Moving to Berkshire with ASD son

[McMenaminMum]

Hello there,
Thank you for reading my post. My DH has is moving job from Dublin to Maidenhead in July 2011. Our son has high functioning ASD. In the mainstream school in Dublin he has a full time SNA and 10 hours one on one a week.
Would any have any information on how we apply to schools in Berkshire?
Thanks for your help any info is appreciated.
Kind regards,
Maria

Maria

I would also post your question on the Special Needs: Children part of this website (its in the Special Needs section) as that gets more traffic than this particular forum.

Do you have a particular area of Berkshire in mind?.

You will need to apply to the Local Education Authority (LEA) in question for a Statement. This is a legally binding document that outlines support (it is possible to receive one to one with a Statement).

Visit and speak to as many schools as possible in advance; if they are unable to accept your son then you can use that as evidence as well to the LEA. Gather as much evidence as you can to support your statement application.

Have a look at IPSEA's website as well; this will tell you how the statementing process operates in the UK. You may also want to read the SEN;COP (Special Educational Needs Code of Practice) - think this is online.

Thank you for your helpful advice.
I shall contact the LEA and see what reports they need for the statement.

We are going to be renting a house near to Maidenhead where DH is working. I have heard that your Post Code is important in the UK so I wanted to investigate the schools before deciding where we might live. I have found a Catholic school in Windor that looks good and I am going to contact them this week.

Thanks again,

Berkshire is no longer a local authority, it's been split into 6 -Windsor & Maidenhead, Bracknell Forest, Slough, West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham.

How old is your DS-are you looking for Primary or Secondary schools? In fact, although Windsor and Maidenhead schools are run by the same authority, they actually have different systems - Maidenhead has the more usual Primary (4-11) & Secondary (11+), while Windsor has First (4-9), Middle(9-13) & Upper (13+)

The borough's website admissions page is here and will tell you about the admissions criteria for each school.

There are good and bad schools in Maidenhead. Some of the nicest areas to live are in catchment for the worst state schools hence the reason some go private.

I can recommend Ridgeway (boys prep) that does well with boys with SN (albeit I think it is limited to high functioning ASD rather than anything requiring more assistance). Of course extra support has to be paid for but the SN provision is excellent (ds has visual sequential memory problems and has extra help).

State schools in Maidenhead either go 4-11 or 4-7 and 7-11 depending on which one you choose. If you are at a 4-7 school there is no guarantee you will get into the linked 7-11 school which has caused problems in the past.

If you are looking for Catholic primaries then the two best ones in Maidenhead are St Mary's and St Edmund Campion . I have friends with children at St Mary's and they are very happy with the school.