Hi all,
This is a WWYD post in relation to a dilemma that I have regarding schools. Apologies that it’s such a long post, I didn’t want to leave out any details.
DD (7, year 2) has been hardly in school / on a drastically reduced timetable for a whole year now. She has neurodiverse traits but without an ASD diagnosis as there is also underlying trauma in relation to emotional abuse from her father (my ex) who she now only sees in a supervised basis whilst we are going through court proceedings.
After a long battle she finally has an EHCP with an aged specialist SEMH provision.
Two of the schools that were consulted with have offered a space from September and this is the dilemma.
School 1 state maintained SEMH, had a disastrous OFSTED a few years ago and has since been taken over by a new academy and had a new headteacher moved from one of the other academy schools. The academy have several other well regarded specialist school in the county. When I visited I was very impressed by the head teacher and the school. I can see how, compared to her current mainstream school, this school would be a massive improvement for her. Her initial class would be around 6 children and mainly play based learning to get her used to being back in a classroom. They have sensory rooms and what I feel is an attitude towards the classroom that is 100% what she needs. The key missing component however is bespoke therapeutic support. DDs EHCP has an item in relation to her being provided with “regular therapeutic support”. When asked how the school would meet this the head has told me this will be met by there general offer as the whole school is therapeutic, with regular emotional check ins and a PHSE being a huge part of the curriculum. They do not deliver anything individually for each child, such as play therapy, and would not consider this for DD (despite what is written on her plan ) as they feel the children benefit more from remaining alongside her peers inside the classroom.
School 2 is an independent SEMH with a focus on therapeutic intervention. They have in onsite clinical team (clinical psychologist, ed physch, play therapist) who work alongside teaching staff to inform the plan for each child. They also have everything that school 1 have.
LA of course have named school 1 due to cost. If I accept this, DD will begin transition plan soon, she’ll visit at some point in the next few weeks, and then have a transition day in July to start in September. If I want to go to tribunal for school 2 then, based on current wait times in my LA, it will likely be an additional year out of education.
I am torn, on one hand, I know that school 2 will be better in the long run, due the additional offer in relation to the therapeutic support. However, I can see how even a sooner move and being able to reintegrate back into education from September, is likely to make a massive difference to DDs quality of life. Her current school have continuously refused to provide her with anything above 1 hour per day in school due to a lack of funding. Even now with an EHCP for 30 hours, they are claiming that they will only pay for her to be in an alternative provision each day if the LA provide additional funding, which I know will not be a quick process!
For anybody that has made it this far… WWYD? Or if you’ve been in a similar position what did you do and how did it work out in the long run?