EHCNA at independent school

[JustJadeEagle]

My son is yr5 and diagnosed dyslexic. He is working approx 3 to 4 years behind in literacy, reading is improving and is on track in other subjects. He’s at an independent prep and we are considering an EHCNA - the school are doing a lot to support with assistive tech and some small group intervention, but have said he needs more specialist support to close the gap. He ideally needs some specialist dyslexia tuition and access to a 1;1 in core subjects.

He has a v difficult year last year as didn’t cope with a transition to a new school and relocation, thus resulted in a lot of anxiety and school refusal. However he is now settled in a new school, thriving in the environment as it’s super sporty which is his strength and max 20 in a class.

We are concerned that if he’s granted an EHCP he will need to move schools again and this would be detrimental to his mental health. Has anyone been in a similar situation or have any advice. We don’t expect the LA to pay his fees. We will be doing a parent application as he’s only been at the school for half a term. They are supportive.

Independent schools can be named in EHCPs and the fees and special educational provision funded. You would need the school to agree to being named. You would need to show any school(s) proposed by the LA can’t meet needs &/or it isn’t unreasonable public expenditure.

Where that threshold can’t be met, or where LAs claim it can’t be met and parents don’t appeal, some LAs will sometimes come to an arrangement whereby parents pay the fees and the LA will fund the special educational provision in F of the EHCP. However, LAs don’t have to and such arrangements are less common than they once were. Some will say you are making your own suitable arrangements and thereby relieving them of their duty.

Great the school is supportive - but do they feel if they got the additional cash / person would they be able to meet the needs of your child? or they implying another school would be best.

Is this school a mainstream independent one?
is it a through school? 11 plus or not as they will want the destination list.
Is it high in demand school / full or low numbers and needing the cash.
Some independents will support sen some will want to off roll if you can’t keep up / flex enough as quite frankly some schools don’t want to support sen.
It will depend on the head - I’d speak directly to the head.
3/4 yrs behind in an independent (if mainstream) is massive (even one year they can be twitchy about). They can just off role at any minute and that is acceptable even if you get the school named on an EHCP.

Id be weary at such a huge difference and what are the motives of the school. Are they going to go bust soon ?!?!? State I’d say it would be fine but an independent id be wondering why they took a child 3/4 years difference from the other children as it will be hard to keep up in lessons.

I’d be checking out the other options within the area as a backup.

Good luck

Is this school a mainstream independent one?

@needtohotobed I know you mean an independent school that isn’t a special school, but since OP is going to pursue an EHCP and wishes for DS to remain in an independent school it is important to point out that there actually isn’t any such thing as an independent mainstream. In law, mainstream schools are defined as maintained schools or academy schools that are not special schools. So the definition doesn’t cover what are often called independent mainstream, which are technically registered as ‘other independent school’ (as opposed to ‘other independent special school’ for independent special schools). This is set out in section 83 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

The school is doing fine and is oversubscribed in many years. It’s non selective and goes through to 18. Whilst they’re supportive at the moment, I guess it will come down to what needs and support are identified. The challenge is after an awful year he’s really settled well into this new school and has only been there since Sept. I will look at other local schools, but not sure I’ll find anything with the same sort of environment in terms of amount of sport - 2 hours a day and outdoor education, which really suits him.

Thank you, we don’t have an issue paying the fees, it’s more whether the LA would provide funding for whatever the identified extra support needed is. Likely to be 1:1 TA for core subjects, some specialist dyslexia tuition and the assistive tech.

The LA will only pay the fees if they agree that none of the state schools will meet needs (which is unlikely, but not impossible, for dyslexia). But yes it’s possible that you pay the fees and the LA funds the cost of the extra support…

However the problem with that is that the independent school will no doubt want Section F funded in its entirety e.g. if your child’s support in section F will come to say 20k a year, the independent school will likely only agree they can meet need if the costs are fully covered. Whereas, the LA can chuck a kid into the local state mainstream, tell the school they have to fund the first 6k out of the “notional SEN budget” (which doesn’t really exist in the way they pretend) and then say they’ll top them up another 4 or 5k (if they’re lucky!) and just tell them to get on with it.

