Am a regular name-changer and have probably 'chatted' to most of you at some time or other. Ds's school repeatedly failed to meet his needs and have now permanently excluded him. The statement was being amended in any case as we had to name a high school for next year and we were sure that there was nothing locally to meet his needs. At the AR meeting I said that I was happy to go to tribunal to get the right school and they said that they wanted to avoid that [confused].The proposed sm appeared to hint at a unit so I requested a lot of amendments. Anyway, we then said that we were having trouble finding any school that would suit and they suggested 4 independent schools that they would consider as they sent children there already [shock]. Unfortunately these were all unsuitable for various reasons (a couple were EBD [hmm]) so after hearing this they have now agreed to name our choice - a specialist independent residential[shock]. I now realise that I have spent months preparing for a tribunal for nothing [sad] [fgrin] Wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the great advice - couldn't have done it without you. Knowledge is strength as they say.