Secondary Schools in Richmond for CF with lower ASD and ADHD

[francbe]

'd love to get some advice on secondary schools in Richmond Borough. we live in East Sheen to be more precise.

Our CF he is 11 years old, he has lower ASD and ADHD, he is trying hard to cope in a small primary school ( since year 3) but we have been advised he won't cope at the even larger secondary school (without an EHCP which we havent managed to get yet. He started to be assesed now in September 2023 and his school SENCO said that he might get it in April 2024 .

So we live in South West London in East Sheen and we are Looking for a kind and caring school where pastoral care is really important and a school with a strong SEN department to support CF because he has difficulties to learn, how level of anxiety and he does not have and know how to make friends.

Would LOVE some advice...
Many thanks in advance,
Francbe

The best would be if you ask SEN coordiator at your school what school he/she would recommend.

She said that she is not allow to advice me. t

Really weird. I think the best would be if you call Achieving for Children, Richmond SEND team 020 8547 5872 and there is this Educational inclusion service there tel
07592266011
They will be able to advise you. You see all SEND kids are different and have different needs. High achievers would need different school than Middle achievers. Some school may be better at ADHD and some have that great pastoral care for emotional needs. And what size is SEND department at school know only a person involved in it

https://kr.afcinfo.org.uk/pages/local-offer/information-and-advice/education/information-on-richmond-schools/mainstream-schools-in-richmond-with-specialist-sen-provision

This is the link showing page about schools that have send departments. For social and emotional needs they list Teddington that has a wide catchment. I think from what I heard it is good school these days with great facilities.

@francbe , without an EHCP, you have no specific priority for a school of your choice You're in the same boat as everyone else, and subject to oversubscription criteria. In East Sheen, your options are Christ's or Richmond Park Academy. If you are Catholic, add St Richard Reynolds.

I recommend you don't assume you can bypass the EHCP process by lodging an appeal for a preferred school further away - unfortunately zillions of children have ASD/ADHD to various degrees, and appeals panels are not equipped to assess whether your child's diagnosis is any more severe than the many others that don't have EHCPs. That is why the EHCP process exists - to identify which children need additional support beyond what can (in principle at least) be provided in any school.

... as a pp said, Teddington School may also be an option worth considering if its catchment remains as wide as it has been in the last few years: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/utmdtytx/lbr_tss_furthest_distance_offers.pdf

But in the past, Teddington's catchment was much smaller. It may reduce again now that it has returned to a Good Ofsted rating.

I was going to recommend speaking to the SEND adviser at a local charity called Skylarks as she had a good knowledge of local schools but sadly it looks like she’s moved on - however, they do have some school advice on their website:

https://www.skylarks.charity/page/resources

If a school has "specialist" provision, it will be reserved for students with EHCPs. If you're confidently expecting to get an EHCP, then it obviously makes sense to try and get into a school with an associated specialism so that you have no dilemmas about moving your child when the EHCP is in place, but if you don't get an EHCP you won't be able to access that specialist service.

St RR doesn't serve East Sheen parishes if you apply as a catholic. It is focused on specific parishes in specific order

That's completely incorrect. East Sheen parish is in the Archdiocese of Southwark and is listed in criterion 3 of SRR's admissions policy. The school was set up to serve Catholics across the whole of Richmond upon Thames borough.

@crikeynora
Let's put it like that: If the child lives within the following parishes. If theparish where he lives is that of Our Lady Queen of Peace, then the admission is likely. If not then falls under point 4 and 5 and that is more rarely offered. Quote from their admission policy :

3. Baptised Catholic children in the following order: (a) With a Certificate of Catholic Practice whose home addresses are in the parishes of Our Lady of Loreto and St Winefride, Kew Gardens; Our Lady Queen of Peace, East Sheen; St Edmund of Canterbury, Whitton; St Elizabeth of Portugal, Richmond; St Francis de Sales, Hampton Hill; St James, Twickenham; St Margaret of Scotland, St Margaret’s on Thames; St Mary Magdalen, Mortlake; St Osmund, Barnes; St Theodore of Canterbury, Hampton-on-Thames; St Thomas Aquinas, Ham; and The Sacred Heart, Teddington (see notes 3, 4, 12 and 13 and parish boundary maps).

No, you've misinterpreted. It doesn't mean those parishes are listed in priority order, it means 3a,3b,3c and 3d are in priority order.

