Blossom House Euston School, Holmewood School or Abingdon House

[Cherries11]

Does anyone know much about these schools, I would love to hear your experiences.

I am looking to change my son from mainstream into a specialist school but I dont which one of these he will fit into. He is in year 5 but im looking for primary and secondary. He has Autism, verbal and social with no behavioural issues, will always follow the rules, a kind and gentle soul, loves friendship and interaction, doing average in maths, literacy is poor due to receptive language issues, doesn't understand the intend of typically developing peers so can be left vulnerable.

I went to see Blossom House in Euston, the provision looked pretty good with lots of SLT input, my only worry is there are very few children in each class and it seemed they have a much higher behavioural needs than my son, school says they follow national curriculum so I assumed it for high functioning children but came out feeling very confussed. Would love to make it work with Blossom House as its the closest one to us, but too many red flags at the moment and a half hour tour is not enough base decision on.

Going to see Holmewood next week.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated as quite desperate now.

I am interested in feedback about Blossom house Euston . My child has an offer at the school but I am not sure if they are pushed academically enough. i.e do the kids sit exams such as GSCEs ? or is it just therapies?

@Mamalet3 is your offer from Blossom House Euston?

Euston has only just started to expand and only has kids upto year 9, they will be moving up the school where they have an option of gcse, btec, functional qualifications. Have a look at their results from the motspur park site.

@Cherries11 -Will do, thank you.

Why did you say you came out of Blossom house looking confused? What were your concerns? For me, I was concerned there wasn't a lot of children in the school . I also worry about how much learning goes on and if they will push the children to achieve potential. My child came out upset during trial day as a child had some meltdown or something in class so I am a little concerned about behaviour...

@Mamalet3 My confusion was very similar to yours. I also saw some meltdown which got me worried as I thought my son might find it distressing but he didnt mention anything after the trial days. I did ask about that, she said they also have children (in seperate classrooms) who are lower functioning and cannot access the curriculum and may have sensory needs. I asked to see samples of children's work but she wouldn't show me (i understand confidentiality etc but it couldve been anonymised) there aren't any work on display to get an understanding of what level of work they do.

What was reassuring was that during the trial days I stood outside and spoke to some parents who seemed very delighted with the school. I got phone number of a parent from the same class my son will be in and had a lengthy discussion. They only had positive feedback, their DD wasnt accessing much learning due to her condition but they were very happy with school and support given.

Have you seen Abingdon House or the Moat/Burlington House at all?

Apparently they currently have 40 children and taking more (upto 80 once full) due to being in the bigger building now.

@Cherries11 No, I haven't seen the other schools. They were not viable due to distance. I understand children can have meltdowns but it's how it is managed so that other children are not negatively affected. Most schools will have a number of children with sensory needs but I hope they are not a lot at this school mainly because they are trying to increase numbers. I have heard great things from experts about this school so fingers crossed it lives up to expectations.

I need mine to access learning, that's why we moved from mainstream school as classroom language and size was just impossible to learn. I guess most children at the school will be average or borderline cognitively.

@Mamalet3 Did you ask them about the amount of learning? I managed to get a learning overview to see what they are working on but really difficult to see what level they are pitched at.

DS's Educational Psychologist is going in tomorrow so I've asked her if she can manage to get more info.

We are in the same situation, currently in mainstream year 5, although cognitively high he is behind because of the language. Other schools are too far for us as well, we are by the Angel, too far from all the suitable ones, LA ones do not have enough SLT and OT.

Hopefully it works out for both of us, let me know if you decide to go for it or find anything else.

I did ask them and they said they do a lot with the kids. In fact, I was told they dont give home work because the kids would have worked very hard at school and they do not feel it's fair to given them home work. My young one is in year 3.

Mine is also cognitively able but behind with learning due to language. Is your Ed psy going in to check and compare with Holmewood or LA school?

@Cherries11 Hiya, how did the EP visit go?

Hi @Mamalet3 , we decided to go for Blossom House after all as it would meet his needs around language disorder more than holmewood and mainstream school. She said he is more high functioning than peers at BH in terms of social skills and learning and probably won't get as much language exposure that he currently get because of the small number of children there but said it will be good for his self esteem to be with peers with similar issues and the fact that all therapies are highly integrated into the school day vs having to be singled out for support at mainstream.

BH is not a perfect match but given the high SLT and close proximity to us, we will give it a go and hope for the best. I dont want him in mainstream for secondary so better to move now, dont really have much choice, our LA special schools are very under funded and I need to name a school by January.

My son did 1 year at BH. Lovely and nurturing but didn't push enough academically. He's now in MS and will keep him so as BH put me off SS tbh. I don't think they offer many GCSEs.

@MulderitsmeX thanks for the review. Can I ask if you was at the Euston site and which year group? did your son make much progress in language/communcation and was he able to build friendship there? I think I will have the same problem as you, just wishing for the best. They seem like such a nice school, just wish they would do a bespoke curriculum for the more able pupils.

Did you go for BH in the end? How did you find it? Thank you

I would be interested to know more about BH we visited today for year 7 placement but am concerned that my son would only benefit from the speech, which is his main need. I don’t think they push the kids academically so this worries me.

Is this euston?
To clarify we did the raynes park one. I keep in touch with old mates and they dont do spelling tests at infant level for e.g. which is annoying if your child has SN but academically ok

@MulderitsmeX Yes the Euston location. I have also read on this platform by other parents that they don’t do any writing or reading which is very odd for a supposed mainstream style, specialist School.