Progress when Statemented....should I be concerned?

[JakeBullet]

A bit of a background....

DS aged nearly 10 has ASD, ADHD, Dyspraxia (I think that's enough lol). He is currently in MS primary school and they have been fantastically inclusive.
With the use of Mediknet for his ADHD my son has made really good progress academically. He has gone from P-scales in English, Maths and Science to level 2A , 3A and 2B respectively over the last 2 years.

However although he has made fantastic support academically his PSE levels are still unchanged from when the Statement commenced. He is still on P-scales there and this is what concerns me. Academically I am told he is not a candidate for a special needs school and to be fair when I have visited special needs schools locally to try and get an idea of their suitability as a placement the children who are the same age as DS have needs which are more complex. In addition his academic achievement means he is not considered a suitable candidate by the special schools either.

So I have visited several mainstream schools which all have large amounts of homework setting to get children up to standard with the curriculum. At present DS gets ONE piece of homework a week which is a battle....he is very rigid in his thinking and as far as heis concerned school work is done in school and not at home. To date I have not found any MS secondary school which will be flexible about this.....and in most cases they are saying "one piece of homework a night....possibly two"; a big ask for a child who struggles with one piece a week.

All in all I am beginning to feel DS does not fit in anywhere, and I am even considering home education....but am not sure this would be best for DS from a social point of view. I know children who are home educated can be perfectly well socialised without school but they do t all have autism, I feel my son needs the modelling of "normal" behaviour.

Any teachers here, or other parents in the same situation?

Thank you, yes at present he has 20 hours of 1-1 help which is another issue as I just know that wont be available for him in the same way at secondary level.

If I home educated then I would focus in on the areas in which he is motivated and ignore the rest. Get a tutor in for Maths and English as those are key areas but then hone in on what he enjoys.

Then again life is not always about picking and choosing what we like. I am keen for him to learn this; that sometimes in spite of everything you have to knuckle down and do things even if you might not like it.

Homework IS a battle and he has done none this week ....it's due in tomorrow. All I can realistically hope is that we will get the Maths done...and he will need me sitting next to him while he does this.

So looking forward to homework every night at secondary level!

We are in a similar, although not identical situation.

Ds1 is 10 and has AS. He is achieving well academically, but like your son homework is a nightmare. He currently has weekly reading, maths and literacy homework. The literacy homework is a mini-project each week. We don't do the reading with him, as it's just not worth the fight. Maths is a weekly battle, but we usually manage to drag him through it. The literacy projects though are a nightmare - he is supposed to do a minimum of an hour, but it can be anything up to 6 or even 8 just to do a one side of typed A4 piece of work.

We have just found out that he has been refused a place at our local academy, on some very shaky grounds, but they could make it extremely hard for us and if they succeed in preventing the LEA from naming them in his statement, given their stated reasons, that will effectively render him unsuitable for any ms secondary.

There is absolutely no suitable ss provision in our area at all. The ss's only take pupils with moderate to severe LDs and although ds's ASD can be a barrier to him accessing the curriculum at times, he actually has no LDs at all.

Have you looked at independent schools at all? Also out of county provision? We are looking at an independent school, which is out of area, but takes a quite a few children with ASD, ADHD and dyslexia and has an excellent reputation for supporting pupils with SNs.

Independent schools tend to have smaller classes, but you do have to look very carefully, as some are highly academic and pushy and/or very sporty. We have been told there are several other children from our LEA that attend the school, but that we will have to prove there is no suitable placement within our area in order to get him a place, which realistically means we are looking at a tribunal.

There is an online directory of independent schools you can subscribe to (although I think you have to pay). Iirc you can search by things like SN support and type of SN etc. Can't for the life of me remember the name of it though. I will come back if I do, but in the meantime try Good Schools Guide

It's heartbreaking isn't it, to realise that there really is no place for them.

If we can't get ds into the independent school we will have no choice but to home school, as if we don't, the LEA will force him into whatever unsuitable provision they have available places for just so that they are fulfilling their requirement to give him an 'adequate education. [angry.

Just remembered Special Needs UK school search engine as well. Might be worth a look, although there is nothing on there at all for ds1.

Thank you for your input moosemama, yes it IS heartbreaking. Thank you for the links, will go and look at them now.

Sympathies - homework is the bane of our life at the moment. School know it is a major issue (huge anxiety) and said a few weeks ago it would be fine not to worry about it and the teachers would all be told. Now that all seems to have gone out the window and every day he is getting H's in his planner for not doing it . School now say that he has to do it as it counts towards his assessments - never mind that we can hardly get him in there at the moment. Sm is being re-written and an expert had written about arrangements for homework but did LA include this in the sm - NO!
Visited an independent special school recently and I asked about what homework was given to be told 'oh, we don't have homework - school is school and home is home'. Why don't ms schools get it? Because it's too much hard work for them having to make 'reasonable' adjustments to make our dc's lives just a little bit easier . At least they have now admitted that they can't meet his needs but we now have a battle for the next placement. I'm getting sick of fighting for every little crumb of support now.

Just ignore them. Don't send your dc in: ok, there's a sanction, the educational welfare officer comes round and you can go to court. Send them in with homework not done: they get a supervised detention in which the homework can get done within school premises, and probably within school hours. Private or boarding schools call that prep. Good integrated mainstreams call it homework club.

Ds is mostly doing his at the moment, following a brief outbreak of bravery on my part in which I force him to do the first line only and leave him to decide whether to bother finishing. But I can't see it lasting. If I had wanted to homeschool, I wouldn't be bothering with the trauma of sending him in as well

Homework club - it seems to be the only way for lots of SN kids. So find a school that runs one.

Tony Attwood has written some great articles on the subject of homework. I googled it a while ago.

I've already decided to go down the homeschool route via online home schooling paid for via his statement (wish me luck when I name it in part 4 at his transition review next year y'all ). However this has only recently become a remote possibility due to the increased social/leisure opportunities DS has now his receptive language has improved. Prior to this finding any kind of leisure activity for DS was fraught with problems and he used to be desperately lonely as a result.