How to survive 90 minute lessons?!!

[SuperSue77]

My son is year 7 at a large mainstream state school. He is diagnosed ASD and ADHD (no EHCP) and school have been really supportive and he is on their SEN/inclusion register.

I worry that he is close to EBSA and it is a struggle to get him to school, he begs us not to make him go, but when there he is doing quite well. Home schooling is not an option so we’re trying to do everything we can to help him feel able to attend. One issue for him is that their lessons are 90 minutes long and this is just too long for him. He can ask for a movement break, but doesn’t want to draw attention to himself by asking. Has anyone any ideas how school/teachers/my son can make this more manageable for him?

I’ve mentioned it to senior staff, but not got very far because I’m not sure what I can really expect them to do for him. My thoughts are that teachers could ask him to run an errand for them half way through the lesson, but they can hardly do that every lesson and it would draw attention to him.

Has anyone any suggestions or ideas?

Unfortunately, sometimes it's not down to the teachers. I teach in a school which has 1 longer lesson a day, which is meant to accommodate practical work etc. Often, for science, it's very useful, and we spend a lot of the time moving around etc anyway. But sometimes, a theory lesson would fall on that lesson, and initially when I moved to the school, I offered some classes a short break in the middle of the lesson. However, I was told by a member of SLT not to do that, and that all class time had to be used for learning. I still try and incorporate movement as much as possible in the longer lessons, and individual students are allowed rest breaks, but I can't just give everyone a 2 minute break for the sake of having a break.

There is a lot of pressure on school curriculums, and I can understand why the school doesn't want to lose part of every lesson to a movement break- and there are issues with this in some classrooms as well.

To sit his gcses on a laptop or smaller room this needs to be his normal working practice, would school support a ehcp? Does he have a planner? I work with a pupil 1:1 and he knows he can ask for a break of needed, if I'm not there he has a little card red one side green the other that he can out on the table so the teacher knows he needs a break. If he is at risk of EBSA what are school doing about that? Does school have a elsa trained member of staff who could work with them?

If the school has a toilet pass system (most do), see if he can be added to that. He can walk to the toilet and back as his movement break.