Mind has gone blank - help me think up question to ask potential MS secondary

[moosemama]

We have an appointment on Monday with the school that ds really wants to go to.

Have just had a chat with his outreach teacher and she reminded me to ask about the school's transition process, whether they do things differently for SEN pupils and what additional support and opportunities there would be for ds to perhaps make extra visits etc. She also said to ask about lunchtime/breaktime opportunities for ds to escape the playground and whether or not there is a homework club.

Just sat down to type up a list of questions and my mind has gone completely blank. What else do I need to be sure to ask them?

Ask to see an example IEP.

I think basically to get a feel for whether they have many children with similarish SN to your child's and what sort of support they would offer. Whether any behaviour/discipline policies were flexible, taking SN into account where appropriate. How often school work with outside professionals. How they communicate info to individual subject teachers about children with SN.

How is support targeted? If he's unlikely to get full 1:1 when would they support? Subjects he struggles with or subjects he's good at? Personally, I wouldn't want support to be withdrawn from subjects he's good at as they will be the ones he'll opt for later and he wants to be as good at these as possible. IMO, and for my DS, stuff French, Art, Music and RE. All the support in the world won't make him good at these.

What will they do for those areas of difficulty that aren't academic? Social skills, life skills, etc. No good being a fantastic mathematician if you can't see the importance of paying a bill or cooking for yourself. MS schools can be very inclusive but forget that these things have to be taught to some DC.

Thank you so much guys those are all great.

What is their standard communication practice with parent?

Home-school books? (ask to see an example)
Weekly emails?
Fortnightly catch-up meetings?

How willing are they to work with parents? Ask how many of their strategies with their kids actually came from th patents?

Would he be able to have an escape card or something similar [if he needs it]. I think at secondary the teachers take much longer to get to know the DC's IME and for them to be able to read the signs of stress in every child is a big ask. Sometimes children need some timeout but are unable to ask for it and then they end up exploding and getting into trouble.

Also Dd3 has made a passport this week to help the staff[and her] with her transition into the next year group and I will be looking towards something like this to be going into secondary with her.

Good luck

Hi Moosemama,

My son is at secondary.

Would also ask about exclusions though they may give you some vague answers.

Is SENCO and SEN team readily approachable?.

Lunchtimes, are there clubs he can attend?. What about meals?.

School should lay on extra visits as a matter of course.

If one or two of your DS's close friends is attending this school can these children be in his form class?. Worth asking about this, I did and managed to get a couple of his nicer and sensible former Y6 classmates into his form. These children do not mother DS at all but in the beginning just provided DS with another layer of familiarity which also helped with transition.

Year 7 Pastoral Support person is a good person to also get on side; have found such a person in my son's school to be of great help.

Will they be prepared to make proper notes in his planner; will the TA also help him with recording his homework in the event that DS forgets to write it down?. I include that one as one of DS's peers had a roughish year 7 primarily because of that issue. Some of his teachers were not at all understanding even though this child had an IEP and was on SA plus.

HTH a bit

A

Also as you are redrafting the statement at the moment you can put transition planning into the statement - its in my DS's. I re-wrote it to include lots of the stuff about getting to know the TA's before moving and extra visits etc. DE has had extra visits but we still don't think they get how important the relationships with the TA's are going to be.
Also you can add all the organisational stuff about homework into the statement too, that either the class teacher or TA will be responsible for making sure he has recorded his homework.
Ask what links they have with outreach, Ot etc and if they come to see the children in school and help - and how often etc.
Ask about buddying systems.
Ask where he can go to retreat and have downtime at break and lunch.
Ask about lockers as the trend seems to be not to have them at high school except for those with identified needs.
Ask about whether he can leave early/late when classes change to avoid the crush if this is an issue.

Fantastic, I knew you lot would know. Thank you so much.

Attila, organisation and homework is a biggy for ds, he will definitely need someone to note it down for him, along with when it needs to be handed in etc, although this is already written into his statement. Dh's brother ended up with the school record for the most detentions in a first term at the school when he started secondary - mainly relating to homework and lack of organisation. (His parents refused to have him assessed, but he now says he knows he would get an AS dx.)

I know they do peer group buddying/mentoring, so will definitely ask more about that as I know it's been really good for a friends' dd who also has AS.

Lockers isn't something I would have thought of at all alison, so thanks for that.

I'm not sure if I can put the transition stuff in yet, although I guess it will be relevant by the time the appeal date comes up. Ipsea said we should have an AR almost as soon as he is back in September, as we have missed the one that discusses suitable secondary placements and transition, but the SENCO denied that, so it looks like I'm in for another battle there.

Good point about home/school contact Star, I must remember to ask how we can maintain that, as I know people find it much harder at secondary, particularly if their dc doesn't have their own TA/LSA.

I know the school is big on languages and ds isn't so I need to check if that will be an issue and also that they do a lot of overseas school trips, starting in year 7, so I have lots of concerns about that.

It feels huge. I'm worried I'll never manage to ask all the questions and get all the answers I need.

Interestingly, when dd went to her nursery induction yesterday I popped next door for a coffee with one of the other mums and she happened to have a friend who has a ds with AS that has just left this school. Apparently he was very happy there and they were happy with the school from their perspective as well. That's the third child with AS that I've heard of going to this particular school and it working for them - so fingers crossed, especially as it's where ds's best friend is probably going, so obviously ds is desperate to go there himself.

Mind you, if you listen to our current SENCO "no school in the borough will take him with such a prescriptive statement".

Just to add I saw the SENCOs from 4 local schools. They varied so much in what they told me and what I had to drag out of them from the immortal opening line of "have you considered sending him to the local SS?" - well they really wanted him, through lots of vague "every child is different" to the one where DS is to go in Sept where they practically fell over backwards to tell me what they could do to help. - I just hope they live up to all the talk.
So good luck with it all. It sounds promising from what you are saying about other similar children.

Oh and find out how the TA's work. In many secondary schools they have a TA for a given subject so that they can help with the actual work in class, which means having to cope with multiple TA's. We currently face this despite me having only 3 TA's in the statement - Am going to let it go for the moment and then see how things pan out as long as they stick to one key one for organisation in the mornings, and OT/other stuff.

Thanks alison. Spoke with the Director of LS on the phone the other day and he seemed really nice, although sounded very young (I really am getting old ) so fingers crossed.

Interesting what you said about the TA's. Ds's outreach teacher said the same thing this afternoon. Ds doesn't have his own 1:1 in his statement at present, although I have mooted pushing for it at AR before transition as his needs will be different in secondary. He does have several contact sessions throughout the day written into his statement and that has to be with 'one person with whom he can build a trusting relationship' (could have kissed the EP for getting that into her report), so I'm hoping that will be the consistency he needs, as he doesn't need a lot of actual academic support, but may need help in some lessons on an ad hoc basis that can't really be planned for.

moose that sounds a lot like my ds. It will be the as and when, unpredictable need for help in class when something has "gone wrong" for him.