schools with good SEN for Aspergers in Rickmansworth Herts

[dulwichcuckoo]

Can anyone help? we are moving to Rickmansworth in Herts, we have three children 4,6 and 8yrs old, our DS has Aspergers he has a diagnosis but no statement yet, our current school is hopeless and would like to find a school that has good SEN provision, has anyone got any experience/advice good or bad?

Where roughly in rickmansworth are you going? ie Mill end, Croxley or Town centre? like many areas certain schools are hard to get into also secondary school places are so stretched that a new school is to built at some point. I would suggest contacting watford mencap offices based in rickmansworth high street they may be able to help. I know a little about a couple of peoples experience of a couple of schools mill end and town centre, even went to one myself many years ago.

Hi Insanitybecomesme,
Thanks for your post I will do that, I had heard that" the ceders" were nice, is that the town centre? do you know what catchment they would be in?

IPSEA receive an awful lot of complaints about Herts as an LEA: their provision seems dire county wide.

The current school is likely to be hopeless as well also because there is no statement in place.

I would visit all the schools and ask them hard questions re SEN; the attitude will tell you far more than anything else.

Is the move definate?. If this is just on the cards I would suggest you obtain the statement from your current LEA before moving to Herts.

Hi, Attila is right in what she says Herts is not great for asd several friends have had to fight hard from the Rickmansworth and Watford area to get statements for their children with ASD, normally fighting to get colnebrook in oxhey named on it. Cedars is seen as very nice but is fairly large as an area I have a couple of friends who live highfield way area and pay private(masonic and PNEU) another that has a child at st Johns (RC school) one St Peters(CE school). I used to go to arnett hills which used to take children from both the cedars direction and from the berrylane estate(posh name for mill end) and others have used rickmansworth park school. so catchment very spread out. I would recomend having a look at both rickmansworth park and stockers school(actually closer to harefield side of rickmansworth).

Do you absolutely HAVE to move to Herts?

They employ aggressive solicitors to fight parents for very basic provision.
If you absolutely have no choice then there are a good number on here from Herts. I have always wondered why but I think they are brought together here through frustration.

Fwiw, if you get a statement you won't need to worry about catchment or a school being oversubscribed.

There are a few London boroughs very near rickmansworth.

Yes, that is right. But parents have the legal right to have the school they name specified on the statement pretty much regardless.

There are one or two rules that will prevent them from naming a school that is full, but they are rarely applied as they are hard to win and it will usually only be the school objecting, not the LA, which makes for a weak case.

In terms of the law, a class is allowed to go over the maximum number of children for a child with SEN who's parent has named the school for their child.

Generally, the school will argue 1)that admittance of that child will risk the education of the other children (almost never won as the statement 'should' state all the support that that child will need) 2)That there isn't enough space for an extra child (Almost never won as the LA will just tell them to move a cupboard or swap classrooms around) 3)That is is unreasonable use of public expenditure (only won if it will cost the tax payer more to place that child in THAT school rather than another - rarely won. It will cost the SCHOOL more, but not the taxpayer as that support will cost the same wherever the child is placed).

Having said all of that, you have to consider whether you would actually want your child to go to a school that kicks up a substantial fuss to their attendance, and whether or not you would want your child to go to a school where the leadership is so weak they don't even attempt a fuss that will put demands on their budget and remove provision from their current children.

The systems are always going to be against parents and Herts is particularly bad because they delegate so much of the SEN funding so if a school can put off a child with SN they can use it for their vegetable garden to benefit ALL of their children, rather than on a TA to benefit just one.

Sorry, I forgot to mention, all this really applies to mainstream schools.

Once you are trying to get a unit or a special school, where places are limited and have additional cost implications LA's then DO get interested.

2 reasons. One is, they like to SAVE the specialist placements for parents who are taking them to tribunal for out of county or independent schools, and Two, once IN a specialist placement it is harder to get them out and therefore save their costs. Add on provision in a mainstream school can be reduced every year at the Annual Review so the costs 'feel' more temporary iyswim.

But there may be mainstream schools that have more in the way of expertise in social skills groups or have had additional training in behavioural techniques etc. or that is simply just a posh school that you would like to get a sibling in without living in catchment

This is all so interesting but is also very depressing! we have choosen Rickmansworth as it doesn't have the grammer system and seems to be a lovely town, I can't thank you enough for the advice on statementing I will start the ball rolling with that tommorrow! how long do you think it will take?

6 months is the minimum timeframe but that assumes no delaying.

Herts won't delay the administration side of things. They are good at 'just' sticking inside the law or at least the loose interpretation of the law that LAs seem to get away with.

However there may be a delay as they find that your child does not have needs outside of what schools are expected to manage for which Aspergers is often one (not all children with ASD are the same but Herts will fight this). If you need to appeal their decision it will take a further 6 months.

Rickmansworth does have a kind of Grammar system , as far as I can tell they do some kind of exam, then get streamed into 8 or so schools if they pass(including Rickmansworth school, Watford Grammar, Clement Danes) or generally go to either Harefield academy or Westfields.

Haven't actually investigated it too much as my eldest is only year 3, so could be wrong.

Dulwich, ask the LA to provide you with a list of schools where they have specialist provision. It will also list independent schools too, which will go further afield. We have a school in Milton Keynes that specialises in ASD called The Walnuts.

You are all so kind, thank you so much! it is all so daunting but best to be well informed! I will look into if there is an enterance exam to Rickmansworth/Clement Danes schools, we have an older DD I wonder if there is a siblings policy?