Boarding schools - asd/adhd/pda - age 15

[winepleasenotwhine]

We are British but living in Europe in a country with not brilliant SEN care (imo). My son goes to a normal school and right now has an amazing (2:1) helper who has worked miracles. This is after numerous years of him being failed, and I am beyond thankful for her.

Next year we won't have her and while I'm happy with academic results, he needs more help with social skills etc and his siblings could do with a bit of being able to be themselves and not constantly being crushed by big brother's behaviour. We think the routine of a boarding school and the clear rules would really benefit him. I'm on the learning curve still but I'm imagining him being home with us every holiday and maybe monthly? Local family still in the UK are unable to deal with him other than on an emergency basis.

Are there boarding schools like this in the UK?

Are you looking at a mainstream school or special school?

Many mainstream independent schools aren’t supportive of SEN and when they are they charge extra so you would need a frank conversation with the school beforehand. If DS has challenging behaviour many won’t admit.

Some special schools do, but not all of them allow parents to self fund and even when they do the fees are very high.

While he could possibly go mainstream, I don't think a mainstream school is likely to offer the social skills type education that he could do with support in. I'd rather find a school with Sen focus

You can search for schools here.

My boy is at a private pre school and they basically turned round and said they can't "support him" and if we kept him there long term they would bill us for all 121 support. They said he would need 121 support daily and it would cost us thousands more. They obviously said lots of nice things about DS and how special he is and how inclusive they are. Load of old bullshit.

I suspect that is what would happen at a mainstream school and I don't think he'd necessarily get the behavioural feedback he needs. I saw a school which I thought would be great but it's only authority funded and we are overseas

Slindon www.slindoncollege.co.uk/learningsupport
More House www.morehouseschool.co.uk
Appleford www.applefordschool.org
look at aspirin schools very expensive www.aspriscs.co.uk/international/

More House are highly unlikely to admit a pupil with PDA with the needs OP describes, and Appleford is primarily a SpLD school and unlikely to be suitable.

I've heard great thi HG a about more house but agree it's probably not right for my son, unfortunately. I've not got my glasses on at the moment to see properly but will investigate the other schools tomorrow, thanks for the suggestions!

Hello there, I would be keen to see what have you decided. We are also in Europe, and thinking of sending our 13 year old boy to boarding, I was looking at More. He is a smart boy, doing ok at the school but certainly could be better, and he needs help with his discipline, confidence, organisational skills and we desperately need to change his not so good circle which is not healthy for him at all. To be honest, we need for him to get better and also need a little break. I’m desperate

We decided to keep him where we are for the moment; mainly because I don't want him being the only kid stuck there on exeat weekends etc, but also because I haven't found a school that looks great for him the isn't a local council referral.