Expat looking for certain type of SEN in England

[mmiller2367]

Hi,

We are looking to come back to England from NJ, US as we feel that the options in England are better for our Son to find an intermediate step from Therapeutic School to Mainstream, which does not seem to catered for here. He is an Asperger and has ADHD. He is very smart, but suffers in large class sizes or classes where there are lower functioning kids. He is on medication which helps primarily with ADHD and has allowed him to self regulate where we need to look to establishing him in the right educational environment that will get him into University.

We are looking at Breckenbrough School in North Yorkshire and feel that fist the bill (will be visiting in 2 weeks) - only there because husbands work is there. All other special needs schools in that LA are Therapeutic and do not suit.

We are open to be elsewhere in England to get the right school. Does anyone know of similar schools that might suit?

What is the story with Grammar Schools and SEN? Are class sizes always large 23+ in State and Grammar Schools?

Lidia

I meant to add that provision varies greatly depending on where you live. I was going to move to Devon when ex dp moved there with work. After a little research we discovered that there is no school down there for DS at all. If i moved to the north west there seems to be lots of school that could cater for DS. There seems to be clusters of provision then areas of nothing.

My DD2 who has AS is academically able but anxious. She absolutely needs a school with small class sizes and the ability to meet her academic needs and she also needs to not be around other children who are likely to become physically or verbally aggressive or experience disruptive meltdowns.

There is not a school in our county that can meet those needs, therefore she attends an out of county independent school wich does exactly that.

ragged no IME there isn't provision for exclusively highly academic ASD children in small classes outside of specialist provision. And even then I suspect you would struggle tbh as ASD specialist schools might very well have children with quite a range of levels of ability as well as being on various points of the spectrum. Ds in his unit was the most academically able but the most autistic and in independent specialist he was the most academically able but probably least able in everything besides. Being academically able doesn't necessarily mean the ASD is mild much like mild ASD doesn't mean that there won't be difficulties academically.

It's all about a suitable peer group,ragged. We ruled out the local special schools largely on that basis, as well as the fact that they would need to send him into mainstream to be taught at the appropriate level anyhow, which would not only defeat the object, but make his day twice as complicated.

And DS1 is much like the OP's DS - he does not cope well with children who are younger or lower functioning because they are too unpredictable. We know this because we deal with this day in day out in his interactions with his own brother, as well as him having had difficulty dealing with a boy at his old primary who could be very impulsive and prone to emotional outbursts. He has a strong need for calm. He might be a bright 11 year old, but emotionally, he's more like a child half of his age.

And same here as for Devon - until recently, there was no provision in the county for cognitively able children with ASD. They've opened a few units in mainstream schools, now, but only a handful of places and they still have the aim of supporting children in mainstream lessons, rather than providing specialist teaching. He'd have ended up spending all his time hiding in the unit, doing worksheets and not progressing socially.

Maybe have a look at this Free School which is hoping to open in 2015.