Your best bet will be try to evidence that your child needs the smaller class sizes etc and anything else that the independent school provides that the state sector cannot. Unfortunately if that’s seen as a preference and not an actual need you’re probably going to struggle. It might be worth looking into specialist dyslexia schools too, if you haven’t already.

Often, a lot comes down to which LA you’re under as none are great but some are much poorer than others. Also it’s worth bearing in mind that your child could lose his place as a result of this if the independent school ultimately says they can’t meet need - but of course there’s a risk of them moving him on eventually regardless, if he’s this far behind.

Thank you that is helpful. I am concerned the school will say they can’t support him if we get the EHCP awarded, which will be a shame when he’s settled so well. It is likely they will recommend small class size given his experiences of last year.

Ultimately he will need more specific support for secondary as he’s more than capable of achieving good GCSE grades and now is the time to apply. There aren’t any specialist dyslexic schools within our county and the closest is about 90 mins drive away so we haven’t really considered those, he would definitely meet the criteria given how severe his dyslexia is.

If the school would be unsupportive with an EHCP, they are likely to manage DS out anyway even if he doesn’t have an EHCP.

The LA may not agree to an arrangement whereby you pay the fees and they fund the special educational provision, I’m afraid.

Unfortunately, even if DS requires small (which would need to be defined because ‘small’ is vague and your definition of small will not be the same as the LA’s definition) and there is (at that point in time, not necessarily now) evidence of that, the LA may still not include it in the EHCP and may force you to appeal.

Thank you. The school is very supportive and as it’s a through school would be ideal for him to remain there given the trauma of previous 12 months. I guess regardless of whether we are successful with the EHCP, the school may decide to off roll him at some point so we need to look for options.

You will need to speak the head. They will know their intentions and whether they are rolling with until senior school to claw in the £25k or what ever you pay as a bum on the seat (which is naughty but true business style) as they will likely know which kids they won’t be taking onto senior school. You need to find out what they are planning with your child if it’s a easy transition to senior (no 11 plus etc) as they do say no to a few even if you are supposed to be a automatic place from being in the prep.

You can ask the senco how many children do they support with dyslexic / EHCP. Or you can look it up on the isp of the school report but could be out of date depending when the last visit.

Which county you at? Some independents are more supportive for Sen. However, the one we was at multiple kids were off rolled due to dyslexia which is a huge shame and told to find another school.

You defo need to be looking at all the different schools and doing your homework now. This can be your evidence. Equally if you find a new school which is more suitable to meet the needs (some will argue you don’t need to) but you are going to need evidence. You can get it for free professional people but if lower quality than the private people. As you could and probably end up in a tribunal (however equally if this current school will support the child you are going to need strong evidence for the LA to pay out but each professional is roughly at least £2k - £4k per report / assessment down south)

Equally if you stay at the current school you could fund the LSA yourself if the LA isn’t prepared to but then that’s ££££ on top of fees. Plus prob end up being full time as you might only need the support in lesson 1,4,6,7 etc but no one can dip in and out like that and it will change each day.

With strong evidence you could get everything paid for with an EHCP but it will be a tribunal and stress.

Id try and book a 1 to 1 with the head and find out their intentions - don’t waste time or your cash second guessing. (Your child will have had numerous tests in this school and know where he sits within the group). Sencos are not as good / we have had a shocking one with no idea - they are under the head and act as nodding dogs to the head - go in straight to the head and ask all the questions.

Good luck but there are some mainstream independents that are more inclusive to dyslexia than others and heads which are inclusive and flexible with sen (if they understand it / want to)

Also, your child could be typing now which might be easier - have you got that approved etc.

