Secondary School SEN provision

[chimphead]

Has anyone had any experience with secondary school open evenings Ds age 9 yr 5 ASD possible PDA is on SEN at primary but is doing well academically and has no behaviour problems. However still not dry at times, struglles with fine and gross motor skills, very naive and anxious. Totally disorganised. Has no idea of time or urgency ect ect. School say he wont get ECHP. He is currently at a Catholic primary ( due to only school we could get in) but we not catholic.
Most other children in his class including his only couple of freinds will be going to local catholic high school. Looking on past records my DS will not get in.
This leaves my DS going to the local catchment school where he knows no-one which also is a school that has a bad reputaion for bullying.
I have no car so driving him to a school is out of the question and getting a school bus would be very stressful.
So I am hoping to get him in to a nearby walkable small C of E school. Open evening is coming up. So is it possible to find out about SEN provision and what sort or questions can I ask.
Has anybody Done this as I am struggling to find out any info on SEN provision in any of the local schools. Thanks

Yes. When you look round the schools, seek out the SENCo. Tell them about your ds. Ask them how they would support him.

Separately, I can't help thinking he should apply for an EHCP with all the issues you say he has. They are for dc who struggle to access education, not just for those who are not academic. I would consider a Yr5 who " still not dry at times, struglles with fine and gross motor skills, very naive and anxious. Totally disorganised. Has no idea of time or urgency ect ect" is struggling to access education.

If he had an EHCP then he gets priority choice of school at secondary transfer.

I wold also say - don't only listen to 'reputation'. Go in and speak to the SEN department and make your own judgements.

Loads of people said ds's school had a bullying problem. Ds is now in Y10 and school has been amazing.

I agree you should apply for an EHCP yourself. You should also make appointments to meet with SENCOs 1-1 so you can talk openly and gauge their responses. If they're reluctant to meet I'd be worried.

Agree with others on the EHCP application. If you can apply before Xmas it should be in place by April and you should be able to name the school you want. I just wrote a big post for someone else on the SN list about how to apply, so do check that out.

SEN Provision is really tricky. I imagine our school says that they are great with SEN and they can offer all sorts. In practice they are not that great and (6 months after my DS' plan was finalised) we are still waiting for support to be put in place..... So see if you can think about what support your DS might need and then ask about those specific things. Ask the school how many kids they have with your DS' profile and what sort of typical problems they find cropping up? You will soon get an idea on whether they are talking generally or if they can give you concrete examples. My DS is in Y4 and I bumped into a teacher from our local school so asked. He was really well-meaning but didn't seem to have a real clue. I will try their learning support again in the future, but if I get a similar response I don't think I will gamble on sending him there. We have had way too much of our current primary "experimenting" on us and not dealing with problems. I really can't deal with any more!

Other thing - does your council have a local parent forum for kids with disabilities. Often most of the members have kids with ASD across the whole spectrum. Often they run meet ups - go and meet mums with older kids - they will be able to tell you their experiences with the local schools and also what you need to ask about. Definitely check out the school with a specialist unit - I know Polter faired much better away from her local unit, but in our area people rave about it. An EHCP could get you access to that school and the ASD friendly teachers it is likely to have, plus you might also qualify for school transport.

Hi, Thanks for replies. Visited school. I kind of got the impression that I would need an EHCP to get in as it is oversubscribed church school and we don't go to church. It was so busy. No SeNco but could talk to Head about it but I could not get to him.

Have decided to ask school when I have my next SEN meeting to apply for EHCP. I am having support from our local IASS service so hopefully they wont fob me off this time. I will use this opportunity of open days to visit other schools . So at least I get a feeling for them to name on EHCP ( if we ever get one).

Could I also ask to those whose ASD children are at mainstream High school. How did their DC get on in the first year. What sort of provision was made. My DS is so disorganised and has no sense of time I wonder if he will ever get from class to class or have dinner. Get his PE kit on tie shoe laces etc. Also how did they get on with cooking and woodwork lessons. The time table seems so full .

There is a parents forum and have spoke to a few mums but it seems to me that most schools have had problems

Yes transport is another issue, I am worried about.

Thanks for all the advice and I will get on top of things straight away.

My son has just started off in Year 7 at our local catholic high school (we are catholic). He has ASD and had a period of school refusal in year 6. He has just been awarded an ECHP so we are in the process of trying to make it specific for his needs.

