Language unit in failing school vs "outstanding" mainstream school with 1:1

[pinkbunny2012]

Sorry in advance for the long message
Im in a tricky situation, my dd is due to start school in September and a speech and language unit or mainstream with 1:1 has been recommended. I went and had a look around several mainstream schools and have found one about 25 minute drive away which me and my husband really liked, it ticked all the boxes as far as mainstream goes. We then went and had a look around our local speech and language unit. I wasn't really looking forward to looking around as the school itself that its based in has been put onto special measures by Ofsted and has been rated as inadequate overall. However after looking around the unit I was really impressed, but know that eventually my DD with probably end up in the mainstream section and am worried about the school as academically its not very good. However my dd will have 1:2 support all the time and its pretty much the same as her special ed nursery that's she currently in. She will get one hr of mainstream a day with a 1:1, whereas if I send her to the other mainstream one which is outstanding and I was very impressed, im under the impression she wont get any more than 20 hours 1:1 funded. I don't know what to do for the best and I have an appointment with the educational psychologist on Wednesday and need to have made a decision by then. Please anybody with any advice or experience please let me know thanks xxx

Is it possible to find out how many children with SN the MS school has? They may be absolutely brilliant, or they may be unwelcoming and obstructive, when it comes to delivering a statement. Do you know for sure that they would be accommodating and do their best to meet your DD's needs?

Have you visited the outstanding mainstream school, and talked to the HT and SENCO? As ouryve says, some schools with Outstanding OFSTEDs are not massively welcoming to children with special needs - our daughter is academically gifted, but several schools locally were unwilling to accept her because iof her level of SEN. I would say you really need to get along to the mainstream school and talk to them and get a feel for the place.

You may also be surprised at just how well the other school supports your daughter academically. OFSTED reports are important and of course being put into Special Measures is pretty dire....but its not the end of the world and sometimes things can improve pretty drastically once Special Measures are imposed. Sometimes schools that are less 'leafy' and which look a bit rough round the edges can be fantastic at supporting SEN children, as they have much more experience at it. They also tend to have fewer precious parents who will fly off the handle at anything a SEN child does or says wrong (not suggesting that yours is like this at all, jsut mentioning it).

The advantage that the sen school is that she will see a speech therapist regularly , will have a teaching program put into place , class size will be a lot smaller and who knows by time she ready to leave the unit and progress into mainstream section the school could have improved .
It's not just what the school are willen to do , but the effort you willen to give , spending time reading to her , creating stories though pictures . Work that set by speech therapist can come home for you to do little bits , that way your staying in touch with your child education . It be a long slow progress but with everyone's imput who knows where she can end up . This is only the start of her education and if she needs significant speech therapy you will not receive the same support outside the unit , that she will get from them .
Hope this helps , my son is now 14 and spent four years in unit at start of his education , though a lot of hard work on everyone's part not least his he's now studying for gcse in English language / lituriture , maths , history , geography , biology, chemistry and physics , with btech in health and social care , plus doing ten hours a week working on a project in an industrial lab on DNA .
So what I'm saying is never give up on them , even when they paint the worse picture to you . Though hard work and a lot of effort they can suceeded .

How did you get on pink bunny , did you make a decision or are you not ready yet , still need more time , maybe another look round . It's always hard to decide as you constantly think what if I had done . Just remember nothing is set in stone . Thinks change as your daughters requirements change .