Hi
Long reply alert!
My child didn't want to go back to their school, they said that whilst they would really miss their friends they preferred the pace of teaching at Fairley and the small class sizes.
In fact my kid brought some work home and I was totes emotional because I had never seen them write so much and use such varied vocabulary. Even those 3 days made a difference!
Our problem is that we can't afford the fees (which are not high given the staff teacher ratio and location and Blossom House charges twice that).
We are at secondary transfer stage (yr 7 next year) and we are trying to get our LA to name Fairley as our preferred school on my kids EHCP, however, it's very difficult because once the LA name it, they have to fund it plus transport (apparently transport is 40K per year!!!).
My kid has dyslexia, gross and fine motor delay, sensory processing problems and speech and language problems, but loves learning and is a wonderful semi stroppy tween like most year 6 kids. I have no experience of dyslexia as no one I know has a kid that has to work at the pace my kid does have to just to hover at mid to bottom of the class. Had I known about FH sooner I probably would have tried to get them in earlier (Y3/4) with a view to moving them to a local school once they were ready.
I think that the teaching they (FH) provide catches kids up. Downs sides are, it's in central London and because a lot of children travel they may not form the friendships like one does at a local school, sleep overs, parties etc. Also there's less of an emphasis on competitive sport - this suits kids with fine and gross motor delay (PE is a humiliating experience for my kid) who just need to enjoy and recognise the value of exercise.
Some LA primary's around the country have ARP's for kids with dyslexia (there's none in my borough). Also we use IDL, laptop at school, electronic dictionary at school (a massive battle to get these but once in place the teachers were amazed by our kids progress and the speed they could write). We have a great SEN tutor and we also use the Bond books (like SATS stuff) to repeat the learning and eventually my kid is able to retain it. But it's tiring as we both work F/T and long hours and to be Mom, Dad and teacher is hard work (as we know from the pandemic).
All the best with your search!