Good luck

Thank you that’s a really helpful response. He is typing, but has only started in all lessons he’s able to this year. My eldest is also dyslexic and coping perfectly fine at the senior school as he’s much more independent and his dyslexia is not as severe.

The school is automatic entry to senior, but as you say that’s not to say they won’t say can’t meet need at some point. There are 2 Heads with quite different approaches to SEN and a large number of dyslexic pupils at the school already.

i guess we need to see if we can get an EHCP in the first place, which as we know is difficult enough and what the recommendations are for provision. I shall speak to the Head next week, as he’s only been there a few weeks they haven’t done much testing etc at the moment but I’m sure they will have a view.

you are going to need evidence. You can get it for free professional people but if lower quality than the private people.

Possible andeveryone will have different experience but in our case, we got some private assessments but they were vague and rubbish, nothing specified and quantified and actually didn't show my child's difficulties and needs very well. It clearly was a cut and paste job that left the previous child's name in it. I didn't bother sending those private reports to the LA and lucky I didn't as the LA might have saved themselves money and not commissioned their own experts. The reports that came back for free via the LA (from NHS OT, CAMHS, Educational Psychologist and previous school) were much more specific about difficulties and needs and made properly quantified and specific requests regarding provision needed that fully aligned with my child's and my own requests. Just because the LA commissions the reports, educational psychologists and NHS and CAMHS therapists are not necessarily biased. We found they worked really hard to get my child the help they needed and weren't concerned with saving the LA money. LA's can of course and regulary do ignore or water down their own EPs and other commissioned evidence. But LA commissioned/requested reports can still form strong evidence at tribunal.

Does the school have any TAs already? When my child was at an independent prep school, they had 1 teacher and 1 TA in each class and my son often had 1:1 as part of his normal fees or was part of a small group that got the TA or teacher to themselves. He needed scribing in all lessons due to dyspraxia, a personal P.E. program, a personal program while others were at games (they did ELSA, OT and typing 1:1) and help with emotional regulation due to anxiety/OCD/autism and focus due to ADHD. We didn't pay extra for any of this. Independent schools still must prove SEND provision and inclusion to ISI. My son's school offered amazing SEND support (it's luckily not true that all successful and in-demand independent schools offrole and ignore SEND). but still wasn't enough for my child to cope at school, but that at least gave us evidence that small classes, small groups and even 1:1 support in any school setting is not enough/the right kind of support as school itself is the wrong setting.
The LA might argue that funding a full TA is not a justifiable expense compared to a 'top up' funding at state school (although they then would also have to fund the standard place costs as you currently save the LA a lot of money). But if there are already TAs as standard at your current school, a 'top up' fee in a similar region to a state top up might be more agreeable to LA/tribunal judge and could offer just that little extra bit of support. Typing and assistive text (text to speech and speech to write) might make a huge difference anyway and at secondary level could be more useful than a TA. My child didn't thrive academically with their TA but now at home is flourishing with typing and assistive tech and online lessons.

If someone is going to get independent assessments, this is why it is important to use someone who can, and will, write medico-legal standard reports. Not all independent assessments are equal. Some are far, far better than others.

It is unusual these days to have all the LA’s evidence during the EHCNA be watertight. Although even if it isn’t, sometimes it can still be helpful.

Although independent assessments doesn’t always have to cost parents. Maybe not so relevant to the OP, but if independent assessments are needed but you can’t afford them, you can look at charity funding. If you have to appeal, you can also look at legal aid, or rather legal help for SENDIST appeals, which can fund independent assessments if necessary.

Thank you, that’s all really helpful information.

Yes they do have TAs and are already providing help in some lessons and also small group interventions. It definitely helps and makes a difference at this stage. This is all included.

Good to know. We have assessments that will be useful for the EHCNA, but probably aren’t specific enough or written in the correct way for a tribunal etc so we will see what happens assuming they agree to assess.