Hi I have visited an independent school that specialises in additional needs, which I think could meet ds (13) needs far better than the MLD secondary he is presently attending with minimal progress and increasing unhappiness. Most of the children in the Indi are more able than DS but there is a new unit for more complex needs which should suit his needs well. This schools aims to meet the needs of each individual, (rather than just say they do but not give individual support)so ds could have help in all his areas of need. It has smaller classes, more TA support and specialist OT, SALT PT reading and maths support on sight. Ds no longer gets SALT (or social support), OT or reading or maths help in school despite having unclear speech, social communication difficulties, poor coordination with sensory issues and only just beginning to read (level P8 -1C).
I suspect the LA will consider little progress to be acceptable for a child with mod/sev LD, ( if you look back to his grades leaving SN primary there is little change) and consider his secondary to be meeting his needs. Do I have any chance of getting full or part funding for an Indi?
Ds is Dxed with ASD and ADHD, and was doing reasonably well at MLDprimary (except in reading). We are doing things at home and he benefitted from extra reading support last year but this has been withdrawn as it is only available to year 7 children. I have tried to argue for this support because I feel Ds is ready to make progress - and certainly is in our home programme. He is behind his class mates, so would be amongst the least able in either school.
How do I go about trying to get the LEA (notorious) to consider this transfer and then pay for it? (We still need to organise an in house assessment to see if indi could offer ds a place) There is no residential or specialist medical need. We might be able to fund a couple of years ourselves.