Independent Schools - autism

[clpsmum]

Hi wonder if anyone can help. Do any of your children with autism go to an I dependant school and have the fees covered by the local authority?

If yes. Could you please let me have an idea of the annual fee for the school and the percentage (if any) paid by the LA

Thank you

In non specialist independent schools asd understanding varies but there are a few lurking. TA provision is not a given. For example I don't have any TAs working for me so if my aspie has a moment I have to drop everthing and go running. I have found that generally in the classroom all is well. Where the sen students have problems is with the organisation and amount of homework demanded of them. Staff are understanding (or at least my lot are lovely) but a child is only going to be able to cope if there is an excellent home structure and support as well. The problems my asd one faces are to do with friendship issues, flashes of oppositional behavior and frankly a disfunctional family background. Basics that should be happening , ie, not sending a child to school with vast sums of money to buy sweets and crap, fall on deaf ears, the posession of the sweets then causes arguments which then escalates. It could all be solved in a trice by the family but no...

There are children in indie schools with statements but often these are for medical needs that have been acquired once schooling started.

Moondog: I'd argue that for most staff, the strongest reinforcement comes from them seeing pupils make measureable progress. That's the intrinsic reinforcement of the work.

You know, that intrinsic reinforcement that so many of these people say the kids must have for themsleves without resorting to bribes.

I don't always agree with you on everything, but that one did make me snigger :o

I have to say that there are some special indie schools who charge a phenomenal amount. Flying boy and I visited quite a few. One, very expensive school talked very openly about restraint which shocked me. The pupils they had there were very similar to the ones I had every day in a mainstream classroom of 30.

Flyingboy has done well but had he stayed in mainstream he either would have had a hellish time and landed up refusing or would have got more qualifications. Whether I did the right thing or not I don't know but I think I did for the sake of the therapy alone which has been lifechanging. You do seem to have to give something up in going to special school. In our case its local friendships and he has no friends to hang out with.

Another very expensive school had more staff than pupils. I do wonder ho places can justify charging £110,000 per year. There were some students who clearly needed the very therapeutic and specialised psychological specialist support but I turned down their place on the basis that I didn't think Flyinboy's needs justified spending tax payers money on that when £33,000 woulddo the job just as well. I feel very grateful that he has had that money spent on him for seven years and that it is up to him and us to make sure that money isn't wasted. What went to him didn't go to another child. His placement was worth several statemented places in mainstream school. Therefore morally we are obligated to show that money was well spent so that the council doesn't think 'oh that's pointless' the next time they are faced with a desparate parents of a complex child. Our next move now is to find the right support to help flyingboy into adulthood as he moves towards hopefully the workplace. We might just have found it and he has interviews lined up.

Flapping - the reason we've persevered with our local mainstream for DS1 has been friendships. The only problem is, he doesn't really have any, now. He's in year 4 and has never shown any interest in any of his peers outside of school time - he completely blanks them and will bolt if I stop to talk to their parents. Even the kids he used to spend time with in school don't interest him, any more and they all have friends they prefer to be with, as 8/9 year old boys do.

We had the same thing by year 5 in mainstream. He just deliberately cut himself off and just spent his time spinning in the playground. Other kids were kind but patronising and I didn't want that for him. Perhaps I'm beating myself up unnecessarily as its not like he makes an effort to keep in touch with people.

DD goes to one of these six-figure specialist independent residential schools, she has asd but is bright and academically able. We had no real choice as her behaviour meant that no local schools could offer her a place. They have SALT & OT there but she doesn't engage with 1:1 therapy, so it's embedded into the curriculum for her, so adding on a therapy package in mainstream wouldn't work.

We viewed a lot of schools, both state and independent, before naming this one. I don't think our views were coloured by the costs, there were a few schools which cost a similar amount but which I didn't feel was right for DD. But it definitely wouldn't be able to work well with DD without charging those fees - it all goes into the high staff ratios, training, facilities and expertise.

I know quite a few other parents whose dc have fallen into the gap where they're bright but they don't display behaviour which would mean that mainstream isn't appropriate, but nevertheless can't cope with mainstream because of sensory/social difficulties. They are either home schooling, have moved house to go to the most nurturing mainstream they could find (but it's not working out well atm), or have paid for a small non-specialist independent. I must admit I feel almost relieved that DD had such violent meltdowns, because we wouldn't have had a chance of getting this placement otherwise - and she has improved now to such an extent that she doesn't have those behavioural issues any more.

Ihaveissues, we also wouldn't have got a statement even if DS hadn't been so extreme when in Reception. It was hell at the time but in a way showed his needs. You are right, the poor kids who fall thru the net are the ones who haven't made a fuss. Interestingly I have moved to an all girls environment now and its made me realise how many girls in mixed schools must just be coping and yet no one knows because next to the boys they cover it up so well. I'm now dealing with girls who wouldn't have even been on the SEN register at my last school but to whom I'm abe to give one to one support to.

Lovely to hear that your daughter is doing so well. You are right, the therapies available and the staffing are why these places are so costly and why they work although I also agree with Moondog's point that some confuse expensive with good. As all our children are so different its good that there are lots of different places.

It is good that there are lots of different places but they are so expensive that it must be very difficult to obtain one unless your child's behaviour is very difficult to handle. As you say, those children with high needs who do not demonstrate challenging behaviour are left to it.

Please does anyone know how I can get a good lawyer, the Local authority are not being helpful to my nephew with ASD. They have assessed his needs and clearly they understand he cannot cope in a mainstream school. But they do not want to fund for an Independent school.
I have read some of you had to drag them to the tribunal. Please how did you go about this and did you have to pay a lawyer to do this for you? Any suggestions would be appreciated

My sense after years with both children is that unfortunately you cannot really 'outsource' it to anyone. Some people use solicitors, some not, but basically even with solicitors it is the parents that provide the secret ingredient to win the case. There were threads here mentioning solicitors and I suppose they are googlable.

I would say that in any case the first thing is to understand the case law and code of practice personally first. It enables to ask more focussed and targeted questions. Then I used to call all the free helplines to get maximum advice : SOS!SEN, IPSEA, NAS, SENDIAS. If you progressively refine the questions, they will all give slightly different, complementary facets of advice. SENDIAS is a spin off of the LA, even though they are positioned as independent, they will give a sense of what LA is thinking. If you feel you understand DS needs, start visiting schools, independent special schools run very informative open days..

Many thank for your detailed suggestions. Very helpful. I’ll tell my sister as she is stressed with LA being unhelpful. I appreciate your reply.

Go on the IPSEA Foundation Law course. I struggled to understand the legal stuff and code of practice but a day on that course and I was sorted. I went on to write a successful EHCP request. I have no doubt that without that course I would have submitted a poor application, then been forced down the appeal route wasting a couple of years. Defo agree that learning the law yourself is the first and best step to advocacy for your child