Small(ish) nurturing secondary schools in SW London

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I'm sorry, this has been done to death but please indulge me, I just want to make sure I'm not missing anywhere. We are looking for an occasional place for an autistic girl with an EHCP whose main presenting need is SEMH. A warm nurturing mainstream environment with decent staff: student ratios would do the trick. The following are on our radar already (have ruled out some of these for various reasons) but if anyone has any other great suggestions, I'd be very grateful!

Hampton Court House
Kew House
Radnor House
Thames Christian School
Thomas's College

(The likes of Canbury, Wemm's etc are a bit too small/specialist for our purposes I think.)

Are you prepared to pay the school fees?

If not then do you have a strong grounds for convincing council that only private route is something your daughter can go with?
There are state schools here in Richmond Borough with units for kids with ASD

Yes we can pay the fees if necessary.

Hampton Court House- low stress and good SEN department

Richmond borough mainstreams are generally too big and overstretched staff-wise, she would get overlooked/forgotten about when she needed occasional but essential support (got the T-shirt).

Thanks, they’re on the list, good to hear that feedback. Just want to be sure we’re not missing anywhere…

Well if you want to consider outside those you listed then

Roehampton Gate School also in SW. Specialist school for ASD high functioning

And then there is Lavender Lodge in Mitcham but this is further towards Croydon

There is new Spring School or something callled like this in Kingston. They also are specialist in ASD

Thanks yes, I was hoping to expand my list. A friend’s daughter had an awful experience at Roehampton but will look into Spring. DD doesn’t need anywhere too specialist, just somewhere that she feels comfortable.

Hi a little further out but my daughter starts Burlington house in September. We looked at a few but I did like Burlington house mainly because it was still academic with great outcomes for GCSE but with additional support.

Thank you! I might book on to an open day. All the best for September, I hope it goes really well.

London Park School by Clapham South if that location works? Not a SEN school, mainstream but quite a few kids there with some SEN. Small size, will stay small due to site plus that’s kinda their USP.

They are so lovely and adapting for my daughter but have great gcse results with on site OT / speech and therapy. Lovely little school with 8 children per class

Thank you, it could do… do you know happy students/parents?

I know one family there with a child in y7, yes child and parents are happy with it

I think there are more comments/reviews of it on Nappyvalleynet site - you might have to hunt around as people seem to get the school name wrong a lot!

I also know happy parents at London Park - finishing Y7, 8 & I think 9

Thanks both!

Definitely Thomas’s college based on their senior leaders.

Definitely not Kew (small Sen dept) or Radnor (Kneller Hall?)

Have a look at Burlington, but it is specialist. The fees are huge but most have fees paid through EHCP. Do you need SW London? What about Limpsfield Grange?

Yes ours will be funded by local authority.

what I liked about Burlington was although “ specialist “ it was a very inbetween school where academics were fairly mainstream but taught with adaptions with overall good results.

we reallt struggled to find a school she was declined from all mainstreams for being tk Sen but refused from the Sen la schools for being too academic.

we did initially get declined from Burlington that didn’t surprise me because her ehcp is scary but the head teacher called us in to meet her and then changed her mind and they were absolutely lovely and accommodating.
irs not a huge building and probably does not have some of thr resources that some others I saw has but their actual community and staff were so kind and their science - art and technology rooms were impressive.

Very interesting, thanks 🙏

I think even Limpsfield Grange would be too specialist TBH. I think DD is more likely to find her tribe where there is a mix of NT and ND students.

(Also, I follow someone on instagram whose daughter has been massively failed by a school she hasn’t yet named but reading between the lines sounds an awful lot like LG…)

So on the basis of Thomas college if it’s the one that is apart of the Thomas day schools I would not send my Sen child their if they paid me to do so. We were in a primary school that was awful as apart of their schools and the head teacher has now moved over to the secondary schools.
it was a very good school for those who were not challenged in anyway. We ended up leaving abruptly mid way through primary school.

Not fee paying or particularly small, but I have relatives at Twickenham school who have been very happy with the SEN support there, and a friend whose son went to Turing House and had a good experience.

See with Burlington house they are not very specialist at all
their other schools Abingdon and Holmewood are more specialist. The children at Burlington tend to be academically able with
dyslexia / dyspraxia / high functioning autism / anxiety.

St james senior girls in Olympia, might be too far though

Thanks for the info. Hope things improved for you after that…