Special needs..boarding???

[Sal4533]

Hi all!
This is my first post after lurking for ages!! Need some advice. What would you do?

To cut a long story, very short. DD age 9yrs has a statement of special needs for severe dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgrahia and ADD. Since nursery DD has attended a private school with her twin brother. Lovely school, small classes etc. DD has made no progress, dispite 1:1 specialist support, repeating a year. She is yr 3 DS is in Yr4. We got the statement last year and LEA said that they would fund 1 hour 1:1 a week.

I got a solicitor and opposed the lack of support. LEA agreed to fund DD at an
independant special school 15 mins away
I was over the moon until she went for a weeks trial and they said they couln't meet her needs due to the ADD. So back to original school. I have found the most perfect but expensive school for DD but it would mean boarding. We are now going to tribunal to ask LEA to fund that school( they have offered her a place and she has been down there and loved it- it can meet all her needs).
The LEA have said that they believe she should stay where she is & that they will pay fees + any extra tuition. My argument is that she has been there 5 yrs, small classes 1:1 support but assessments reveal no progress. The boarding school is a specialist school, which caters for her every need.

Sooooo.... would you send your child to boarding school if it was in her best educational interests?

If it's the right school, I would push for the specialist school.

She can come home Friday to Sunday and all the holidays so you'll still see her lots.

Some children need the structure of a waking day curriculum.

Disclaimer: my experience is of working in specialist residential education. I have no experience of making the decision to send your child away to school but I imagine it's incredibly tough

You might be better posting this in the special needs children board. It is just under am i being unreasonable. There are lots of people on there who know about tribunals and specialist schools.

Good luck

Thanks for reply, will repost on special needs section !

I've reported and asked MNHQ to move it :)

If you believe that that school will be the best place for your child, then you should fight for it. I would do the same. I hope you get lots of advice on how to do that with others on here with more experience. Maybe the education boards would help too.

@Sal4533

Thanks for reply, will repost on special needs section !

All done for you :)

Wow, thanks Kat that was quick!

??thank you!

Op - if mainstream is not meeting her needs then I would push for a specialist school. On the whole I am in favour of specialist education over mainstream as I think that generally mainstream does not work in many (although not all) instances. But I realise this is not a popular view on mn.

The only thing I would say is, does it have to be boarding? Could you move to be closer to the school so your dd could be a day pupil?

I am VI and went to special (boarding) school from the age of five. That was just how it was back then - mainstream education didn't exist. But while I think boarding school does have its advantages in terms of independence, I also think the impact on family life and relationships shouldn't be underestimated, especially in a situation where one child is boarding and the other is not. It is very hard to know that your siblings are at home doing whatever they want, sleeping in their own bed, and that your parents are tucking your sister into bed at night while you don't get that privilage. It is made easier by the fact you know all your fellow room mates are in the same situation, but it's often not until later that the realisation dawns.

That's not a judgement fwiw, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. But given my own experiences, if my child had to go to special school I would do whatever I could to try to enable him to do so as a day pupil.

Hi sal, I will admit i didnt really read your OP properly .

I just wondered if you had looked into state options. If your Dd has a statement, there might be a school with a resource unit attached.

My Dd3 attends a really good inclusive state school, where she is recieving lots of support, even without a statement. I know there are a lot of state schools which fail children with sn's but there are some which are really good.

I am only saying this as an alternative to boarding, which would defintely not suit my Dd as she gets very anxious about being away from us. It would have suited Dd1 though.

All families are different though and what is right for you will be different to what is right for me.

Good luck whatever you decide, oh and welcome to the board.

I think it would be well worth a try especially as shee seemed keen. If it doesn't suit her you would need to think again.

My husbands aunt fought through tribunal to get her son a place at a specialist boarding school for severe dyslexia at 11. Apparently it has completely changed him (for the better of course). It appears that academically and socially it has been perfect.

His school is in somerset and they live in the south east so not close to home but apparently the best fit

Thanks for all your replies. We did look into state option but no really good places around us. My expert educational psychologist who is attending tribunal says that DD would not benefit from any school with a 'bolt' on special unit & that she needs a school specific to her needs. Unfortunately all options available that would keep DD at home are not right for her:(. However DD seems keen on this school which is in Somerset ( Ben10- is it Shapwick by any chance???). If she goes and hates it then I can always bring her home? Right? I just want to give DD the best chance in life.

Just got to convince tribunal!!!

And certain amount of hating it will simply be part of the transition process, but if she's truly unhappy you can pull her out and home ed while you reassess. As an LSW I soon learnt that if at least one of the half dozen lads in my care hated me at any given moment I was probably doing the job right - how dare I make them go to class when they could be playing on the playstation

Sal, I've PM'ed you!

I just lost a long post, but really wanted to say that your dd sounds as though she would benefit from an up to date neurodevelopmental workup by a paediatrician who specialises in complex dc. Ed psychs are great at what they do, it doesn't replace a medical approach.

Girls, especially bright girls, tend to only get their 'headline' issues noted. if there were one or more additional undiagnosed needs (eg asd, auditory processing, pragmatic language impairment, exceptionally poor working memory) they need to go in her part 2 ASAP.

