Indy special schools out west

[inappropriatelyemployed]

Nothing much round here - Wiltshire.

If we move further east - surrey, Hampshire etc it gets more expensive

So we are exploring west. Any ideas: Somerset/Dorset/Devon

should have said - Aspie - able, sensory and hypermobility issues. SLT and OT on statement. Needs small class sizes and appropriate peer group.

Yes. I liked it but, personally, and this is just a personal view, I wondered if the intake was a bit too challenging in a way which is very different to DS's challenging!

We were shown the 'padded room' as part of our tour.

Also outside space was very poor. A concrete baseball court.

That sounds pretty grim, IE :(

Did you see the links to indy school search engines I posted in the Lincolnshire schools thread in chat?

I have a list, upstairs, kindly provided by my LA when I went through SA with each of the boys, but it's probably a few years out of date. I know there's a couple of new autism schools in our area since we got the list (though the first page of the website of one of them pretty much said "don't bother looking for a placement for DS2 because we can't deal with his level of delays and no, we can't envisage being able to sufficiently stretch DS1. Thanks for looking" They pretty much wanted average autistic kids. The website also showed a pic of gangly teens stood at ordinary sitting height desks for a cookery lesson. Given the predominance of hypermobility in people with ASD, not a picture that sold it to me, if I hadn't seen the go away if you're the slightest bit complicated homepage. I've started rambling, haven't I? :o )

Not at all ouryve

Actually the padded room is used for the SI kids to learn how to use the SI/OT apparatus and to throw themselves around in a totally safe manner and for kids to go to when they are angry and want to vent.
It is also very well insulated. So when you are SI overloaded that can help.
Staff can also use it to vent as well!
It is not a punishment room. The kids I speak to there enjoy using it.

Sorry but I didn't say it was a punishment room.

In the tour, we were shown it and it had nothing in it. Just a black padded room without a door. The person showing us round said to my son 'do you get angry? This is where you can come to cool down'

Sorry maybe it's just me but that worried me. This might be nevessary for some kids but it is not what my son needs and it worried me that this was a 'selling point'. That is all I am saying.

Perhaps if they had better outside space, they might not need it. That is my personal view.

Unfortunately so-called AS specific provision seems a bit of misnomer. Many schools take a broad spectrum of children with a variety of needs a d abilities and not just those with AS. They also charge phenomenal fees and so LAs end up placing only those kids who no other school will take

But if you do have any suggestions, do let me know!

mark College Somerset looks interesting enough to go have a look see. You don't have to be residential there btw

www.priorygroup.com/location-results/item/mark-college---somerset

IE

I looked into AS provision in the SW about 8 years ago when DS needed Yr 10 placement.

North Hill House looked good but its Ofsted report put me off as it seemed to cater for the less academically able (very fee took GCSEs there in those days).

NHH is the natural precursor to Farleigh FE College (also in Frome) that DS eventually went to.

But confusingly there is also a Farleigh College in Mells, Somerset which is an AS residential college.

My problem, at the time, was finding a specialist AS placement that also allowed DS to take GCSEs - few did.

Sorry - the one in Mells is Farleigh school - not a college.

Right - 2nd attempt at getting it right

The one in Mells is called Farleigh College but is in fact a SCHOOL.