Hi,
I wondered if I could ask for advice to help me work collaboratively with our secondary school?
DS is ASD and is in crisis and has dropped out of school. It's a long story, but he can't cope with screen-based learning any more, and the school learning is entirely screen based. DS can't cope with emotional material, or pictures or videos except very bland ones, and only if I personally check them first for triggers. Basically he would have been fine in a 1980s school before they had screens and the internet, but 2023 school with screens has finished him.
We're working from CGP textbooks and he is happy with that. DH and I between us have university level education in all the subects he needs except French and Music, in which we are educated to AS level. I don't work and am happy to home school him. DH can teach him physics, maths and computer science by doing lessons before and after work.
The thing is, we would like DS to stay on roll at the school so he can sit his exams there, but the school feel they need to have control of his education in order to allow that. But they can't have control of his education because he is so sensitive, that outside tutors just can't work with his level of need, and he can't engage with online learning.
The person we're talking to at school says she's certain that we can find a way to make it work, and I just wish I could figure out what the options are, so I could talk positively with her about how to do it.
What we need is:
- An idea of how fast to go in order to cover 7 GCSEs in 2.5 years. For this, it would work for us just to have access to the school powerpoint files so I can cover the same topics at home. (We already have this).
- Access to school tests on paper to do at home, so DS can have his progress monitored by the school. (They are already giving us this).
- The knowledge organisers that the school use so we can be sure of covering the right material when we have to diverge from the school lessons a long way, as with reading different books in English.
- Weekly safeguarding teams meeting (We already have this)
- An undertaking from school that DS will be allowed to sit his exams in school without being forced to return. (We do not have this because they say DS can't stay on unless they control the teaching. They also acknowledge that they can't and won't offroll him, so we and the school are in a bind.)
I wondered if anybody might know what the way forward is? I know the school want more control. I'm not sure what more they have when DS cannot currently tolerate being taught by adults other than us, and can't engage with screen-based learning.
We have both school and home ECHP applications submitted. One was turned down and sent to tribunal and one is yet to come to panel. We have a good private MH person working with DS over zoom and he is great. He says DS needs to home school until his GCSEs and ideally we need to stay on roll at the school to get support and access to exams.
I looked into King's interhigh and Wolsley Hall and neither is suitable. King's is screen-based and and the Wolsley is Cambridge exam board. The Cambridge books would not work for DS as they are full of the wrong kind of pictures (it is that bad).
I thought about private access exams but it is hard as DS wants to study two languages and the exam centre that does that is far away. Ds doesn't travel well and going to a completely strange place far away to sit exams would be very hard.
The main thing we need to do is get DS better, and the golden road to that is having a peaceful collaborative relationship with school so we can't get on with helping DS heal.
I would be grateful for any thoughts on it.
Thanks!