DS2 is 12 and in Year 7. I engaged legal help to get him into an independent specialist school - for Dyslexia. DS2 has some forms of dyslexia - he can read above his chronological age - but he can't write. He has fine motor skills problems and his writing is like a 5 year old's - although everything is spelt fairly correctly.
He also has APD, Auditory Processing Difficulties - ie - you have to tell him something a few times, make sure he understands, tell him again one to one - then it's in. And stays in.
I just felt that this would not happen in a mainstream secondary school and he would end up not reaching the potential that I know is there - for instance, he is really talented at maths.
But he is missing his mates and says that all the kids at the SpLD school are "below" him academically. I think he has a point, he is getting a lot of extension work in all subjects. He loves the methods of learning.
I don't know whether I have done the right thing in sending him to a "special" school.