Split placements between mainstream and specialist school

[henryhsmum]

Hi

My DS is just coming to the end of reception and has autism. He is at specialist school and has a statement which identifies him as needing full time extra support at school.

The issue I'm having is that he is quite a bright child, scored above average in academic areas when evaluated against EYFS criteria but below average in social skills. However, having seen some of the other children in his class I can see that he isn't necessarily getting opportunity to apply social skills, over half of them do not talk for example. Saying that u do think he still needs some of the support a specialist school can give him.

So what I want is to split his placement so he does 3 days a week at specialist school and 2 days at the local village primary school (who are keen to have him and help). I basically want him to have the opportunity to meet and interact with children in the village and to see how he copes in mainstream although at the moment I am not confident enough to say he is ready to transition to mainstream full time.

His school are receptive to the idea but said it will depend on the LEA. Apparently this sort of arrangement has been done in the past but they don't like the hassle of splitting the funding and they prefer to do it only as part of a planned transition to full time mainstream. Whereas I want to do it as a part time placement on a permanent basis (at least until I'm sure DS is ready for full time mainstream)

Does anyone have any experience of split placements and how to argue my case for it with the LEA.

I work in a provision which is set up expressly for split placements and it usually works really well. I think it is a really good idea for your DS. In our borough we have several mainstream schools with resourced bases for ASD. The child can then move between their mainstream class and ASD support as appropriate - do these exist in your LA?

Not sure what you would have to do to arrange this with your LA.

Hi

Unfortunately they don't have schools with ASD facilities attached in our area. My DS's school is a centre of excellence but it mainly caters for lower achieving children and they don't seem to know how to deal with DS eg they said they have never had a reception child who can read like he can.

If he goes to the local school he will need a 1:1 support with him which us why I need the LEA to cooperate! From what I gather it requires a review of my DS's statement although I can't see why it should be an issue as his statement already entitles him to full support. I think it us more that splitting the placement is more hassle for the LEA.

Stick to your guns, the LA in our area agreed to dual placement just before it got to tribunal, I continued to tribunal anyway to get other things agreed. They don't like it but if it's what your child would most benefit from it is achievable. I had a sentence put into the statement to say that the mainstream provision would recruit a dedicated member of staff who would support my child at both settings for consistency.

good luck