What made you choose a school for your DC?

[ShadeofViolet]

I am still pondering over which school to send DS2 to, and I wondered what factors had helped others make the decision.

DS2 is 3.6 and will be going to a MS school we think.

my ds went to a mainstream preschool with loads of staff and full one to one and struggled immensely, plus the afety factor of him escaping anywhere and his aggression led us to go for a special school, ive no idea if this is the right decision or not as he starts in a few weeks!! i think without trying the mainstream preschool i wouldnt have known how he might cope if that makes sense

Ok - we originally sent our children to the 'good' local school. It was absolutely terrible with SN, and so this year we moved to the 'bad' local school - and they have been absolutely brilliant.

The differences? The headteachers attitude to SN was the biggest difference. One school cared about every kid, the other cared about SAT results.

The 'good' school was a one form entry, and the 'bad' school was a 3 form entry. I now would always recommend a bigger school because they will have more experience of SN and more resources to help.

Look at the league tables. Any school which does not have many SN kids there should ring alarm bells - it probably means they've all been driven out.

dd1 is now at a specialist SN school.

She originally went to MS pre-school. It was obvious (to us) she was not progressing. dd1 is calm and passive to the extreme, so most LA bods thought it great she was there - no hassle, no expense, etc.

We took her out of there and she went to an ASD pre-school. Lot more support and knowledge, but ulitmately didn't suit dd1.

she is now (after a long battle) at an extremely specialised ABA school - full time 1 to 1 teaching (1 to 1 classrooms a lot of the time!), and she is thriving there.

The progression of schools helped us along the way, although we knew form early on we wanted an ABA school - it was proving to the LA that everything else didn't work that was the tricky bit.

I visited everything, and focussed on the following:

1. previous experience of children with SEN, and in particular children with the same dx. You'd be surprised how many people don't have a clue
2. anti-bullying policy
3. willingness to be ambitious for all children to develop their full potential, rather than seeing children with SEN as a kind of lost cause educationally (attitude I found, worryingly, in a school with special unit)
4. smaller classes if possible
5. how they talk about their TAs - whether they value and train them or not.

Having said all that, two of the schools with the best talk (oh yes, we LOVE children with SEN) turned us down WITH A STATEMENT, saying that they could not provide for DS's needs. Third school took him on - he starts in January so I can't tell you if that was a good choice or not yet...

When I chose for DS2 I wanted ...

a place where he would feel safe.

a place where he would be supported so that he could maximise his potential

a place where his abilities would be recognised and appreciated,

where he would have peers with whom he felt comfortable

where the expectations placed upon him were challenging but reasonable and achievable

where he was not the 'least' in the view of the school

Where he would have a great deal of fun.

The school that was successful for ds was disastrous for dd and the school that my 3 NT children attended I wouldn't consider for my two with autism.
What made the school successful for ds was small classes, good SENCo, an amazing LSA and a head willing to think outside the box.
When dd got there the head was new and very rigid in her thinking, she reigned in the SENCo and the LSA although good wasn't confident enough to stand her ground even though she was 100% right.
The school dd now attends isn't a school I thought one of my children would go to. It's a new build in a deprived area and an amalgamation of three other schools. She started six weeks after it opened.
The new head has a reputation of being inspirational with SEN. We met and talked about dd, he asked to see a photo but not her statement because he didn't want to pre judge.
When I went with dd he was just right with her , not too friendly,showed her the the things that he suspected she'd like, let her feel at ease.
Offered her and us a week's trial with no obligation on either side providing full support from his budget.Dd did a week of increasingly longer days, on the last day she got a certificate for having a good week.
Offered a place for dd and phoned the LEA to let them know he was admitting her and asked them to sort the paperwork instead of waiting for the amended statement.
It is undoubtedly the right school for dd, she is set up to succeed, it is a positive learning environment and dd is making double the expected progress for the average NT child but more than that she is happy, she feels nurtured and her confidence and self esteem is rising.

Dd2 (ASD) starts MS next week, we tried to get her a place at a SN school but this was refussed so the choice was taken out of our hands. She will be going to the same school as her sister (who has Aspergers) and she we will have full 1:1 support. If it doesn't work out i will pull her out but i'm hoping she will prove us all wrong and do really well.