Please or to access all these features

SN children

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

Meath school, would you push yourself to the limit for it?

46 replies

someoneoutthere · 23/05/2013 18:12

That's it really. We are considering it for DS who is almost 8. It will mean being away from DH for the next three years. DS's main difficulties are speech, language and communication although he is on the spectrum. He has functional language, but no conversation skills. We are conscious that DS is almost 8, so he can only go to meath school the next three years. His language is very disordered, he struggles to find the right word when talking. We are hoping that the school will give him the push he needs. What do you think?

OP posts:
someoneoutthere · 25/05/2013 04:59

Thank you orange lolly. It is really good to hear your experience. This types of positive feedback makes us feel that we are making the right decision. We are not looking into statementing yet as we have been non residents for a while. Until we spent 3-6 months in the UK and become habitually resident again, we are not allowed any public funding (i am dreading going back to the GP). Moreover, I am not sure if I have it in me to fight so much with the system going on MNSN experience. I can't rule it out completely though, like you said DH's company might stop paying.

Star, I had a look at the Blossom House website, on paper I can't see much difference to meath house.

OP posts:
someoneoutthere · 25/05/2013 05:11

Meath school, why are they all named as 'house'? There is BH, Moor house.

OP posts:
zzzzz · 25/05/2013 10:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

someoneoutthere · 25/05/2013 14:52

Yes, America-the land of dream.

OP posts:
zzzzz · 25/05/2013 17:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

someoneoutthere · 25/05/2013 18:02

We have tried everything we possibly can here, he is progressing at a snail's pace. We either continue to do what we are doing or try something different. We are still visiting the new school with an open mind, wanting to see what they can offer.

OP posts:
zzzzz · 25/05/2013 20:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

zzzzz · 25/05/2013 20:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lexy444 · 25/05/2013 21:28

My 9 year old has been at ICAN Meath since reception year. For us it has been fantastic, his speech has improved massively (he has huge articulation issues but receptive language is good), they have also been great with his other needs which include feeding issues and Visual impairment even though he was the only tube fed and VI child on role when he started. SLCN was one of the two primary needs he has. The staff are fab and overall pastoral care is just lovely, I am already dreading him leaving Meath, it feels like such a family school to us now.
We are reasonably local (30 mins away) so don't board but take advantage of the overnight program, son sleeps over 1 night a week at our cost (it's very subsidised to parents) to give us respite and him social opportunities to play with peers.

I would have fought to get him into Meath as I knew after the visit and assessment it was the right and only place for him. However we were lucky we didn't need to fight the LA at all....they placed him and funded him and an LSA with no battle. I know this story is not reflective of most parents of Meath kids who did have to make huge efforts to persuade their LA or go to tribunal. Not sure what else to write but please ask if you want to know more.

someoneoutthere · 26/05/2013 15:14

Thank you lexy444. I have so many questions to ask. What do you like about the school? What are the negative sides? They say they put children in a class according to their comprehension level. DS is a bit like your DS in that his receptive language is really good, but his expressive language is at that 2-3 years level. He is no problem in telling us what he wants, going out/playing/ feeling sick etc. But you ask him what did you do at school today, he would be lost.

He is in a mainstream school with 1:1 at the moment, socially he is really learning from his peers. He is independent with the routine of the school, following group instructions etc. So I am a bit worried that I am taking him away from the his peers. But at the same time I know that his peers won't be interested in him for long as they get older.

DS is also very sporty, so what are the opportunities at meath to pursuit sports? How do they deal with behaviours? DS at the moment does not have any behavioural issues, but he tends to start messing around when he is bored.

More than anything, I am hoping to know about the class structure, how they teach the curriculum, how long is each class (DS has to sit and learn from whiteboard in his current school, no hands on teaching which is quite difficult for DS). How do they teach conversation skills?

Sorry for asking so many questions.

OP posts:
someoneoutthere · 26/05/2013 15:16

Sorry for so many typos, trying to give the DC's dinner at the same time.

