ABA SCHOOLS does aanyone have views/experience of igsaw in Surrey and Rainbow in Wimbledon

[mompa]

Can anyone please offer any input on jigsaw and Rainbow ABA school. Many thanks

Hi mompa

I went to see both when considering schools for dd1.

They both had pros and cons, for our situation.

Rainbow: like the style of ABA they do. Nice and friendly school. They were in ver small premises att eh time, which meant quite cramped clssrooms. Not sure if they have expanded/moved - we looked at them just over a year ago. Nowhere ot park (would have been a real problem for me as would have been driving dd1, and have toddler dd2 to deal with too - all right on the main road, double yellows with meter bays). Very littel outside space - would have been a huge issue for dd1, as she is a total outdoors girl.

Also, it was just too busy for dd1 - but that is her requirement, and might not b the same for all. Far too noisy and too many distractions. Plus couldn't really see another child like dd1 when we were looking round.

Jigsaw: more of a "proper" school in the way it is organised. plenty of outdoor space (and loads more on the doorstep!). less intimate and friendly though, more of the vibe of any old school (a plus poin for some, i'm sure, but it felt very impersonal to us)

classrooms still too busy for dd1 as she was then - too many people, too much going on for he to be distracted by. didn't like that things like SALT seemed to be given as small group activities only, no option for 1-to-1 (we may have got the wrong ipression here, but we did ask specifically if any individual work was done, and were told only taken out for small group work. we were asking more for general stuff, not SALT specific, but same answer. would not have worked for dd1 at all)

don't liek the style of ABA used. very data driven, and when we observed a LOT of time was taken by the tutors collecting this data - dd1 would have lost focus in an instant, switched off, and started misbehaving.

we also employed an ABA tutor who had previously worked at Jigsaw, and her views were less than complimentary.

having said all that, we had a really hard time choosing between the 2 (and of course dd1's current school) - al had pros and cons. I think ultimately we woudl have chosen Jigsaw if pushed, but that was probably due more to lifestyle factors sch as driving/where to live etc, plus the fact that Rainbow were really crowded out which would have driven dd1 mad.

Thanks very much Silver. Do you know of any other ABA schools in Surrey. I have only come across these 2

I don't know of any others, sorry.

dd1 now goes to school in Kent. her school is very close to Kent/Surrey border (we still live in Surrey), so might be worth a look depending on what route you could take. It is near Sevenoaks.

It is such a minefield, isn't it?

Honestly, though, Rainbow and Jigsaw are 2 very different schools. What you like about one will be what you hate about the other, iyswim? and vice versa.

we were completely torn, including dd1's school too. there were strong positives for all 3, and strong negatives. we had to go with what we thought suited dd1 best at that moment in time. we also sought advice form our ABA consultant, who talked it through very thoroughly with us. He had experience of Rainbow, and also of Jigsaw, and he is the consultant at dd1's current school, so could give us what he thought were the pros and cons too, form a professional perspective. some of these coincided with what we thought, some didn't, and we had to weigh it up in the end.

one major deciding factor for us was that dd1's school could take her on instantly, funded by us while we fought the tribunal, which Jigsaw would absolutely not do, and Rainbow considered (althoguh we didn't get the final answer as we chose current school instead). This was important to us, as we had to get dd1 out of TLG.

There is also Step by Step near East Grinstead, supposed to be v good, and of ourse Treehouse is fab but that's in North London

oh yes, Step by Step - we looked at them too

they ARE very good. When we looked at them (would be ooh 2.5-3 years ago I suppose) they were very small, and mostly had non-verbal, severe ASD children there.

They were very nice and helpful though, and gve us lots of advice on fighting Statement etc.

I know this thread is over 10 years old but wonder if anyone has has any recent visits to the schools mentioned...?

Please can someone suggest good ABA schools near guildford or oxford please. My son is 8 years old and HFA. Looking to move anywhere if we find any good school near london but not in london. TIA