CP child and secondary school - am I being unrealistic?

[StickyFloor]

dd is currently at mainstream primary. Her Statement is level 8 which means she has fulltime 1-2-1. She is very bright, top of her class and HT says she should sit exams for selective schools. Has some issues with her handwriting, she can keep up but we are all wondering if by secondary she may have to switch to typing so that she can keep up. Currently she gets round with a K-walker and is pushed in a wheelchair for longer distances. We will have a motorised one for secondary so she can manage distances too. Currently she needs her 1-2-1 to help her with getting dressed and also going to the loo.

I think a laptop and motorised wheelchair will fix the key day-to-day issues that she had but the personal care issues are a big worry. Nobody has said anything outright but I get the feeling that these will actually just be a complete deal-breaker and no mainstream school will take her if she can't wipe her own bum basically.

Can anyone advise me if it is as black and white as that?

Also I have heard conflicting things about how she will be supported and even generalisations that is she has fulltime 1-2-1 then again no ms secondary will take her because they can't provide that amount of support.

Is it not the case that the support will be funded on the back of her Statement in the same way it is at primary?

If anyone has any experience with this please can you let me know what you think? Unfortunately I am not sure who else to ask as school HT is also SENCO and is completely useless, lazy and a liar (currently being taken to court by another parent). I don't know any parent in RL whose child has a physical disability but no learnining difficulties, all the other CP families we know have or will channel into the local special school.

Thanks in advance.

Hi sticky, did you know there is a support thread for parents of children with cp on the special needs children board.

In my area there are schools which have additionally recoursed provision. My local primary and secondary have provision for children with physical disabilities.

The TA's and one to ones do personal care and can administer medication, the schools are totally accessible and are able to support children with many different needs.

I think you should phone the school that you want your dd to go to and take it from there. AFAIK her statement and provision will continue through secondary but it is important to find the right one.

Good luck

Thanks for your reply. I am going to move this over to SN children and see if I can get some more replies too.

I hope you are right and it is just a question of working with a willing school. I was worried that there was some sort of blanket rule around personal care that would make it a total no-go.

Hiya! I work in a mainstream secondary with a resourced PD unit - we are used to providing what the statement requires - help with eating, personal care, physio, sports clubs for those with additional needs, access to school trips including 24 hour sleepover care...
You need to check with your Local Authority which mainstream schools have, or claim to have provision, then visit and ask every question you can think of. When you all have decided on her school, make sure she gets loads of extra pre-visits (about 10 is reasonable) until she is confident that she will be ok. Main concern for our walking kids with CP is whether they can manage stairs at all (always with 2 adults, one behind and one in front.)

I work in a mainstream secondary as well. We have an excellent Learnign support department. There are a few children at our school with wheelchairs and who need personal care. Whatever they need is provided by their one to one TA, they really are very flexible about what each individual child needs.

Ring the school you want her to go to, find out how well provisioned they are.

If she's that bright then it might even be worth looking at the better resourced private schools - some of them have very substantial bursary funds and might be keen to be seen to offer support to a child like your DD. depends on school layout of course, but worth investigating.

I work with a child who has a similar level of physical disability and although he doesn't sound quite as bright as your dd he is certainly within the normal range academically. He is managing well within a mainstream school that is a very modern build so was build withh accessibility in mind iyswim. He gets the personal care he needs from his learning support.

I went to mainstream secondary school with a girl who was entirely dependent on her electric wheelchair for mobility and needed a hoist etc for toiletting. She got on very well etc and was further supported by personal carers at Uni.

I taught a girl with CP in a middle school, she left aged 13 to go t the mainstream upper school, with her same LSA, who dealt with all her personal care issues (she was in a motorised wheelchair - before she started with us LA had to build us a therapy suite with hoist to enable LSA to get her onto and off the toilet/into shower if necessary).