ASD School Mainstream with Support or Special School

[mompa]

I hope someone can offer advise. I do not know what to do for the best for my little boy. He 3 next month and at nursery (special and montessori at the moment)I don't know what type of school would be best for him. What are other views/experiences? Am also struggling to get any IEP's done or home-school book by Montessori nursery and my DS being on action plus since March. I simply don't know what he does there 2 full days a week. Am seeing Ed Psychologist at home in a few weeks can I get her to help? They have received inclusion fudning but i don't know what this is used for

Id contact parent partnership for educational advice, heard good and bad reviews so worth a shot. Print out the SEN code of practise, highlight sections, arrange a meeting with nursery/SENCO/manager and take the PP rep with you. It is crucial you gather evidence, such as IEPs, to be considered for your SA in order to access a unit or SS. Ask them if they will be applying for the SA and when. Explain this must be soon in order for the statement to be in place to apply for school. The EP could be a great help if she agrees with your opinions, so ask about SA and recommendations for educational settings.

To decide about SS depends on your DSs needs and the facilities available to you so I cant help there. HTH

I would go and view both and have a good talk to the teachers in each.
Can I ask what your little boys difficulties are? Does he have a dx?
Personally I wouldn't send my asd ds to a Montessori nursery as It would not give him the intensive interaction needed.
I would suggest you do what wooly say's and contact parent partnership and make an appointment with the head/senco of the nursery to ask about the funding/iep issue. If you local pp is a good one they may be able to go with you.

Thanks so much for your replies. I have chased up with Early Year Advisor who has already advised nursery that IEP's should be in place. Will contact Parent Partnership again Wolly thank you.DS has DX of ASD and has very little language at the moment and has behavioual problems probably as a consequence in part of inablility to communicate. I am starting to think Monstessori is not best place since I am told it is Intensive Interation he needs (and have given them info on this) but he only started there in Sep after a different nursery who were not very good. Can I ask "keeping" where does your little boy receive Int Inter and how old is he - do you also do at home?

What were PP like in your experience?.

If PP were of not much use last time around (I note you write you will contact them again) I would suggest you contact fully independent organisation like for example SOS:SEN, IPSEA and or ACE for further advice.

I would now think twice about Montessori as it may not be at all suitable for your son.

I would also now consider applying for the Statement yourself; you could be waiting ages for anyone else to do this otherwise. You can make an application yourself and you do not need anyone's permission to do this beforehand.

www.ipsea.org.uk have model letters you can use.

My ds went to a LA run nursery that had experience in asd children, he had 1:1. I found it through my local early years/inclusion team. ds is now and in an asd base where all the staff are trained in it, I do it as much as I can but have had no training as yet.

Parent partnership where we are have been great so definitely worth contacting them.

My DS1 (ASD) is at a montessori nursery and I couldn't praise them enough (nor can the early years inclusion team). They have set up a communication book and write in it every day exactly what he is doing, whether he is interacting/talking and what targets they have been working on. We have IEPs, discussed with me and early years team and regularly reviewed. So it can be done - it just requires the staff to be pro-active. It sounds as though yours aren't and they need a kick up the backside. I would have thought that if the early years team are involved that they should be able to get the nursery to put this in place. You can request a meeting where the early years inclusion adviser attends along with the nursery staff and explain your concerns.

In terms of schools - you haven't said what your DS needs in terms of help. ASD varies so much from child to child. We are trying to get my DS1 into a ASD unit attached to a MS school (best of both worlds) where he can access the SALT and OT that he needs. He would be ok in MS but would struggle to get the therapies I think. It would be worth you investigating the different provisions in your area now (never to early to start) and trying to visit as many as possible. Also if you have a local support group they will have lots of local knowledge about schools.
Parent partnership will not be able to offer an opinion on one school over another although they should be able to tell you what provision there is in your area.

I only found out about the ASD unit from a fellow MNetter who lives near to me. It wasn't publicised and didn't appear in the list of schools that the LA sent me.

Thanks very much louey and keeping

Most ASD units and special schools are listed on the NAS website - LAs aren't always helpful at publicising that sort of information.