Advantages and disadvantages of an Independent SS?

[Sahkoora]

One of our local options for an SS is independent. Hoping to go and see it very soon but I just wanted to ask you knowledgeable people exactly what we would be getting ourselves into if we went for this option.

I know nothing, so any experiences and info would be most welcome.

Thanks!

Some of them are excellent.

However, things to look our for are this:

Do they do what they say on the tin? Or is their target market parents in denial (i.e. my experience is that most will say they cater for children more able than the average child that actually attends the school).

Are they likely to inform you if and when your child is ready for mainstream?

Do they actually teach? I know this sounds silly but some have lovely ball pits, horseriding, computer club etc but they all seem to be about giving the children a great childhood when actually they need to prepare well for adulthood. (In this respect I sometimes found state special schools better as they have no budget so instead of shipping the kids off to some exploratory music workshop they attempt to do what they were originally trained to do and teach them to read and write. Often fairly ineffectively but at least they try).

Are the fees realistic? Who are their target market? Kids that have fallen out of mainstream that the LA can't place anywhere else, or kids that have wealthy parents that are keen on early intervention?

What kind of training and qualifications do the staff hold? Some schools have 'special school internal training' and work to very strange (though not saying always ineffective) models of education.

Where do the children go when they leave? How does the school support this? Do they leave when the school runs out of year groups or is there lots of movement in and out at other times?

Thank you Star, that is very helpful. I have a visit on Tuesday so hopefully i will be able to keep your questions in mind while we have a look.

If DS is placed there by the LA, would they fund his place? Everyone is urging me to visit as the local state SS is so over subscribed, but no one has asked if we could afford it (we can't). I was assuming the LA would pay in this instance, but I should probably check if that is the case!

Yes, you would assume that if the LA placed a child there, they would be funding it. That's why it's so hard to get a place. Fees can be anything from £50-100K or more - even at the lower end, that's twice as much as the immediate costs of funding mainstream with full time 1:1. You would have to work very hard to demonstrate that the LA has no options at all that would work for your DC.

Yowch. In a way, that's positive for us as the local state SS is our preferred choice, they are just full. The indie ss doesn't have a peer group for DS either, so they will have to steer back towards finding him a place or putting him down for next year.

Cross things for us!

The thing to also ask the ss is the pupil to teacher ratio. If you can get 1:1 provision for your child in a mainstream environment yet in a ss its 1:3 would your child be able to cope? ...mine wouldn't.
My DC needs 1:1 provision and a ss might not actually give that either.

My DS has had 1:1 in ms and all the bells and whistles that accompany it and he just couldn't cope with all the kids, all the noise and the lack of flexibility.

I think (hope) that a ss will provide him with some understanding and compassion and a chance to learn things his way.

One of the pros dealing with DS said that he might not get a chance to do a full range of GCSEs at a ss, but if he stays in ms it would be unlikely that he'd ever cope with sitting down in an exam hall.

That kind of put things in perspective for me.

sahkoora - can i ask, did you get speech therapy and or occupational therapy put in the statement too? you see my DC is just 4 and started mainstream. i'm trying to get the bells and whistles in my statement and it would be interesting to see if thats what you had too.

Hi, just to clarify do you mean a "special" school as in generic and quite severe learning/physical issues or a "specialist" school for learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, high functioning autism etc? I only ask as my child is at an independent school which covers the latter and is fully funded by LA but it took a year of fighting to get him in! X

Hi :)

I mean a special school where they deal with moderate learning difficulties and have provision for ASD, which is what DS has.

To answer Lesley, DS doesn't need any speech therapy and nor is there any OT in his statement, though I have an advocate working on the proposed one trying to get everything DS needs put in there, so it might appear soon!

I think we are able to look at ss because over the year, his ms have (on paper at least) tried everything going to get DS to settle in school and he just can't. They are saying that ms can't deal with him and the head has refused to offer him a managed move and are threatening permanent exclusion, so the LA have had to sit up and take notice sharpish.