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.)

Thanks, have heard good things about both. Not at all averse to state if I can be confident she won’t be lost but the first attempt didn’t work out well.

Interesting thanks! Have admired their uniform in the school outfitters in the past 😀

In fact this is very helpful as I think the boys’ school were great with an acquaintance’s son in a similar position but I didn’t join the dots that this was the sister school. It probably is too far though tbh.

100 percent we ended up in a one form entry state school. She went from not not being at all where her peers were and years behind to now being as expected with great sats scores. The head teacher was an absolute nightmare with children who were not the “ norm “ he has now moved over to the Thomas secondary this end I think despite the amount of complaints to the governors about him.

Burlington is definitely specialist! Sorry but it is. The majority have EHCPs, they have OT SALT etc employed by the school. Small classes. Just because they do ok academically doesn’t mean it’s not specialist. Yes Abingdon is more for children with low academics.

What I meant was they are fairly high functioning students and they are specialist I did say this but are a very good in between school with yes OT and SLT but are very high functioning students. It’s a great place for those children who in the la schools are not quite mainstream but not “ severe “ enough for Sen schools.

No sure of your exact location but others for the mix
Ewell Castle
The Hall Wimbledon
More House Kensington
St Benedicts Ealing.

No sure of your exact location but others for the mix
Ewell Castle
The Hall Wimbledon
More House Kensington
St Benedicts Ealing.

No sure of your exact location but others for the mix
Ewell Castle
The Hall Wimbledon
More House Kensington
St Benedicts Ealing.

Sorry multiple posts error

Just to echo the positive feedback on Turing House. Ds has recently finished there. He arrived (with EHCP for ASD) following a pretty challenging time at primary, and Turing has been the making of him

As well as those already mentioned, if it is doable travel wise, look at Kingswood House.

If OP thinks Canbury, which is technically a mainstream, albeit not a typical mainstream, is too specialist, Burlington House is not going to work for her/DD. Limpsfield Grange, Roehampton Gate, Lavender Lodge or Spring School wouldn’t work either.

BTW OP, are you sure SEMH is the primary need? Or, as is often the case for autistic DC, are SEMH needs secondary to ASD?

Thank you, I’ll look into them 🙏

That’s great to know, thank you. So pleased they’ve done well by your son. Definitely on my radar.

I’d never heard of Kingswood House but it looks lovely. It is too far away though unfortunately.

Obviously DD has some SALT and sensory issues to have got her diagnosis but the thing that stops her coping in school is that when she is worrying about something, it becomes all-consuming and she can feel trapped. This led to EBSA and she moved to an online school for a year. She is coping much better now and is ready for in-person school (following hard work with an amazing therapist) but needs the right environment - a school with great pastoral care where she won’t fall off the radar until it’s too late. I don’t want to minimise the ASD and how much she might be dealing with under the surface but from experience she ‘just’ needs a good mainstream.

I’d forgotten about these. I’d agree with all except Benny’s.

Im pretty sure Ewell has transport.

further out… but Seaford?

But private have also problems. All is driven by money.

Definitely look at More House School in Knightsbridge. It is a very nurturing girls school. Lots of pupils get the District Line in from SW London.

I can't find a Seaford near SW London, do you mean the one in Petworth? We are Richmond borough and keen for her to go somewhere fairly close to home so she can have local friends and be relatively self-sufficient.

Thank you, will look into it. (How big are they on the Catholic stuff?)

Minimal Catholic

I've just seen this, if not to late to add some advise, avoid Hampton court house!. They haven't got a clue about sen. - it will make your toes curl!

Thank you, have heard similar from others.

No probs!.. the people at Hch are not nice at all, sen and non Sen- the education is practically non existent-the school is a joke..more like daycare, the teachers change constantly. We only stayed a year as its such a mess. where there is no control over some of the kids that def. need it. told my ds is performing below the national average! By new school .- he was top of his class before joining Hch.. Sen issues not addressed at all!. Now trying to resettle- they said the education would be Tailored to our needs- joke!.. We moved to the area, thats why we chose HCH, but as there are so many good state schools, and we just had to pull our ds from hch, we went to local boys state. Actually the new school, local boys state school, is so far, a breath of fresh air.. they treat my ds so kindly. I'm on the look out after hch, but everyone seems happy to be there. So I know you mention that the local schools are over subscribed, we are finding that the Sen is excellent in our local state school, and they really do have some fab teachers. They know what they are doing. Some of the other schools mentioned sound really interesting, am finding it useful info too.. truly hope you find what your looking for -

Did someone say Hampton court house was stress free and good with SEN?. That’s a joke, they really haven’t got a clue about SEN.. and around - sear well clear in any case..