Wouldn't it be *such* a good idea if all schools were like this?

[Blandmum]

primary, secondary and special school all on one site and integtrated

ah but its more than a sensory room- we have dark room, sand and splash, soft play- sensory rooms I think would make it across- sand & splash no, and from the video I have sand & splash has so many advantages.

ah -0 the current ms head- that's probably why- I think special school heads are often a different breed......

Sweet that ds1 is looking forward to it. Done well I think it can be positive (and I think your ds2 is far more likely to benefit from ms than my ds from what I have seen).

We only have light room and soft play very little room left in school , so on that count a move would help as we would get a purpose built room

school even

oh and hydro....- would ms get access? It's expensive. Should they get access? Does that mean that the children with SN will miss out?

Fundraising for the school- where does it get spent. Hydro was funded and refurbished by the PTA at a cost of many thousands- would that sort of thing be budgeted for from a combined PTA. Should it be if only a small % f children in the school will benefit? Different needs again.

at own hydro , we use the one at the local (8 miles away) hospital and have about an hour a week.

PTA in MS would have different priorites and the parents would out number the SN parents too.We also get a lot of donations from the local community would they then have to be spilt?

exactly.......

Hydro is fab, ds1 tends to go to the public pool now, but hydro is used constantly. He still has hydro sessions sometimes (he finds the public pool a bit difficult) ; and had all his early swimming lessons in there. Children with physical disabilities get more access obviously.

the hydro pool is a sensory room as well- has all the lights etc.

Message withdrawn

Current Head of ms works very closely with Head of special (think they're friends!) and ms already has language unit on site and a significant number of kids with SEN doing p/t unit, p/t integration. From what I can see, it works very well. There's a girl with SEN in DS1's class and I'm plucking up the courage to talk to her dad about how it works for them. The co-location is actually the brainchild of the m/s head - I was very impressed with her enthusiasm and drive when we talked to her.

Gess - what's sand and splash exactly? I mean, I can guess what it IS but how is it set up and used?

It's a room (quite large), with one half a big sandpit, and the other a large shower area. I've seen it used for free play (4 children; 3 adults) and as a PECS requesting lesson. Apparently it also gets used for maths & just about everything else etc (as does soft play!). I think it's sensory input is really helpful DS1 much happier about beaches & will leap in showers now!

The school also has a dark room which can be used as a place to cut down on all distractions; one child; one adult; spotlight and piece of work, as well as all the more usual dark room activities. Add in the many kitchens, the white room, the snoezelen hydro pool and I'm not sure how many would make it across.

I just can't imagine the PTA of a combined school raising 20 grand then using it to refurbish the hydro pool- it would go into a new computer suite or something which really wouldn't benefit children with complex SN in the same way. I do think it can work with less complex children who don't need access to the specialist equipment, but beyond a certain stage...... Our head was talking about it recently and said that his concern with putting loads of resources into one site is that the ones who couldn't access mainstream would end up being left behind and not catered for.

staff and Gov's from DD's SN school went to vist Teeside school which sounds the same (it could be the same school my geography is bad)i had the chance to go but it clashed with a hospital trip, they are considering this model for DD's school too.