OP posts:
lexy444 · 27/05/2013 20:27

Yes, the children are arranged due to comprehension level. So mixed ages in each class. Currently there are 5 classes, the largest class size we've been in over the years has been 10 kids. Each class has teacher, SALT and an LSA. Plus my son comes with another LSA as his one to one so high level of staffing. We go in once a term for a hour class observation, followed by a chat with the Teacher and SALT. That is really the only chance we get to see the teaching in action so I am unable to give you very much in the way of concrete facts in terms of how they work the magic and "how they teach conversational skills" as requested etc. Sorry! But when you visit you'll be able to ask specifics to your situation, in my experience the visit is not rushed and you can spend plenty of time chatting. When we joined the school DS had to have a two day ICAN assessment before a place is offered which I assume is still the case, an Ed Psych formed part of the assessment.

What I do know is my son has a full time SALT in his class which was something we could not have dreamed about in mainstream. But beyond the class the whole curriculum and teaching style and wider school at large is all geared towards a simplified language model, there is a lot of emphasis on visual supports. All the lessons I have witnessed have been very hands on teaching, with lots of discussion, calling on kids to participate, I am not sure how many lessons per day and haven't had a timetable this year but in previous years we did have a timetable provided and it was at least 5 different ones each day I think. I know that DS currently has at least 5 scheduled SALT sessions as a minimum per week including a one private session per week, one group session, and he takes part in things they call a vocab session, buzzwords, a friends group session and something else I've forgotten! (think that friends group might be the one where they work on social skills and conversation with 2 or 3 other kids). Even in the group of 10 kids in his class they always seem to do maths in two separate groups when I've been on observation and it seems to be the norm to stream the class into groups for various activities. We saw him do typing his weekend news in ICT followed by investigating the meanings of what would be this week's spellings on our last visit and the class had been split into two groups for that. In his individual SALT session at the moment the therapist is working on production of sound /t/ - ie. oral motor strength stuff and practising forming the sounds with a mirror and then using the sound and t words with games and in real life situations etc...we spent ages on /s/ and at age 9 he now finally can produce an /s/ sound which is a miracle (my son has facial palsy and nerve weaknesses) and has improved his clarity no end. We get SALT targets each term and ours focus on speech production and social skills as that is what my DS needs but for other kids the SLCN would be different and therefore I can only tell you what they do for my DS.

My son is not sporty at all and being VI finds PE difficult, so I am not well informed about sports stuff, they have an after school football club and annual sports day, I think that some of the overnighters go to a gym club too. They do swimming on some terms as the school has a pool.
It's a very small school so you might feel you'd need to meet the sports needs outside of school via clubs etc.

They follow the National Curriculum, you get a topic plan each term showing the topics which they are covering and some of the targets for each subject. Plus your child's own targets for each half term. They have music and art with a specialist teacher and then most other things with their class team.

Anyway, please don't take any of the above as undisputed facts as this is just my impressions of the school. It's funny that answering this makes me realise how little I know about what actually goes on at school. It's the same for my other child in a regular mainstream school too though, we don't get invited in to watch huge swathes of their school experience. But Meath is working for our DS. And it would have been worth the battle! It's not closed either, I don't want to give that impression, all staff are very approachable and you can always talk to someone about concerns. Plus we often go in outside of class observations for talent show, concerts, parent workshops, sports day, socials, pta meetings, etc...I just haven't had to dig too deeply into the teaching style as I have witnessed my DS's progress which has been good.

I will ask a couple of other Meath parents to see if they will pop over to the thread to add their answers to your questions.

The best thing will be the visit as you will see the school yourself and know if you can see your child there. Good luck!

someoneoutthere · 28/05/2013 05:30

Thank you so much lexy444. The class structure sounds perfect for DS, having individual targets, 5 times a week speech therapy sounds like a dream scenario. No wonder you don't want DS to leave the school ever!

