Dual placement anyone?

[charlie06]

Does anyone have a dual placement for their child. My son attends special school 2 days a week and mainstream 3 days. i think he gets the best of both worlds although I know this wouldn't suit all children. Does anyone else have a similar set up?

I had something similar for a year when my DS was in reception. Mostly it was mornings in MS, doing all the jolly phonics stuff etc, and afternoons in the lovely special early years school, that only went up to reception age. It was perfect, he kept up academically with his peers, got good role models, got used to MS. Even better he had all the SALT, OT, PECs, forest school, social skills groups, music therapy, swimming lessons, RDA and SEN expertise. Unfortunately it had to end. He grew out of the SS as his peers there moved on to their placements in MS or SS.

The main problem for me was the transfer each lunchtime and DS didn't get quite enough lunchbreak.

I can see that your placements are a bit easier to manage, logistically. How does your DS manage with work he has missed in MS? In reception they didn't do that much except free play in the afternoons.

He's still in reception Ellenjaneisnotmyname so we haven't got that problem yet. However, it is in his statement that the same 1:1 travels between the two schools so she should be able to sort this issue I would have thought.

My older son was educated in mainstream and he missed out because he didn't have work differentiated for him so he floundered and he may have been in mainstream physically but not really educationally. I guess there's no right perfect answer, I just don't know many other people who have chosen a dual placement so thankyou for your post.

Would have liked this for our ds (currently 4 1/2) and local SS suggested this as the best option for him before we had the draft statement (attended for 2 mornings a week to ensure he got a statement).
In fact local SS (school itself and "teaching") was rubbish and I withdrew him. Local NHS / expertise also non-existant / very poor quality so would not have got correct support in a SS let alone MS.
He now goes out to out of borough school and LEA buy in his provision.
Has been a real struggle to get this far. Think trying to combine this with MS would be the final straw that broke the camel's back in terms of trying to sort it out so that ds had the support he needs (everything has been down to me to fight for so far).

i know what fighting for everything feels like? What is our child's diagnosis? Perhaps some disabilities mean adapting to two settings is harder than others?

We have the same set up although we have just tipped the balance from how you have it, to 3 days SN and 2 MS.. It has worked really well, although the communication between both schools has to be very good to make it work I think. E.g both school liaised with each other on dd's PLP /IEP so that that they were both working towards the same targets.

The MS school have improved a lot with regard to the inclusion agenda, with the help of 2 very assertive TA's who are employed by the SN school but accompany dd in both settings. It's been great to have dd at her older brothers school for part of the week, but I have realised that the specialist set up seems to suit/challenge dd far more than the free flow nature of MS reception.. But am happy she has a few lovely friendships with kids at MS, and in fact was invited to a birthday party by one of the girls this weekend so that's great.

Despite all this we will be moving her to SN full time in september as there is no way she'd cope with year 1 and having to sit still a lot more. She has SLD so wouldn't be able to access the curriculum in MS unless taught separately and that feels pointless so with a lot of sadness she'll be leaving there at the end of the summer term, but I'm glad we did it.. Good luck..

Thanks for sharing your experiences DJangel I feel dual placements are written off as they probably do take a bit more organisation and as we know some LAs go for the cheapest option. I have pointed out to Micheeal Gove that they have ommitted to mention dual placements at all in the green paper.
I'm glad you tried it, you know that you are making the right choice for your child having done so.
In my case the LA have been taking a rather strange and inconsistent position. First off they refused to name two settings on my son's statement naming only the mainstream nursery then they wanted only to name a special school and we were well on our way to tribunal before they informed me via tribunal papers, not in person, that they would name two settings. Rumblings are that at the next review, due very shortly, they are going to try to change the split again in favour of more time at mainstream!

I await the review with great interest as the mainstream school feel he is not being stimulated enough in the special school that only last April the LA wanted to be the sole setting!

politics, politics,politics and I thought they were statements of educational need? lol

I suppose it was slightly different for me as I knew the split placement was only ever going to be temporary. I can see it would be a great way to find out which setting is the most suitable. A halfway house like a special unit attached to a MS school would probably be ideal as there wouldn't be any problems with inconsistencies between methods or behavioural standards that there might be between SS and straight MS. It's a very tricky path when your DC is borderline. Needing more academically or socially than SS can offer but needing more expertise and specialities than MS.

For my DS, it proved to me that he could more than cope in MS, not that MS is perfect, of course! The special unit nearby is full and takes DC with more needs than my DS and the SSs only take PMLD, SLD or BESD.

In absence of a suitable special unit, a split placement is the next best thing, but even with the same TA, the change from one to the other may get more complex to cope with as the work gets harder. Catching up 2 days missed maths or literacy will get harder as time goes on. Subjects and pieces of work tend to take the whole week or longer to complete as DC get older. It should be fine in Reception and Y1. By Y2 or Y3 you'll have a better idea of your DS's needs.

Our LA refused to fund support for a child in voluntary aided school (LA maintained). Is this legal?

Does anyone know the difference between dual placement and split placement? LA is opting for the split one (apparently not the same as dual).

I'm not sure but it might be that with a split placement only one school is named on the statement. I think there are disadvantages of this and that it is about accountability. I would advise you to ring Ipsea as it may not be the best option for your child.

theres a difference of accountability /protocol as far as i know between split and dual so be careful as i believe splits the cheaper option so it would figure they would go for that its also to do with percentage of time at each school

ON what basis did they refuse to fund LA maintained school?

We were talking to the head of a special school today and she mentioned dual placements, and said they had tried them and found them not particularly successful for most of the children. The main reason was the disruption in routine, getting used to different children, environments, teachers, adjusting to the different routines.

The school was for profoundly affected children with complex medical and developmental needs and they took mainly children with severe learning disabilities so maybe if the special school was for less affected children a dual schooling system would work.

Having said that the school was fab with amazing facilities and a hydro pool, excellent staffing levels and a lovely atmosphere. All the children were statemented.

Sounds like you're sorted then, well done! Wish there were more schools like this!