Today's school visit, ms with asd unit

[LimboLil]

Hi all. Following my visit to special school today, visited a ms with asd unit today. Came away feeling so gutted that my son didn't go somewhere like that from day one. Loved it. Headmaster showed me round, talked very much about inclusion in matter of fact terms, almost as if, well wouldn't you include them. Just a completely different feel about it to the school he goes to now. In a less posh part of town to where I live, just felt more friendly and strangely more secure. I could see him there, but would have been so much better if from day one. If I started him now, not sure if it's too late and he would end up in special anyway eventually. Oh school trips, yes we take them as long as the parents are happy, we just take extra staff (obviously), school performances etc, yes of course we include them, just got staff on standby and handy exits if it gets too much for them and they need to go out. Going to visit another ms with asd unit next week hopefully. If nothing else, today made me feel a bit better about things. Just shows that a school can be inclusive (if it wants to be).

I went to an open day at a ms school with an ASD unit, though this one was in a posh part of town.

The year 6 children did a presentation and were described as 'the cream'.

I asked later if any of the children from the unit were involved in the presentation or any other children with SN.

The answer? - no.

The school you saw sounds fab.

It sounds like a fantastic school.

I had the same sadness as you when we visited ds's secondary with him this week. They really 'got' him, saw the child and his potential - not the label and the obstacles and best of all absolutely loved him. The Head ignored us completely for the first 45 minutes, addressed ds directly, asked him what he thought and felt and what he liked and wanted. He carefully read the pieces of work ds had chosen to show him and had nothing but positive things to say about them - and the boy that wrote them. I sat there with tears in my eyes and watched as ds literally started to light up and he positively glowed for the rest of the evening. If they can do that in one appointment, what can they do for him over 5-7 years?

It made me so sad to think of everything he's been through at his primary school. The Head of his new school was genuinely perplexed and angry with them. He couldn't understand why they couldn't see ds for the wonderful, intelligent individual he is, rather than a list of problems to be overcome. Couldn't understand why they didn't see it as in their interests as well as his to ensure he made the most of his strengths and met his potential and he was really angry when he heard how they had allowed the bullying to continue the whole time he's been there.

I came away wondering why all schools can't be like that and wishing that every child could go somewhere so honestly child centred and inclusive. Sadly it's an independent ms and apparently extremely unique, hence their totally different attitude and approach to many state run schools. I know ds is extremely lucky to have been offered a place there, but it still makes me so to think of all the others children who never get their chance.

Hugs for us all. It's funny how we are all so set up to hate specialist education from the beginning...an unwritten message that special schools/units are 'ghettos' for rejects and we should strive to be part of the 'normal' gang.

Then, when we get there, it feels like the world's best kept secret...like a pearl hiding inside an oyster.

Oh good, I'm glad no one took it the wrong way when I said about it not being in a posh part of town. In a way, that could be it's strength I think. The head hinted that many kids start with no language skills at all, but not because of ASD, and some of the conversations I heard while waiting showed me that the kids maybe are a bit (sorry wrong word I know) rougher. But the staff are geared up and able to cope with this, they don't look like they will fall apart if a child kicks off. I think my older son would be toast there lol. I don't know if this will make sense but it was an older building with very large rooms and somehow felt more secure too. The building he is in now is very new, very light and state of the art. I think for a child with ASD who maybe gets that lost in space feeling, it doesn't have the same feeling of security, I might be spouting rubbish now, I'm just letting all the thoughts float around in my head. I had a terrible night's sleep after the special school visit, couldn't stop thinking about it. The head was really quite understated about it all, he wasn't passionately over selling his views, it was more like well yeah, this is the way it is here.

DD1's HT is exactly the same. I mentioned that DD1 has a real fear of medical equipment and would there be any feeding tubes, etc? The HT said 'yes'. I said 'err...she'll really struggle with that.' The HT said 'well she's going to have to get over it because it's part of life and we have feeding tubes here....'

All very nicely done, but so true.

I don't hate specialist provision. I hate the fact that it's existence can give the state, through LAs and schools, an excuse not to even bother supporting kids in mainstream.

But that is about a national mindset about SEN provision being one thing or the other and not about the schools themselves.

It is also based on my experience of my LA where there are kids in residential schools because mainstream primary schools can't be arsed as the LAs don't offer them any support and there is precious little in the way of decent ASD provision - especially for HFA/AS. Children have to go out of county or are put in BESD schools which are inappropriate.

ASD bases can be the best of both worlds if done properly and it looks like you have found a gem.

At the end of the day, the right school for the child is what counts whatever the label.

Same here. We looked at all the specialist provision in our area and not one placement was right for HFA/AS.

So no specialist provision and not one ms school willing or able to support pupils with AS. Secondary aged pupils with HFA/AS are either shipped out of area to independents (if they are lucky enough to have parents who can fight for them) or sent to one local ms, which is unable to cope with the numbers of SEN pupils. Only two out of all the secondaries are not academies, one is the school I just mentioned, the other is basically where they send BESD pupils.