Given DS's level of anxiety last year he is managing very well. He had some additional transition days and is coping OK with going from class to class. He had his own strategy in the first few days which was to miss break to make sure he got to class. Now that he knows his way around I think he is more comfortable with joining friends at break time. My son likes the fact that he only has each teacher for an hour. His executive functioning is poor but we have a 3 way effort with him, me and the SENCO (who seems really on the ball). The school also seems really caring and has grasped that he might not remember to hand a form in and are being more lenient with him than primary school was.

Put shortly a year ago when DS was refusing in year 6 I never imagined he could make the transition. Having the ECHP is useful. I feel we are getting more 'time' from the SENCO than we would without it.

It is daunting looking for secondary schools. I would take the previous advice of applying for the ECHP now.

Good luck.

I had opposite experience to polter

Ds went to a school with a good rep for knowledge with asd. They hadn't a clue and a massive bullying problem they didn't deal with.

I think you have to ask specific questions about how they deal with your child's specific needs. Go in with an open mind to all open evenings, choose the school you think is best for your child and be prepared to communicate with them and move it needs be.
I also know NT children who have moved secondary schools because the one they thought was for them - wasn't.

And look at IPSea for EHCP information. You can do it yourself. I did it without crappy schools support and ds is now is year 9 in a school who want to get it right so when it goes tits up we can improve things.

the school that is supposedly autism friendly looked at ds's behaviour on the look around for dd and more or less said they would be unable to cater for him.

I would apply for the EHCP yourself. Don't leave it up to a school who have already stated he won't get one. They will delay and do it half-hearted.

It isn't complicated and it will give you the skills to advocate for your child during secondary and beyond.

If it is refused (all LAs are refusing at the moment due to their backlogs and not even reading the applications) then submit an appeal which will be decided by a tribunal on paperwork. It's around 90% likelihood you would win at the least an assessment and probably, from how you have described your child, an EHCP.

Do it immediately. If you have to appeal each stage, time is short and you need to get it done for the chance at secondary.

Hi, thanks again. Have spoke to school and told them that I am going to apply for EHCP. Waiting for SEND IAS to get back to me. I have looked at IPSEA sample letter and started writing applictation. Fisrt half of application was ok ( using IPSEA model letter) asking to list the reasons why you feel your child has SEN and any evidence you have to support what you are saying.

Its the secong half that I am struggling with as I am unsure howHigh schools work but on the application it is suggested you include :-
My reasons for believing that my child/young person may need a EHC Plan are:
(list any reasons you have which show why you think that a EHC Plan may be needed i.e. specialist teaching, individual support, therapies).

This is the problem as I dont know what support to ask for.

What provision do other schools give on EHC plans .

I presume I will get help with this from IASS

Thankyou.

IASS should be able to help you.

Don't think about what schools can give but what your child needs.
So you can't say, he needs 1:1 support full time.

But you can say. Has planning organisational issues so will need someone at the start of the day to help him organise his bag and materials.

Will find navigating noisy corridoors in between lessons a challenge so will need provision or support for this.

Will get distracted easily when supposed to be listening so needs support to keep on task/focused or interpreting what the teacher wants him to do.

Will need more breaks than usual and so somewhere to go without losing the learning that he is missing.

Will need help with social skills and playground rules.

etc etc etc.

Google the SEN COde of Practice and look at the 4 areas of need. Try to list our your DS' difficulties under those headings. Look at any paperwork you have or things done for him at school to evidence the list. ASD is considered an "SEN" in its own right, but it is better to list out the way this manifests for your child and to list out signs of "unmet needs" and any problems which "limit access to the curriculum". He may have got on OK at primary with reasonable support, in which case you will be looking to show how the core difficulties of ASD will require additional support in secondary. First and foremost an "ASD friendly environment" of structure with flexibility. The AET have some useful documents on school standards which might give you some ideas of the sorts of things he might need - or better still just reference in the whole document?!

There is lots of info on the net about transitions to secondary for ASD kids and how those who are non compliant are most likely to have difficulties so you don't need specialist reports - there are plenty free studies and documents about to use as references. It is perfectly reasonable to request an EHCP to allow you to choose a secondary school based on provision rather than distance from your house - school choice is something that cannot be delegated to schools by the LA so I think this is definitely something worth mentioning. Best of luck