Hi all
My autistic son is currently in mainstream state primary in central west London and needs quite a high level of support to engage with the curriculum, etc. He doesn't have significant behavioural problems and I believe that his occasional upset - and engagement difficulties - are primarily due to the sensory demands of a busy school. This is borne out by his hugely improved ability to apply himself at home.
We are exploring secondary options. In an ideal world, I would love to have him in a nurturing mainstream independent school with small class sizes. I strongly suspect that we could fade back his one-to-one to occasional or background support in such an environment. Does anyone know of any independent secondaries in central or west London which might be open to such an experiment?! We appreciate that we would have to pay for additional support, as well as the fees.
All our local state secondaries are unsuitable. They are too large and busy and there is no way he would thrive. It would also mean that he would continue to need high levels of support to cope with the chaos of the setting. We want to move him towards independence. Special/specialist schools (e.g. Blossom House) have indicated that they cannot meet his academic needs (he is decent at maths - middle of the pack, sometimes top, depending on the area, but perhaps 12 months-ish behind with literacy). He is also used to and has benefitted from having a neurotypical peer group.
Does anyone have any suggestions/thoughts?