Is anyone in Devon? Thinking about moving

[cornwallia]

Is anyone in Devon? We are thinking about moving and this is one of the counties that is an option. We are interested to hear about experiences with the LA, schools etc? DS is 8 and has a statement

Being very general here

Its a BIG county. road network is patchy. It can be a VERY long commute to a special school or unit if you live in wrong bit of the county.

On the plus side, there are some very good special schools (for certain needs) who try hard to get students involved in the same county wide events as MS schools ( drama, dance, sport), lots of our MS primary schools are small ( some are tiny). However many of our secondary schools are vast, and kids bus in from miles around making the school day quite long at age 11.

Thanks. We were thinking MS primary for DS. Any ideas of areas? Thanks for tip on secondary too.

There are IIRC 3 education authorities. Devon , Torbay and Plymouth. WIthin Devon - most of the county- I only know about Exeter and a few rural areas in East, west and south devon. In Exeter & East Devon most secondary schools are 11-16 , with a few 11-18 in East Devon.
Rural secondary schools in West devon as AFAIK south are generally 11-18, many offer NVQ vocational subjects as well as academic.

We moved from Exeter to West Devon partly because of schools, I wanted my son to go to an 11-18 school and not have to transition to college at 16.
Primary schools are harder to generalise about, in city and town schools you might find 90 kids in a year group, or you might find only 30 depending on the school. Some schools are quite mono cultural because of who lives in their designated area. Near the Universities you will find more ethnically mixed schools .

Have you had a good nose about on teh county education web pages? A lot of schools have websites too which give an idea of what their scale and resources are.

You haven't said what your sons statement is for or recommends he needs, IF he needs a school he can;t "escape " from easily, city/ town schools are more likely to be securely fenced than a small rural school, City location would also give you more options if you think it might take a couple of schools to find the right one.

House prices in the county are fairly high if your buying. Premium prices for easy access to the M5, Beaches or Moors.

Thanks for this. My son has AS and sensory processing disorder. I contacted the county council today about funding arrangements for the statement as I know alot of LAs delegate their funding to schools but that this funding is not ring-fenced which means schools are not always very happy to have a statemented child turn up wanting a place. What is your experience of this?

I suppose we would be looking for a smaller school, not pushy or academic, with good pastoral care.

We moved before DS started school and he isn't statemented so sorry, no experience on that front. The mid sized school that DS goes to has kids with additional needs in most years ( including a number with ASD, but also hearing impairments,DS and VI ) , some have 1-1 in class, some have 1-1 at lunch time , some don't have 1-1 at all.

In a small school its likely that a lot of local families will know about your kids difficulties, Kids talk and notice who has extra attention. Doesn't mean they will be nasty, but you can't hide much in a small community.

Hi I'm in Exeter I have a dd at primary. Pm me if you want any advice on schools in this sought of area.