Evening folks 
Attila, well done to your ds. You must have been really proud to watch him collecting his prize. Enjoy your concert - looks like it's going to be a soggy one!
Busy week here, despite health being worse than ever.
Dh and I have finally managed to visit a few schools and think we know which one we want ds to go to. The good news is that it happens to be the one he wants to go to. Out of all the schools we've been to, it's the only one that really grabbed us and felt like somewhere ds would thrive.
Oddly enough, it's not the one that we were advised consider because it's so good with children who have ASD and is good at working with statemented children. We were shown round that school by two boys from the LSU (which ds wouldn't qualify for) and got a genuine picture of the school from the pupils' point of view, which was useful. Then we had a chat with the SENCO and while, yes, it does sound like they are all set up with systems in place to support statemented children who have ASD, there was just something that didn't quite feel right. Also, they have very high numbers of statemented children, some of whom it seems exhibit serious behavioural challenges and the LS department, whilst knowledgeable, seems stretched to the limits. It also seemed like achievement was low on the agenda compared to SNs support, iyswim and ds needs somewhere that he will be challenged academically, as he will quite happily coast if allowed.
The school we like has a relatively low number of statemented children to the other one (although I think probably fairly standard for a secondary), but is very well funded and still has a well resourced LS department, the staff were knowledgeable and the set up was well thought out. They were able to answer all of our questions without hesitation and there wasn't really anything that set off the old alarm bells. In addition they have some amazing extra curricular stuff that ds would absolutely love as well as lots of academic opportunities and options. Of course it also has the added benefit of being where ds's best friend is going - so in his view it's a done deal! 
LEA have surprised us by not responding to our latest letter by finalising as we expected, but instead issued a second proposed statement. Have only had a quick flick through, as I've been really quite poorly this week. They have actually made quite a few of our amendments, but of course none of the main 'sticking points'.
Given the downturn in my health, we are thinking about trying mediation now, rather than going straight to appeal. We will still go to tribunal if we have to and the forms are all ready to post if mediation doesn't work. In fact, dh and I are going to decide over the weekend whether we should just post the appeal forms anyway and then go to mediation whilst we are waiting for our date. It does seem that the LEA really doesn't want us to go to appeal, judging by their recent moves, so you never know, there may be some room for manouevre at mediation.