Moor house or Blossom house

[Wobblypig]

Hi

We need to put one of these down as our preference at tribunal. DD has been accepted by both and loves both . Moor house would be a long commute but may be worth it as more specific for DLD. Does anyone have any experience of these schools? What qualifications could be available at 16? Thanks

Hi! I'm in the similar situation, we get an initial ok but still need to do the in school assessment next school year (late 2021), my DS is in year 5.

I'm keen to know about both as well, will stay in tune for this discussion x
I guess depending what you decided whether you'd like a speech focused or more on other aspect. my son has (higher functioning) autism so I'm leaning towards Blossom House.

my another option is Abingdon house / moat school - but these 2 are on top.

Sorry I'm not much help here but very keen to know about them too

Hi

Have you looked at Canbury house? My daughters main issues are language- written more than spoken. She really struggles with creating writing and formulating sentences. Blossom house is much easier to get to for us but I suspect Moor house may be more specific to her needs.

My son has attended Blossom for a year. He is in year 6. He has severe dyslexia, dyscalculia, DLD and ADHD but he is really able, social and sporty. You would never know there is anything going on unless you are having an extensive conversation with him or ask him to write or read. I found Blossom to cater more to those who need a lot of input - they seem to go on a very slow pace. They don't seem do much writing as my son has developed a terrible handwriting and is even holding the pen like young child again, which he never did before. He has regressed tremendously with reading, writing and even maths since he started. His speech is more fluent but that is about it. We are now moving him to Moor House as his main issue is DLD. Blossom has a lot of children with an array of difficulties, some quite severe and as a result they are very soft. They don't push the children much which has meant that my son now thinks he is unable to to anything by himself. I'm sorry to sound negative, but this is our experience. Once he has started Moor House I can give an account of what it is like there. I am hoping for the best and that we finally got the right school for him. All the best everyone. It's really hard to find the right school for your child, especially if they have complex needs. xx

Hi @hotmamajama1 and @mrsavhl I was wondering if you had any luck choosing your schools. I was really excited about Blossom House but my son is doing trial day there this week and said he did no writing and only counting in 7s in maths which is too low for his abilities. Did anyone go with Blossom House?

Going to blossom house but I am anxious around the academic side of things. There needs to be a balance of therapy and academics. My little one is also sharp and chatty on the surface, struggles with reading and writing and has a language disorder.

Ive visited them twice, they are not amazingly academic heavy but said will differentiate the teaching for more able pupils, but even then it will be quite limited I think. I will have to decide something this month so will probably go there for the therapies, fill in the gaps in his learning but will keep an eye on the academic pace and move later on if necessary.

DS has an offer from Holmewood too which is more academic and ticks all the boxes but unfortunately they only have one SLT on each site which is not enough for his language disorder imo.

I'm doing the same. The therapies are important early on, academics can come later. Foundation needs to be set right. I have a friend whose child is at Holmewood, they are more academic but lack things on the therapy side.

I guess it's about deciding what's more important. Her son is going to upper school next year, They do teach the national curriculum at Holmewood but she always has an issue with them as they are not delivering the therapies agreed in the EHCP.

I think for Blossom house Euston, it's tricky to have a real feel of what secondary is like and destinations in terms of higher education as they are just up to year 9. I will support at home with tutoring and also be clear with school in terms of expectations around learning.

Nowhere is perfect but we just have to try. I suspect the language problems will resolve in a few years and we might need to move to a more academic specialist school .

@hotmamajama1 which Blossom House did your child attend?

You have years to get qualifications with funding up to 25 for those with needs.
my daughter will be doing some GCSEs and maybe a BTEC or foundation levels at Blossom House.

I would concentrate on getting somewhere we’re they are happy ; have a social group ; self-esteem and can go at a pace that takes the pressure off. GCSEs don’t always correspond with later achievements or happiness.
Remember you may think that only reading or jaguars or writing is poor but you need all those skills for any gcse.
I know my daughter is unlikely to go to university but that is ok. We will help her find a path that us right for her.

For balance my son is in a very good private school on an academic scholarship so I know why people are interested in academics but you can’t force it and sometimes you need them to find their level.

Thanks for this. We're also hoping to send our son to Blossom House and have taken the decision based on therapies because my son is fed up of being the only child with SaLT/OT etc in his school and is desperate for friends. If we feel the academics are lacking, we'll have to supplement at home.

We have a similar situation at BH our child is in upper school but his handwriting & reading is so much worse than 3 years ago when he was in a state primary with a LTA. Although less happy and perhaps learning less at the time the skills he needs such as writing and reading were on track. He is happy at BH so don't want to rock the boat but We are now worried he won't be able to get qualifications although he's academically able. He's quite defiant so hard to assess. Others have mentioned they supplement with academics- how do you do that? Can you advise please on a SEN tutor? Or what it is you do? We work full time & have other children and we find it hard to get him to focus on things like Bond books etc thank you