Mainstream schools supportive of ASD - SW London?

[Rebeccakw]

Hi all - my daughter (6) is at the early stages of expected ASD diagnosis. The school’s approach has been terrible. She’s academically advanced but struggles with social communication and can be disruptive when she gets frustrated. She has been moved to a room with a TLA and no interaction with peers for an indefinite period (with almost certain negative affect of emotional well-being). They claim that if not she would be excluded (we believe that attitude to be discriminatory and will pursue it separately). It’s just not a welcoming environment and we wonder if you can recommend any schools in SW London with good SEN provision, or at least a supportive approach?

Are you looking at state schools or private? If the former you’re more limited on area unless your daughter has an EHCP (is this something you’re looking at if not?). Where exactly are you?

If you can go private, I've heard good things about Finton House school. The other one is the Hall school, but reviews seem more mixed. State schools can vary - if they're good, they don't tend to publicise it because if they have a lot of kids coming and needing extra help it can drain finances for the rest of the school.

My kids are on the spectrum, and they were helped a lot by their primary, but since they left I've heard that the school is telling prospective parents of SEN kids that they're swamped. Massive real terms funding cuts have meant that budgets are already stretched, and money for SEN has been particularly hard hit for lots of different reasons.

Thanks for this. Our preference would be state, but we would try to send her to a private school if that was the best option.

We are in Wimbledon. We are at the early stages of applying for an EHCP, but I’m not keen to wait for that to conclude as it will of course take time and we would like to move her to a more supportive environment as soon as possible.

Hi Rebeccakw, I've sent you a pm