Secondary school and EHCP

[whiteknuckleride2]

DD is in year 5 and has an EHCP. We have just found out we need to apply for secondary school by June this year. We had no idea, and had done a couple of preliminary visits but nothing that serious, but now obviously we need to take it more seriously. We've also been advised to look at schools out of borough just for the sake of comparison.

I have no idea where to start so wondered if anyone had any brilliant schools they could recommend - we are in Redbridge, East London, but would travel/move for the right school. DD has a preliminary ASD diagnosis but we are getting a second opinion as the team who assessed her did not seem to understand her at all. I suspect attention/sensory issues are more of a problem. She is very bright (working at X+, reading age of 16+), very imaginative, hates PE and can be socially awkward. She has come miles from when the EHC application was made in year 2 and I am not sure she would get one if the application were made now, but obviously we are anxious about the transition to secondary school.

I want her to go to a school where she will feel safe and helped to achieve as highly as she can. We would go private for the right school but from what I can see often the state sector is better for SEN. If anyone has had any great experiences I'd love to hear them. Equally any utter disasters if in our area! Thank you.

Sorry, I can't help in relation to schools, but would question the June deadline. The LA has to amend the EHCP to name the new school by 15th February in Year 6, and normally start off the process with an early annual review in the Autumn term before that.

You may get more responses to the main query in the SN Children or SN Chat forums.

I think someone might’ve misinformed you. That’s wrong, your child has every right to go to year 6 open evenings just like their peers. Basically this is what happens: end of year 5 current parents are asked in their annual review if they have preferences as to secondary schools and their ehcp will be sent to those schools for consultation. You can send your child’s information to as many schools as you want for consultation. Those schools will then need to reply whether they could meet your child’s needs or not.
If you’re not ready to give names of consults you need to inform your review panel of this so that they don’t put a blank under section I and give you any old school. Go to all the open evenings and than inform the la of your 2 options. They have until 15 Feb of the spring term of year 6 to tell you what setting you’ve got.
The transfer review meeting also takes into account whether the child still needs an ehcp in the next stage of learning and if you think she’s changed a lot you can request for a re assessment. This can obv mean she can lose the provision.
Under section 19 you can request an independent mainstream school as a ‘parents wishes’. You are right that their Sen provision can be iffy and there isn’t as many people to complain to if things go bad. There’s horror stories in both sector tbh and it depends on what sort of school you go for. In order to name in on the ehcp though section 48(3) doesn’t apply and the school doesn’t have to give your child the place, she’d have to get in on her own accord and the la would have to ask permission from the school to name it.

Hope that’s helpful.

Thank you both very much. That’s really helpful - and makes a lot more sense. I suspect the Senco isn’t on top of the procedure so I will ring the local authority and check. Thanks very much indeed for taking the time to pass on the info.

Bear in mind you can call secondary schools now to meet with sencos and have your own tours. If you do his mid year they're likely to be less busy. Really popular schools may be less nice with this but in our experience only 1 refused to do this.
Another thing i wanted to point out is that your DD may seem like she doesn't need that much help now but secondary school is a whole different ball game. I would hold on to it till at least year 8 to see how shes got on.
Also if your LA may well speak to you regarding sec school in June but their official consultations for all kids should start in autumn term of year 6 to give all kids a fair chance, including those who have just got EHCPs.
Primary sencos are just teachers with a couple of days extra training, if they're doing it for the TLR than they are often not very good or informed.
We've just been through this whole process with our DD who's in year 6 and i would really urge you to see as many schools as you can now, we left it till this autumn and it was really stressful and overwhelming. We're still due to have 2 private tours. Call the school and get a feel of how the senco is... youll be dealing with them for at leasy 5 years, ehcp or not. I've spoken to some amazing ones and some who were outright rude.

All the best.