Uni from Special School

[BarnacledBoobs]

Does anyone have a child who attended a special school and made it to uni? What do they do now? Does anyone have a child currently at a special school who is aiming at uni? I just want to know if it happens. My DS is still little, is autistic and has various specific learning difficulties but he is in a special school. I don’t know if uni would necessarily be the right path for him even if he did get the grades, but it’d be interesting to hear other people’s stories.

Some DC in SS go on to university. The EHCP ceases but support is available through Disabled Students’ Allowance. Some also receive support from social care.

ds1 is an example of this. He spent from mid-way year 5 to year 11 in special schools. Transferred back to mainstream for sixth form college and then onto university (now in his third year of a Physics degree). He has an ASC and had social, emotional, behavioural difficulties in primary. The key was finding a school that could meet both behavioural AND academic needs which was not easy - he ended up in a specialist, independent school for secondary because local, special provision would have given him at most 3 GCSEs which would not be sufficient to get into uni and local mainstream schools were unwilling to offer him a placement on behavioural grounds. A lot of special schools focus on life skills which is great but for ds1 he was academically capable when he was in a supportive environment so we wanted to make sure he had the opportunity to do that as well.

How many GCSEs did he get to do? Did he do them all in the same sitting? What does he want to do after uni? How’s he coping with uni and how did he cope with sixth form after coming form a very quiet, supportive environment.

DS is in a specialist independent. Although they do offer various GCSEs I’m not sure it’s going to be enough of the right ones for A levels to be viable.

I think he got 8 in total. What was key for him I think was doing 2 in year 10 (Maths and English Lit) which got rid a lot of his anxiety about the exams. He certainly approached the ones in year 11 with much less stress. He was very lucky and had some really good and patient teachers especially in his final year. We did have to be a bit pushy at times to make sure he was getting the opportunity to do the GCSEs he wanted. You don't need 8 though to get to university - his db has only 5 (he took a very scenic route through education & did both GCSES and A levels with the help of home tutors) but is also now in his first year at university.

The start of sixth form was a bit tricky as it was a bit overwhelming for him. Once we explained that they needed to be a bit more proactive in giving him support rather than expecting him to be able to ask for it then things improved (little things mainly like telling him where stuff was and not stressing him out by telling him the workload was enormous). He deliberately chose one that was attached to a further education college rather than a school so everybody was new and none of the other pupils knew his history. Probably Covid helped as well as there were reduced numbers in college for a lot of the time too.

For university we encouraged him to choose one close to home so he could come home easily for a break if he needed to which he used in the first year but not so much later on. He managed to find a couple of societies to join and that has enabled him to make a few friends and appears to be enjoying the course. Not sure what he is going to do next. He is doing a 4 year course so has another year to think about. I fully expect him though to be able to work.

I work in an outreach team and we support disadvantaged students into our uni. Plenty of them come from special schools, and we have flexibility with our entry requirements that takes in into account. I’ve previously worked in a different uni outreach team where my role was to support SEND learners (among other groups) through the right GCSE and post 16 choices to get into uni.

If uni is what he wants he’ll be able to get there, even if it’s a more roundabout way than traditionally. Please don’t worry.

Years ago, I worked at a integrated resource in a mainstream school but run by a specialist ASD specific secondary school.

There was this one girl who had only attended a SEN primary school and spent years 7 and 8 in a SEN secondary. Her school then created this resource and she was able to access mainstream lessons with support and she absolutely smashed it. Got tonnes of 8's and 9's in her GCSE's. Went on to study A-Levels at college and last I heard she had got a 2-1 in a science related topic at her local university.

I always thought it was incredible that she never really had the opportunity to be taught higher level stuff until she was in year 9 but still managed to do better than the vast majority of her peers who had attended mainstream settings all their lives.