Cambian schools - any experience?

[schoolworry]

Need to find secondary school for ds and cannot see anything suitable in the area. A new Cambian school is opening about 25 miles away that looks quite good. How much do they cost (residential) and how hard is it to get a place there?

Several pupils from my special school have gone on to residential schools in the Cambian group. All have severe autism (mostly non verbal, challenging behaviour) and the feedback from parents has been very good indeed.
However they are VERY expensive (understandably given the nature of expertise needed for some extremely complicated needs).. talking in the 100 thousand+ for some of the full time places. The LEA here funds them only when there is nothing remotely suitable or available locally. But very worth fighting for if your son's needs fit their profile and his needs can't be met elsewhere:)

The last two I visited were £100,000 per year. We went for a cheaper alternative as I did not think my son who was borderline mainstream/special quite merited it.

Thanks for posting that fractalview. DS has been in a Cambian school for a few years and he isn't exactly thriving. Not in an abusive/unsafe situation, just not learning anything and unlikely to leave with qualifications, despite being extremely bright. The sad thing is, there aren't many alternatives. I've also noticed more parents being turned away as the schools pick out the 'easier' cases.

The schools like to brag about their success stories (some students end up going to good universities), but from what I know of those students is that their needs aren't nearly as complex as most of the others (always attended mainstream schools before their placement, no exclusions, no medication or comorbid conditions) and didn't really merit such a specialist placement but only got there via very determined parents (with deep pockets). Most of the students though have much more severe needs and don't get them met as so much is left to the support staff, who are well-meaning but poorly paid and poorly trained. It's just not good enough for placements costing £140k+ a year.