new to the UK, son with Asperger's

[sekmet23]

Hi. I'm and American, and just moved to the UK from Australia. I have 2 sons who are about to start in the UK schools. My youngest is 5 and will be entering the middle of year 1. He has a diagnosis of Aspergers, given by a psychologist in Australia. I'm looking for general advice about what I should expect or request from his school to help support him.

I've mentioned the diagnosis to the head teacher, and I'm planning to ask for a meeting with his teacher this week. I have some comments and strategies his preschool teacher, OT, and speech therapists came up with to help him. Do schools here have any formal communication system with parents for special needs students, like a weekly comment notebook? I have yet to find OT or a speech therapist here. Are those provided by the school or should I look for private ones? Any information would help. Sorry this is so long.

OP here. Sorry for typos. I wanted to add that due to the difference in school schedules and starting ages, this will be his first school experience. He's been in a play-based nonacademic preschool in Australia, but will end up skipping Reception (Kindergarten). So I'm already worried about his transition to school, without the additional complication of Aspergers.

Would suggest you repost on the SN Children part of this website as that forum receives far more daily traffic than this one does.

You will also need to meet with the SENCO (Special Needs Coordinator) at school as well as the people you mention. An IEP should be drawn up for your son with you reviewing it termly with the school.

School may or may not offer you a weekly contact notebook; the onus is very much on you to fight his corner for him re his additional educational needs. You are truly his best and only advocate here.

Look at IPSEA's website www.ipsea.org.uk re the statementing process and also contact the National Autistic Society.

GP is first port of call re referral to OT and SALT (Speech therapist). Re the SALT it will likely be more beneficial to seek a therapist privately and pay; infact same with the OT. Services re OT and SALT have been and are subject to cutbacks.

Post on SN children for the people who know the answers.

Be prepared for needing to seek private support and be prepared for the school to be defensive about it. Teachers in this country can have very strong opinions about equity and don't always like parents who Juno the queue because they have money.

It is fairly common to have a home-school book for communication between parents and teachers, so requesting one should be straightforward. You will need to book an appointment with the SENCO. Be prepared for them to want to wait and see what they think themselves before implementing any recommended strategies, but make sure the SENCO has a copy if them and be quite insistent about any essential transition requirements.

Depending on where you are in the UK there will be different services available. One of the services may be a school referral service for ASCs - as your son has a diagnosis you can request that he is referred to this support team - they advise and train schools on how to support individuals, run social skills and after school groups, etc. In Leeds the Autism Response Service is called STARS but it may have another name elsewhere and you may have difficulty finding out if your area even has such a service because they tend to be so over-stretched they don't advertise their services to schools.
If the senco doesn't know about this type of service, get in touch with the local education authority and ask them for contact details or try a local ASC support group - I actually found out through our local support group after I had been working in our LEA with ASC children for several years not knowing STARS existed.