I am aware of the assessment they do before taking on a child. Unfortunately, I have already booked and paid in advance an educational psychologist assessment for DS with somebodyelse, this was before we considered the option of moving back to the UK. But when I called, they did say that the educational psychologist assessment does not have to be with them. I hope they stick to their words, otherwise we will end up paying for it twice.

We are visiting the school in July, just wanted to know other people's experience before making such a big decision.

OP posts:
zzzzz · 28/05/2013 06:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lougle · 28/05/2013 06:55

It sounds like he'd be an ideal candidate, zzzzz.

zzzzz · 28/05/2013 08:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lexy444 · 28/05/2013 10:04

zzzzz I would request a visit if you are interested in Meath, or call and ask to speak to one of the senior teachers to talk though your queries.

All the kids are different so don't assume your child would be too anythingy to attend!

If you think your child would benefit from intensive speech therapy then it is definitely a school to consider. The speech and language impairments really vary and are very complex for some children, from what I have seen there are children who need ACC devises, children who mainly use sign, children who verbalise normally and talk clearly but have huge difficulties in understanding language, children who have expressive language problems, children who talk but are hard to understand what they are saying because of speech production issues etc....

They also have a full time OT at school and some kids have sensory diets and SI therapy.

I remember the first class he was in was like boot camp for school, they got him toilet trained he started in nappies age 4! Focus was on learning to sit still, listen, turn take, language was simplified greatly questions were like two word sentences "Who.. doing?" "What.. making?" based on their visual timetable of activities. Everything was accompanied by a picture or sign.
Instructions were like "First shoes, then running"
"Sit down, drink time".

But children enter the school into all the class levels, they don't all start in the bottom class and work up, they are placed at the right class level. Pupils join at all ages in primary and all year round too, not just in September.

silviahm3 · 28/05/2013 10:12

Just to say like Lexy444 my son is at Meath. He has a tracheostomy and they all got trained up. It's amazing how much they go that extra mile. It is a wonderful school. I would consider maybe having DS board rather than splitting the family. DS would sleep at school Monday-Thursday and come home for the weekend. It does work very well.

Do ask more questions. Meath has been pivotal in Max's development. I would highly recommend.

Sx

someoneoutthere · 29/05/2013 14:25

It sounds perfect for DS. My only concern is how they deal with the behavioural side in a classroom setting (it just we worked so hard to reduce all his spectrumy behaviour with ABA). I am looking forward to the visit, wish we could do it earlier than July, as everything is hanging on the visit at the moment. Unfortunately, boarding is not an option for us as I can't just fly back every weekend from thousands of miles away and I also think DSbis too young to board. The nights he is going to board, I will be staying up all night worried about him.

OP posts:
lexy444 · 29/05/2013 15:00

someoneoutthere I am not familiar with ABA, but I am sure within ICAN Meath there will be staff who will be and they will be able to tell you all about how they manage behaviour in the classroom. I do know they have a Family Support Worker who works with some families in the home and with the kids in school to provide support for behaviour. She came for a home visit before our DS started school and said if the teachers have difficulty with a behaviour or feel we need a program or plan then you might find we meet again as I will do home visits to support the work in school...but as yet have not seen her again at our home so.... Smile

Hope the visit goes well in July!

Poshwatermelon · 10/03/2026 01:30

lexy444 · 29/05/2013 15:00

someoneoutthere I am not familiar with ABA, but I am sure within ICAN Meath there will be staff who will be and they will be able to tell you all about how they manage behaviour in the classroom. I do know they have a Family Support Worker who works with some families in the home and with the kids in school to provide support for behaviour. She came for a home visit before our DS started school and said if the teachers have difficulty with a behaviour or feel we need a program or plan then you might find we meet again as I will do home visits to support the work in school...but as yet have not seen her again at our home so.... Smile

Hope the visit goes well in July!

I know this is over ten years old but could you kindly give me your views on how you found Meath for your DS over the years he was there?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page