over ambitious which we discovered when DS started!

@Skiphopbump Section F doesn't clearly states as 1-1. But he has 1-1 at the moment most of the time in the classroom. May I ask you if the school you have chosen meets your expectation at the moment? Is your DS happy there and thriving?

I agree with @Skiphopbump, it is vitally important section F is detailed, specified and quantified. Section F needs to specify and quantify 1:1 otherwise you cannot guarantee it will be provided and will not be able to enforce it if it isn’t provided. Many secondary schools won’t provide 1:1 if it isn’t in the EHCP.

You are a little on the back foot as your year 5 annual review meeting should have been a transition review where you made sure your ehcp reflected what was needed for secondary.

I would have a very good look at it and see if you think it is right whislt there is still time to sort it.

For what its worth, i hear some autistic children find secondary makes more sense as they get a timetable and lessons are structured and calmer.

I dont know if the size of school makes much difference, in some bigger schools might manage lunch, break and corridor times better than smaller ones.

OP isn’t too late. The phase transfer review takes place in the autumn term of Y6. Or sometimes at the end of the summer term of Y5 if that’s when the AR is due and the LA don’t want to have to hold another one the following term.

Yes, sorry didnt mean to imply it was too late, more just make sure you are happy with the ehcp whilst there is time to sort it

Oh I agree this needs sorting now otherwise OP will end up like others where they don’t realise until secondary that the EHCP is too vague and woolly to be of use, I just didn’t want the OP to think it was too late.

@Kateel13 DS had funding for a 1-1, he had a 1-1 in primary school. The secondary school stated he would have his full allocation of 1-1 hours- these were not stated in the plan but were funded by the LA.
When he started he had around half the TA time the school had funding for and it was shared with another child or two with very different needs. I was told that’s the way it is in secondary school. It wasn’t working for DS and I knew then that section F needed tightening. I commissioned a private Ed psych report as school was saying he was doing well etc when I knew it wasn’t.

The whole process snowballed and DS started year 9 at a specialist independent school. By the end of year 8 (year 7&8 were covid years and very disrupted) it was clear even to the school they couldn’t meet needs.
I think if the school had out into place the support needed from the start there would have been a better outcome for DS. It may still have failed but I don’t think DS would have had the breakdown that he did.
DS is in year 10 now and has been attending full time since starting in year 9 - he had been on and off reduced timetables for years! That’s because the plan accurately reflects his needs and the school are able to provide the provision.

In general, secondary schools can only provide a 1:1 if it's funded/specified via the ECHP. If it's not, then the best he will get is shared TA provision with other students. This means being in the same group as them, and if that's an inappropriate set for your child, then unfortunately that's the class he will need to be in. There tends not to be much spare TA capacity in secondary at all.

Are you able to discuss your son with the SENCo at any of your local schools? That will give you a feel for whether they can meet your son's needs or not, and if it would be the right provision for him.

Small mainstream can mean less SEN support, as fewer SEN pupils, and it may mean there isn't a full time SENCo. It would be a good idea to look at the SEN support available over the size of the school.

Thanks everyone for your response. We had the transition review meeting and we have also done the private EP assessment. According to EP, a small mainstream with good support would work well.
I agree with most of you that the SEN support matters over the school size.
We had asked the LA what if our preferred school comes back and say they can not meet the needs. For that we got an answer stating - in that case we will mostly get a place in our catchment school and LA will make the required arrangement for that. We did visit the catchment school and had a meeting with the SENCo. The response was not very positive.

Do you have a preferred school at the moment? Sometimes you will find a school in an area has a specific SEN/autism hub/unit etc. That might be a good choice, possibly?

Unless needs are really severe, most LAs will expect your child to try and fail in mainstream before they consider a special school, which isn't fair on anyone.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl We liked one school which has ASD unit. It is very much inline with what we need. But they can take only 5 children per year. We do not know on what basis that will be decided. It is all so confusing and stressful at the moment.

I would ask the EP if they would recommend a school with a base and if so they write it in the report, if they write it into the report it gives more of a chance.

What is it about a small school the EP recommended- is it to make break, lunch and transitions easier? We have a small (4 form entry secondary near us). The LA EPs tend to push this school stating that the small size is suited to SEN children, in reality it makes no difference when in the classroom as there are still 30 or so children in each class. As it’s a small school they are lacking in support staff and the SENCO is overwhelmed with the ratio of SEN children. After a bit of digging the LA EP admitted to me they also recommend the school as it has spaces!

The LA will push the closest school to take the child even if they feel they can’t meet needs - it’s very difficult for a school to say no to the LA.

We had asked the LA what if our preferred school comes back and say they can not meet the needs.

Unless the school is wholly independent the LA must name your preference unless the LA can prove:
-The setting is unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or special educational needs (“SEN”) of the child or young person; or
-The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for others; or
-The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.

Unless wholly independent the LA can, and must, name the school regardless of the school’s objections unless they can prove one of the above.

If you want an ARP do you have evidence one is required?

Also, I hope you are just summarising the independent EP report and it doesn’t actually say “small mainstream” and “good support”. The report needs to be detailed, specified and quantified. What is small and what is good? Your definition will be vastly different to the LA’s.

@Thatsnotmycar You are right. EP had a chat with us after preparing the report about the benefits of having a small mainstream with good support in place. This was not explicitly mentioned in the report. However there are few points in the provision which highlights of having small group support for language programme as well additional visits for transition.
What is ARP?
Our preferred school is not independent school. It is a mainstream with ASD unit. But the challenge is they can only take 5 children per year group.

Small group work isn’t detailed, specified and quantified either. How many is small, what language programme, who is delivering it, for how long, how often…?Does the independent EP have SENDIST experience?

An ARP is an additionally resources provision i.e. the autism unit. You really need evidence one is needed.

@Skiphopbump
The school that is local to us, does not have ASD unit. The capacity is 1600. SENCo from the school was telling if the children are academically not at the level of their peer group, they will struggle and the school can not provide the support needed.
EP's point was if the school is too big, DS might feel overwhelmed.

@Thatsnotmycar To be honest I have not talked or asked about SENDIST with the EP.

I fear the EP report may not be Tribunal standard.

In my experience ( but it may be different now) additional resourced provision places were allocated by a panel, following applications. I was responsible for a 20 place SLCN unit and places were allocated at panel.

Is there a school which offers the small group support and language program? Small group support is increasingly rare in secondary, as it's very difficult to provide with the funding available.

Additional visits for transition should be fine- the vast majority of schools can and will offer this.

Hopefully you can get a place at your preferred school- if named on the ECHP, they could be required to go over the 5 students.

Is there a school which offers the small group support and language program? Small group support is increasingly rare in secondary, as it's very difficult to provide with the funding available.

I’m not sure whether you meant more generally within secondary schools or not. I agree, the wider school budget makes small group work difficult for those without EHCPs or with poorly written EHCPs. But if it’s specified and quantified in the EHCP it must be provided regardless of what is normally provided in that school. And it’s possible for good EHCPs to be fully funded.

Does anyone know if there are specialized schools to support children who are cognitively able but delayed in speech/language?