Specialist academic SEMH school

[drspouse]

DS is in Y7 at a not very academic SEMH school near our home in NW England. He does well with the small class size and flexibility of approach but they have extremely poor results and are aiming for e.g. Foundation level maths when he could do so much more.
We think we will have to look for residential for around Y9 and we know about Pontville and Breckenbrough as well as Alderwasley Hall (he has "traits of autism" but no diagnosis however and keeps "failing" the screening). These could all potentially be weekly.
Where else should we consider? They would have to cope with some challenging behaviour unfortunately (he's a lot better having settled in but it took months)
Posting here as the SEN boards are so quiet.
He's young for his age (still watches Cbeebies and blames his younger sister) and desperately naive so very much not street wise - it would be better not to be a "children's home with school attached" type set up with lots of children with extreme trauma, and ideally mixed but we can't have everything we know!

I honestly think you're looking for a needle in a haystack.

Slightly different situation but we ended up (EHCP) at a very very small independent mainstream school with a fantastic 'can do' approach - we bring in support I've found funded by the EHCP via the school and the staff have received training in child's needs (provisioned in EHCP)
Don't rule out small bespoke mainstream provisions.

Wilds Lodge might be worth a look. Admits both girls and boys as day pupils, but only boys are residential. Parents either love it or hate it. Some of their pupils are capable of higher GCSE papers, but it doesn’t depend somewhat on that year’s specific cohort.

@doubleshift we'd prefer small mainstream but they generally don't do behaviour. At all.

@KeepGoingThomas that does look promising.

Apologies, the ‘doesn’t’ in my pp should be ‘does’. Like most SS, it somewhat depends on the cohort in that specific year.

We have been in a very similar position to you, my son does have autism and has also had behavioural issues, but is academically able.

His small asd/semh school likewise was not offering GCSEs. We looked literally across the whole country for somewhere that would suit him and could offer him a place for year 9 but there was literally nowhere. Either they were full to bursting or couldn't meet his (quite complex) needs. We went to visit Wilds Lodge and Alderwasley. Both were lovely but for some reason felt they couldn't have him.

In the end he has stayed at his school and has tutors coming in to school teach him GCSEs (he's now in year 10). It's not ideal because it means he doesn't study with other kids, but none of the others are capable of doing GCSEs. He does mix with them for non academic stuff though. He's doing five GCSEs and so far looks on track to pass them. His behaviour and wellbeing are also so much better since his academic needs are being met.

I did have to take the LA to tribunal to get this though.

I also have another autistic son who is happily in yr 8 in a mainstream independent but he doesn't have the behavioural issues (although he did in year 4/5). If a school is meeting needs then often the behaviour problems can diminish down to (almost) nothing.

Thanks, we are concerned that he won't push himself without competition from other children at his level - he just coasts if the others are given easier work. It seems unlikely he'd do any work for a tutor/in a class on his own.

Update, we wrote to Alderwasley Hall and they have said they have no peer group (fair enough) and teenager a school with 11 pupils with learning disabilities who use PECS/Makaton.
So that went well.

*suggested a school.

Is there not a HF ASD school nearby?

My Dd is about to start A levels at a local ASD school. We’re in S. Yorks. They do loads of GCSE too

Just a side thought but is there an SEMH school that works closely with/provides hospital education anywhere nearby?

Not in your area but by far the best, on every measure, SEMH school I've known was one that was heavily linked with the hospital provision. They had many sites but having that as part of their structure did seem to keep the wider organisation very academically focussed without losing the therapeutic side. Could just be a coincidence of course.

I know of Pontville, my understanding is that it's a decent school but I don't know how academic they lean.

Do you think Alderwasley Hall can meet DS’s needs? The school saying there’s no peer group isn’t always a barrier to it being named.

He's adopted isn't he? Will residential school work for him attachment-wise?

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow not nearby - Alderwasley Hall is the nearest ASD only school with a degree of academic success.

@KeepGoingThomas It's hard to say without looking at it, I have asked them to clarify what THEY think he needs in terms of peer group as suggesting the school they did shows they know pretty much nothing about him.

@WASZPy he is, but apart from people who read "adopted so must have attachment difficulties" there is no indication of attachment difficulties - he's appropriately attached to us and not overly friendly with strangers etc. etc. Just a bit anxious about new situations, which is preventing him from making friends/socialising.

@KeepGoingThomas actually I literally just got a response from Alderwasley who said "his main need isn't ASD so we can't help, we don't do SEMH".

I have also just filled in the Children's Communication Checklist for school for approx the second or third time which yet again didn't tick any of the ASD boxes and only ticked the "slightly immature speech possibly due to dyspraxia and possibly due to getting attention for talking in a baby voice".

Obviously I don’t know your DS, but if his primary need is SEMH, I don’t think Alderwasley Hall is the right school.

Oh, you could well be right. Everyone just keeps saying "but he must have ASD" and then we do the screening test yet AGAIN and they don't want to assess.

More House? I don't have a child there personally but have heard good things.
My autistic DD is doing really well at a small mainstream independent but you're right that they don't tend to take children with behavioural issues.
I'm just wondering - if you think he's autistic maybe the screening tool isn't quite right and he might get further with a different organisation or different approach?

I don't actually think he is, because his non-literal language etc. is way too good - he's not a literal thinker. I do think he has a shed load of social difficulties but I think it's due to failing to read social cues (classic ADHD issue) and social anxiety (which in turn is partly due to being isolated from his peers).

But I also know that a lot of the strategies that are used in ASD are very helpful for him - warning him about things, calm responses, lots of predictability, gradual changes if necessary, not too many sensory challenges etc.

More House looks lovely! I suspect it will be more for well behaved boys with dyslexia and they say they rarely admit at Y8 or Y9 but we could try...

More House is highly unlikely to admit, IMO.

Coxlease's Ofsted says the majority of pupils do GCSEs and go on to college. It's probably much too far, but maybe there is a school in the group that is closer.

There is one of that group an hour from us (but a good hour - not completely sure it would be practical daily and it's not got boarding). We could potentially move a bit closer though if it seemed good (and remain in the same LEA, in fact).