Secondary School in Lambeth for children on the autism spectrum

[ProjectVangard]

We are a group of parents working with Lambeth and the National Autistic Society to set up a secondary school for children on the autism spectrum. Focus will be on skills for life through active partnership with the community - eg colleges, mainstream schools, charities and local business. If you have an interest, we would love to hear from you.

I think both were removed because names were being named and there was a suggestion that Project Vangard personnel may have one rule for their own kids and one rule for the kids of other people. Personally I think it is good for chat rooms such as this to shed light on hypocrisy, particularly when scarce public funds are at stake, but I do also understand MN doesnt want to get into a libel suit (which wouldnt happen, as I have since had a separate, independent confirmation that the issue raised is correct).

Can understand if it got personal and possibly libellous (though from what I saw, it didn't) but surely it should be possible to have open, straightforward discussions about different POVs, strands of thought, types of eduction etc, as well as being able to post information that it potentially useful.

And why not highlight flaws in a possible resource, from personal experience? In theory that's what we all do in so many ways already, isn't it? I mean, what's the Products section about if not peoples' experiences, good or bad, of a product? And a school is no different, imo. All that happened as far as I saw was the OP coming on telling us about a possible new resoure. Lots of us asked her questions which she didn't answer. Someone else came on who knew some of the background and told us what we wanted to know.

Anyway.

Thanks very much for the website link dev

Agree with bialy although it was probably sensible to remove names.

Star what should i be looking for? legal cases? I have access to lawtel if you have details.

I don't have details....sorry. Just a rumour. Don't worry. It's probably something and nothing.

Guys - 'she' is me and if any of you want to contact me directly, then I'd be happy to share specific details that are relevant for your child. I think Mumsnet did the right thing - if this conversation gets personal and nasty then we are doing our children a dis-service - this should be about parents doing the best for their autistic children and having CHOICE - some may want ABA (I'm a fan) and others want something else. My thread was to share with interested parties that our team has partnered with the NAS and are likely to open a school in Lambeth in 2014. 'sick of so called experts' is in fact X who, rightly, is very disappointed that her school vision does not currently support Lambeth's - but there is a specialist school coming to our borough and we should work together to make sure that it is the best it can be for everyone.

Project, I think you've made the names error again... As someone from no-where near lambeth I really don't want the RL internal stuff to get in the way of such a useful general thread about free schoools and the pros and cons of different approaches

Sickofsocalledexperts is not X!! (the op I presume you mean). I can certainly verify that. And she lives far from Lambeth so has absolutely no vested interest in that area.

SickOfSoCalledExperts doesn't live anywhere near Lambeth. I once went to her house.

I agree with Mariam that it is an excellent discussion topic for the sake of discussion, as well as raising awareness of the schools and pathways available to parent.

Following on from this does anyone have any info about the two potential Free schools Ealing way?

Lambeth isn't very close to me either btw, but it coukd be workable, if it was right.

I'd much rather though that it was clear what this school was planning to deliver and how, than be asked to submit a profile of my child for the school to say yay or nay too. That's just too cloak and dagger for me and doesn't enable me, the person charged with the legal responsibility for my child's welfare and education to see clearly whether this school coukd be a 'fit' for my child.

So i'd like to know what the typical profile of a child attending the school woukd be when they entered and what level of education and skills you are aiming for them to have left with.

No I can confirm I am not X , ProjectVangard, nor do I know you or the OP. I am simply a mum who found ABA worked for her boy, and wants others to benefit too.

Yes its true. ABA works best for children at the higher functioning end of the spectrum in their early years. Having said this it also achieves spectacular results for children with more complex needs. Comparatively much better than the usual approaches currently used in education. All of this is supported by a great deal of research - I can let you have details if you are interested. I have set up another strand called Background to the autism specific free special schoools in Lambeth - teh Hub and Vanguard, and have posted more info there.

Vanguard, I'm not sickofsocalled experts - although she could be me - she isn't. She just happens to share my views thats all - and it appears that a fair few people on mumsnet share my views. Which is sensible as the scientific evidence supports them.

But Hub I think saying ABA gets better results for hf kids is a truism - anything you do with hf kids will get better results, as they are higher functioning to start with (which I sometimes think actually means they have a normal IQ.)

My theory on ABA is that it improves any kid around 15 per cent, if done well. I have no proof for these numbers, except 12 years in the autism game and talking to and meeting probably nearly 300 families in that time, watching their different experiences. Purely anecdotal, but what the hell! Teacch or eclectic probably only gives half that improvement, say 8 per cent.

So a kid who starts off , say, at moderately autistic, can become hf. But a kid who starts at severe may only reach moderate - ABA can't work miracles. (The one caveat to that is a point I agree with from the author of "Let me hear your voice" who suggests that 1 in 10 ASD kids will somehow "grow out of it" - as if there is something that might better be named 'childhood autism'. This phenomenon I've seen with 3 out of my 300 families: one being my own stepdaughter.)

So my point is - ABA works better than Teacch. For all kids. Evn for my NF, very lever little girl. Because, at is best, ABA is about setting boundaries and common sense - something which we seem to have lost sight of in our education system today!

Just read this will be yet another provision for DC of below-average intellectual ability ONLY.

Planned curriculum mentions ASDAN and the 'flexibility' for pupils to receive some lessons i mainstream settings.

V disappointing and not at all what I remember reading at the consultation stage.

Lambeth already have a lousy record on pupils with HFA and dozens of DC being shipped miles out of borough daily.

www.autism.org.uk/our-services/our-schools/nas-academies-trust/nas-vanguard-free-school.aspx

Someone on here mentioned the new Proposed school (ABA) called "The HUB"- well Lambeth rejected the school in favour of this new NAS secondary school.

Regarding the new NAS secondary school- which programmes/ interventions would be placed in the school. I dread the TEACCH programme- as it did not work for DS at all. They tried to put him on a workstation/TEACCH programme- but he kept on removing his seat and placing his chair to sit with the other kids. They did this everyday for four months and it was clear he wasn't having any of it. Also, he doesn't respond to visuals or timetables. So what would they have in place for a child like my DS?

There is a NAS school near to me. It takes ages 4-19 i think and it is horrible. I went to look round for DS and hated everything about it. I thought it would be brilliant with it having the NAS name etc but you couldn't pay me enough to put my child in there.

Off topic but starlight can you let me know about Moondog's training day? Would like go try to get to another one if possible.

Right on topic, I'm in a neighbouring borough with many friends accessing the SEN provision in that borough. The provision isn't much to write home about. My understanding is that the main specialist school has had it's HT removed and the morale of the staff in that school is at an all time low. I do hope that whatever provision to start up is vastly improved on what has currently been offered.

For me it seems we now have another school whereby only one thing can be focused on - in this instance life skills. Which my ds like many others needs but he's also very academically capable and so it seems my choice is MS to retain the academics or a school such as the one you describe and blow the academics.
Apparently when you're NT you get both!

(Sorry feeling a little ranty on the school subject)

Yes Moondog- could I have details about the training day too, as I would like to attend.

Sorry I meant Starlight.

I'm very sad that The Hub school was rejected.

Ooh this is an old thread, any reason why it's been revived, has something new been announced?

Oh didn't notice that sickof
Thought it was bizarre that I hadn't heard about moondogs training on the boards.
Think Arsenic is possibly discussing what the provision proposed initially and what it actually looks - seems many fears expressed by people on this thread were well founded.

Oh wow! Didn't realise that this was an old thread.