Special school or resourced unit

[autumnsmum]

Hello sorry me again with another question about dd 3.2 she has autism and cognitive impairment.I went to look at a special school a couple of months back and I really liked it , however a portage worker came round on Friday and said she is to able for the school and needs to go to a resource provision . I feel totally confused now . The statementing processes is about to begin so hopefully I will be given a clearer idea of her abilities ed psych report put her developmental age at between 10 months and 2 years so I have misgivings about resource provision however family who are in denial are pushing me towards it sorry about long post ,any thoughts welcome

Do you think the portage recommends the resource unit because it's cheaper?

Do you think she's 'too able' for the special school?

From the tone of your post it sounds like you think the special school is best.

You need to visit your nearest unit and then see how you think your dd would fit in, then you can discount it if you think it unsuitable. In the unit where ds2 (ASD & MLD) was, all children were reassessed after KS1 to see if they would be able to access mainstream provision at some point during ks2 even if just for a very short time. Those that couldn't, moved to the special school.

I've known plenty of children move from the unit to the special school when it has been deemed inappropriate but have never heard of anyone moving from a special school to a unit. Do the P scales still exist? ( its 10yrs+ since we did this) if so, they may be used to determine who goes where so you could ask where your dd sits on them and that would give you a much clearer picture of the cohorts going to each type of provision.

Are you in a parent support group where there are other parents with slightly older children? It would be really useful to know some people who are 2/3 years further down the road so that you could compare their experiences at the different provisions.

Last year DS was in a resource unit and in my opinion he was too severe to be there but it was recommend ect ect,he almost had a breakdown after being there just a few months it was awful yet still all the people involved with DS education were saying it was the best place for him.
Fast forward to this year and he's now in a special school and he loves it,he's got peers like him,he's making loads of progress but more importantly he's soooooo happy.

My daughter went to a resource unit within a mainstream school. It operated on a fixed timetable of 50% mainstream and 50% in the unit which suited the staffing needs of the school but not the children . We moved my daughter to a special school and are happy with it.

I would visit lots of schools and see where you think your daughter will fit, look for older versions of her. Do remember that anyone from the Lea has an agenda which is based on budgets and spare places and not on the best school for your child.

Look at both places before you decide. We visited a SS that we felt was perfect for DS2. The LA insisted that he was too able for the SS and wanted us to look at two other schools that had units attached.

The SENCO at DS2's MS school advised us to visit both units, even though she also felt that DS2 would do well at the SS. Her logic? That the only way to show the LA that we'd investigated all possibilities and had come to an educated conclusion was by taking the extra time to examine all options. After visiting both other schools, we were more than ever convinced that the SS we first visited was the best place for him. It did make a difference, as when we met with the woman from the LA, the first question she asked us was about the other two units. We were able to say that Yes, we visited both units and they were both unsuitable and could tell them specifically why. It also made us feel that much more comfortable choosing the SS instead of MS.

DS2 has been at the SS now since the beginning of this school year, and it's been so great for him! What a huge difference!

Thank you everyone to be honest you've echoed what I have been thinking .the portage worker hadn't read any reports on my daughter and based her assumption on seeing at home for an hour

Ds's current school now cannot meet his needs and we know that the environment plays a big part in his ability to cope. We keep having school and LA promote a base in a school of over 1000 kids even though expert recommendation is that he needs small class sizes to enable him to cope.
The new proposed sm makes it clear what their aim is e.g an expert report that he requires a small,structured learning environment has been written into the sm without the word 'small'. Another recommendation is that he needs xxx support to enable him to access the teaching, social and learning environment has been re-phrased as 'to enable him to access the mainstream teaching and learning environment .
The LA will simply be wanting to place your dd in the cheapest option not the right setting so don't be fobbed off if you know it won't work.

Thanks everyone one issue that concerns me is my dds vulnerability she has a little speech but has never reported an event or a feeling . If she was bullied how would she tell me?