Within 3a and 3b the places are randomly allocated (see the tie breaker clause at the bottom of page 2). So a baptised catholic in East Sheen has the same chance as a baptised Catholic in any of the other listed parishes. (With the proviso mentioned in the tie-break that the random allocation is done at a ratio of 6:4 for the two archdioceses, reflecting the difference in their sizes).

Oh I thought that only waiting list is randomly allocated, and the rest, within the parishes who are under 3a all got it as long as they are within parishes that reflects the distance. I got it from here:

No. The SRR row in that table isn't very helpful because the word 'band' isn't mentioned in the admissions policy, and the bands don't map to the criteria with the same number (there is no criterion 8 for instance). But if you read the tie-break clause, you'll see distance isn't relevant to criteria 3a or 3b. It is only used for the other criteria.

The waiting list has to be administered using exactly the same criteria as the non-waitlisted admissions. It says that in the waiting list paragraph.

Reading between the lines:
Band 2 is criterion 3a
Band 3 is criterion 3b

Band 4 must therefore be 3c, and presumably:
Band 5 = 3d
Band 6 = 4a
Band 7 = 4b
Band 8 = 4c

So in 2023 they must have had some late applicants in Band 2/3 after the closing date, because the March 1st allocations got as far as Band 8 (unusual).

exactly. I also wonder what is going on because my friend is Orthodox and she went to St RR last week with paperwork ( Certificate from priest and Baptism certificate and that form). When she asked how likely it is that her son will get the place, the admission officer told her: highly unlikely as not all catholic children even get the place 🙀

For us ( we are Catholic family) St RR is third on the list after Turing and St Pauls. We live in parish catchment of St Pauls and St RR and as for Turing last year we would get it via waiting list >2400m from school, within admission boundaries

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything : "When she asked how likely it is that her son will get the place, the admission officer told her: highly unlikely as not all catholic children even get the place"

Well, if they say that to everyone, maybe it puts them off applying. But I think this year was unusual.

People can't have been put off by this negative press because the date is after the admissions deadline: www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/richmond-headteacher-warns-staff-laid-25598450.amp

as for Turing last year we would get it via waiting list >2400m from school,

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything You must mean <2400 from the nodal admissions point, not from the school. (Cut off distance from the school is much lower).

I think that the headmaster of SRRS has released similar message when the roof was leaking. That may be the way to go to get things done😃. Maybe this way they got funding from Westminster Diocese? Like many catholic schools they turned their status to voluntary funded academy

Btw the image I pasted shows patterns of admission in previous years

Yes, old school building in Teddington, known now as nodal point. We are in Hampton Hill/ Hampton area

Yes, old school building in Teddington, known now as nodal point.

The nodal point isn't at the old building, it's in Somerset Gardens in north Teddington (and always has been).

Well I used the map they have on their page. https://turinghouseschool.org.uk/admissions-point purple star

Oh yes, when looking closer it is a bit more towards stanley Road and not near Queens

If you zoom in far enough you can read the street name:

Yes we were in catchment a years, and last year within waiting list. This year... Who knows.

For the benefit of the OP, I would opt for Christ's over RPA every day of the week.

Dear all, I would like to say thank you for all of you messages, I could not get involved to the chat yesterday but I read all of them and it help me a lot. Massive thanks for all of you.

Also, I spoke with Achieving for Children, Richmond and they advise me to contact SEND team because what they could tell me is, if I do not have the EHCP in place yet I have to do the regular application form by today 31/10/23 or I could wait until the EHCP is in place and what is his needs them wait to see where the local authority would find him a place to study. So, I decided to do the application today I almost finish it putting the choices that I have received by the location that I lived.
I choose this schools in this order and now I am going to see if I am able to get those documents because I did not know that I had to fill some documents with the church and I don't really go to church often, normally I watch online from Brazil where I'm originally from. I think I am in trouble because no one is going to sign this form for me. At the end I'm very frustrated with this because I don't have the feeling that I am doing the right choice and I fell that we depend very much of this EHCP.

1- Christ's " they SENCO over there was very positive about having him with our without EHCP".
2- Orleans Park School " I heard from other people that they have a very good provision for Special Needs".
3- Richmond Park Academy " Closest one, 15 minutes walking".
4- Hampton High " I read that they have good support".
5- St Richard Reynolds " I heard good things about school and it is not difficult to travel to the school".

Thanks a lot,