I know how you feel for i am in a similar situation, my dd is statemented and she has been turned down not only by the sn school but also by the ms with attached unit, i have now found the most perfect school for her and it is a boarding school, i have also come to the decision that she needs to be in that school and i will fight and fight untill i can get her in there, for i feel that my dd will thank me in the end for it. since it will give her the best chance in life alot better than her being stuck in a school that cant meet her full needs, i just wish that moving closer to the school was an option but there is no physical way we could afford it. I think that what ever you decide will have your childs best intrests at heart. xx good luck in whatever you decide.

DS attends a special residential school for AS, it is partly because there is nothing suitable in the local area, but he also needs the waking day curriculum. So in our case, even if the school was within daily travelling distance, he would still need to board. It has been brilliant for him. I think there are huge benefits in having very specialist staff and being surrounded by students similar to himself. He gets support after school hours, with structured activities for life skills, social skills etc, which are best taught as embedded activities rather than a single weekly class.

You have to be very careful about how to argue your case at tribunal - the test is not about whether the LA it is in the dc's best interests, but rather that it is the only place that can meet the dc's needs. The LA aren't required to provide any more than the minimum necessary to meet a child's SEN. So you will have to show that her current school isn't meeting her needs, not just that the boarding school would be better for her - almost all children will do better if immersed in a 24-hr specialist environment, but residential schools are the most expensive type of placement and the LA can't pay for all children to attend. We got legal support and lots of reports to back up our case, with the experts appearing as witnesses at tribunal - I think most parents at DS's school have had to do this.

Hi Krystal, I will apologise ahead of time here for hyjacking this thread.

We are just beginning the long fight for residential for DS1. He has frontal lobe sydrome with autistic tendencies and ADHD and has, in the last 6mths become unbearable to live with at home.
Easter hols were a nightmare, he ran off to a friends up the road (crossing a main road on the way) and has broken a windscreen and kicked/punched holes in the walls, broken glass etc etc. This is all because he wants to be with friends and in a structured environment all the time and unfortunately we can't provide that at home, we also have ds2 (4.5yrs) and dd1 (17mths) and they are becoming frightened of him. Really isn't a healthy environment for anyone.

So far we have been to TAC and been refered to SS disabled team who have carried out an initial assesment and are reccomending respite (don't know how much at this stage) We have been told by SENAT that the request for residential ed will have to come from school (sn secondary) and school have said that they won't cope to the natural end if he continues the way he is (violence and running) as he isn't a small lad (5ft 3'' @ 12.5yrs). He is already medicated as much as he can be with Atomoxotine 60mg in the a.m and Rispiridone 2mg daily, so no more can be done there.

CAMHS have been supporting us for 7yrs now and have generally been good, but even they are now saying it's beyond them as he is 'unique' and they can't work him out.

The long and short of it is, how the hell do we begin the lengthy process of fighting for the necessary for him with regards to resid ed? I have no idea where to begin.

Thanks in advance and apologies for the hyjack.

Sorry to hear things are so difficult JJWMummy.

I think you would be looking at a joint funding placement, with the cost met by both the LA and SS.

When was the last Annual Review of the statement? You can request a change of placement at the AR and if the LA refuses to make a change to the statement after AR, you can take it to tribunal. If the AR isn't due for some time, you can request an early AR.

Do you have a particular residential placement in mind? Are you looking for a completely different placement or is residential available at his current school? It is best if you can go into negotiations with the name of a specific school that you want your son to go to. You can usually contact schools yourself and arrange visits, send paperwork to them etc, before involving the LA.

It's helpful that you seem to have support from SS and CAMHS to back up your case - but it's important that all of this is documented in writing, not just spoken verbally. Are you getting documented evidence of these violent incidents, e.g. police reports, photographs?

It sounds horrible, but school exclusions are really good evidence. If his current placement breaks down, the LA have to act that much quicker... Make sure you know where you want him to go next and get it named on his statement. How they pay is not your problem!

Thanks Krystal.

DS 1 has a statement review in early July so not much point in trying to bring it forward, as the relevant parties won't ge there act together any quicker now.

I have found it really hard to get info on specialist residential provision for ds1, for obvious reasons LA's don't give it out freely! Have been doing a bit of research online though, and now i think is the time to go visiting. It is a state special needs school named in part 4, it's generally a good school but doesn't offer the option of residential, all children are from the LA and it's oversubscribed i think.

I think I have the support of SS and CAMHS with regards to residential, but like you say, am going to have to get this in black and white for it to be of any use at tribunal.

I have had to call police out twice in the last month and both incidents will be recorded so will have incident numbers, they also get reported to my ds2 school as a domestic violence episode within the home, which in itself is quite scary. I have pictures of the windscreen and the bedroom wall which actually has the shape of his foot in the hole :(

Do you mind me asking where you got the legal advice from, as in are there lawyers out there who specialise in this sort of thing? and a ball park figure of the cost, i hate that it comes down to money, but at the end of the day we are none of us loaded! Needs must though.

Thanks again

Thanks Purple, I guessed that he needs to deteriorate at school, just seems so soul detroying to have to watch your child get to that point in order to get help, not only that but the impact that has at home to. bloody horrible system.

I would get in touch with SOSSES the have lots of experience and know quite alot of schools that they have helped people get places at including some really expensive ones eg priory group.
To The OP I would check that any residential school has really excellent communication with parents and active home school liason. DS1 is at a residential school and it is our one bug bear. Academics ok. Great he has friends. We sometimes feel out of the loop which makes us doubt them