Independent Mainstream School - advice

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My son is 3.5 years old, high funcitoning (doing 21 hrs home based ABA programme and is supported for 6 hours - SIPS at mainstream nursery). Since doing the ABA his language has expanded massively and he is progressing quite well.

We just been informed by the LEA that they have agreed to do statutory assessment (whether we will obtain a statement is another issue). The Ed Pscyh will assess him at nursery next week.
In the meantime, we are looking into an independent mainstream school in the Bromley area as we believe being in a smaller group, he would perform better.
Any advice in relation to independent schools for HFA and also woudl this affect the statement.

We are very new to statement process....any advice much appreciated. Thanks

DS1 is at a Free School, so it's independent, but government funded.

anyway, there are pros and cons.
his is a montessori school, so the methods of teaching are slightly different than in mainstream, and we've found it works for him much better.
in terms of class size it's nice because he gets a lot more attention (there are 8 in his year and 16 in his class- mixed yr 2/3) and it is not as busy and noisy. he struggled in his previous school as there was just too much going on , it was too big and noisy everywhere

one downside to the smaller school however is the social side. he doesn't make friends easily, and of course the fewer pupils there are the less opportunity there is to meet someone you get on with. he had a very good friend at his old school, but has yet to make any particular friends at the new one sadly

I do think that the benefits of the smaller class (and school overall) outweigh this though. it's has a great community feel, the children spend tiem with all of the teachers, and they all get a far more individualised learning experience

Thisis-can you please pm me where is ins school?

Riverstone, definitely.

Impressive school.

Dd2 (HFA) is in a MS state school but luckily where we are the schools are tiny so she's in a class of 13 children, if we lived somewhere else (where schools were not so small) then i think she would struggle in state school so independant would be our only option. I think its best to visit as many schools as you can and choose the one you feel will suit your child. Fingers crossed you will also get a statement as this will help so much.

Wow, Star, that looks like an impressive school.

My DS is at MS independent prep, with ABA support. His ABA is part-funded by the LEA - after we took them to the Tribunal.
It doesn't, strictly, affect the statement at all. It does, however, ENRAGE the LEA. But that does have its amusing side

worth a look?

StarlightWithAsteroid - Thanks looked up Riverstone, indeed impressive school. Drove past the school yesterday and will definitely visit asap. Bit far from Bromley though, so probably have to move closer if my son gets in.
Was considering Bishop Challoner but nothing there in relation to SN.

Thanks all for advice.