Has anyone chosen private/alternative school for dyspraxic child, how has it helped?

[HonoriaGlossop]

or any child with a specific learning difficulty?

I would really find it helpful to know if anyone has moved their child from mainstream to private, and why, and what sort of difference there has been.

My ds has dyspraxia and a few things I'm seeing him struggle with in his big class of 30 are really, really getting to upset and worry me. Don't know if I can fix this by moving him to a school where the classes are much much smaller, but I do wonder.....

Browns, no. I think Ruth Kelly's is a mega expensive one in Bucks or Wilts, it's west of London for sure.

Browns School

Ruth Kelly's is Bruern Abbey I think - a boarding school.

Of course, Marina made the point I meant to - which is that non-selective private is where I'd look first.

My ds is 10 and has dyspraxia ,dyslexia ,dysgraphia any othre dys you can think of except dyslexia!!He was at a relatively small very caring independent until this summer and i have them to thank for him being so happy and to a large extent unaware that some of his problems are in fact a "problem"!The ethos sounds very like mbs and we were very happy,however by this time last year it was becomming obvious that the gap as widening again between him and his peers ,apparently this often happens in year 4 and 5 as they are expected to start to build on the basic skills and there is less time to focus on these and together with the school we started to think about other options.

He moved this Septmeber to a fantasic prep school which is a Specialist school for dyslexics dyspraxics and as the head puts it the occiasional fragile child.The best thing is that he has a much bigger peer group and they are all hugely supportive of each other .Also the big difference is the lack of withdrawal teaching,in mainstream in spite of how good the support was he would have to go out for one to one then when they come back they have missed something or his maths support would be at a differnt time from the rest of the class maths and so he would be baffled by some of their maths however carefully the SENCO and class teacher worked together.At his new school he is in a class of 6 for maths and english on ability based assessment (set 1t for english...he was so proud!),then they put two classess together for the rest of the subjects ,he also gets 1:2 tutorial once a day for an hour which is tailored closely to his needs.In addition they do a lot of games and activities chosen in many cases to help them with specific skills eg karate,swimming ,gardening,walking etc.

we found good information on the good schools guide but also the crested website which lists specialist schools and those with specialist units etc.Also would recommend visiting schools as in my experience the Head has huge amounts of useful information that you can tap into

My DS2 moved to a private school in Y3 (for reasons other than his problems). They had an SEN dept but it was extra, and really geared up for dyslexia, which he doesn't have.

The plus side was that all the kids sat in rows facing the teacher, which really helped him. At his state primary they all had different tables and moved around a lot, which he found horribly distracting. There was a higher expectation from the teachers, so his handwriting and everything improved.

The downside was that as he reached the top of the school the differences between him and the other boys really became apparent. Science was delivered lecture style. He was supposed to "make notes" but just couldn't manage. He was the only boy in the class not invited to his best friend's party- in a small class you can invite everyone.. He had problems with sport because the others "weren't playing properly".

All our problems started with the retirement of the Head and the appointment of a much younger man with children at the school, so perhaps things would have carried on OK otherwise?

I think it comes down to the individual school rather than particularly private.

thanks for that detailed post floaty; that's so helpful, and I'm glad your ds is somewhere so perfect for him! I will look on the websites you mention. I've been beavering away and looking locally and have found one small, non selective private school not too far away which sounds very geared up to SEN, and also has classes of ten (!) rather than the 30 ds currently has; plus they teach some subjects seperately to boys and girls which I think is a great idea, though the school is co-ed. Sounds pretty good and I am visiting tomorrow

Now we just have to actually afford it, somehow

Evenhope, that was my thought exactly, that it would come down to the individual school...but the class sizes thing seems so important, i just imagine that a class size of ten kids couldn't fail to be better than his current situation.....but I suppose there could be downsides to every situation!

And how awful that your ds wasn't invited to the party; that's so nasty, shame that the parents allowed that to happen and on your ds' behalf....