Private v State

[TravelBunnie]

Thoughts on London based schools for 8 year old with high functioning autism . He hates his current private school due to competitions and socially it’s not great as he has major social issues. Just received offer for great outstanding state school .

You have to look at the individual schools. Can't really lump "all private" vs "all state" together.
Where I work, the private schools are historically very poor at meeting SEN/D needs, but I wouldn't jump from those 8 or 10 schools to every private school across the country.

Could you meet the SENCO at state school? and see how clued up they are to SEN.

DS1 started in private school yesterday. I've been honest about DS SEN (Dyspraxia, APD, SPD, SALT) from the start and I've met SENCO twice in Spring, to prepare for this term. We're in Devon and the school we chose has a good rep for SEN. Fingers crossed.

I have an 8 yo HF boy in private. He loves it and is so happy to go everyday. Yes, he has had more difficulties than the average child there but the small classes and school make him feel protected and able to cope. School have been really good at taking on my feedback. So, depends entirely on school.

@artichaut27 wishing your dc all the best in new school. We chatted about ed psych reports in another thread.

Thanks a lot Milomonster. I'm glad your DS has found a good match at school too.

DS has been having a few meltdowns yesterday. The school lost him the first day... he does tend to get lost and wander around. And he's been tripping over a lot at Games (PE has always been a tough time for him with DCD). It breaks my heart but he's a very resilient boy, the environment is very nurturing at school, so I trust that he'll get there.

I was listening to this podcast about Back to School for 'differently wired' kids. It's a helpful interview with a person fro Understood.org: www.tiltparenting.com/2019/08/13/episode-170-back-to-school-with-understoods-amanda-morin/

There are good ideas about modelling self-advocacy.