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SN children

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

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Original poster

mainstream/special needs

15 replies

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 09:52

we are having a few problems with ds and his mainstream school, when do you decide that it just isn't working, i dont want to do anything rash but just wondering if he would be better in special needs, what are the positives in mainstream, help me to find some please, my son is seven and has autism

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fio2 · 27/09/2004 10:00

have you looked round a suitable special school? and would he definately have a place there? The only reason i ask is that special places are VERY VERY hard to come by and he may not get one anyway. If you are unhappy with this particular school, have you tried looking at other mainstream schools to see if there are any more suitable?

My daughter goes to special school. The reasons i like it is
1:1 (8 children in class, 8 support workers, 1 teacher)
All trained in makaton Pecs
Very structured environment
All induvidual education plans
Beautiful purpose built building, sensory room etc
Weekly Hydrotherapy
Fortnightly Riding for the disabled
Free transport (as part of her statement)
For Inclusion
There are more but i would waffle on forever

We are currently looking at mainstream schools for an 'outreach' placement for her. i feel very lucky that we managed to get her a place at this particular school and hopefully she will do well there.

i know there are lots of ladies on this board who have had/are having great experiences with mainstream schools aswell

HTH

Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 10:23

thanks fio2, i have twin girls in special school and it is a lovely school, trouble is i dont want all three in the same class, the class below his sisters i am not sure would be right either, he is seven the girls are 10, he is much more able than they are in lots of ways, not sure if they would push him enough ideally i would like him to be placed with children who are on a similar level or more able than himself IYKWIM,its just such a hard decision to make, is he wasting time in mainstream, they are giving him spelling homework that he did in reception they can seem to find the level he is at, hes refusing to do stuff that i know he can do, i just dont want to put him throu big changes if it won't work.

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fio2 · 27/09/2004 10:26

could he do half and half? would the special school be willing to take him with a view to an 'outreach' place at a mainstream setting where the special school couyld advise the mainstream better? does that make sense?

coppertop · 27/09/2004 10:30

What kinds of problems is he having? Are they things that the school could help with if they had a different attitude? If so then I would consider looking at other m/s schools in the area as places in special schools are really hard to come by.

If you have a look at Mrsforgetful's old threads, she used to have a lot of problems with her boys' m/s school. When she moved them to a different school it solved a lot of the problems. (Where are you, MrsF? )

Ds1 is in a m/s primary school. He's only been there a few weeks though so I suppose it's still early days yet but he's doing really well. He doesn't have a statement (although this may change in Yr1) but is on SA+. There is enough support in place to help him work on his weak areas while giving him more challenging work/activities in those areas where he is ahead of the other children. He's learning quite a bit from the other children too wrt social skills etc. The school has its own sensory integration programme which he does every morning and loves.

I think the only real problem we've had so far is that the Head had a fairly fixed idea in her head about what a child with autism should be like. As the SALT put it, she seriously overestimated the problems that ds1 would have. This meant that she wasn't keen on him attending full-time at all. Thankfully ds1 has proved her wrong and he is slowly building up the hours he spends at school.

Jimjams · 27/09/2004 10:44

how far along the spectrum is he? My non-verba' 5 year old attends mainstream school and there are certain advantages. HOwever I know the school wonder whether they are doing as much for him as a special placement could- and trying to fund things like PECS training, concept keyboards etc is a constant battle. The school have suggested that they try to see whether he can attend a special school on an outreach basis- so that he can use things like a sensory room. It is more usual to do it the other way round (attend mainstream for outreach)- but with the pushing of inclusion my view is that LEA's have to become more creative about what they will fund.

How positive are the school with him? Does he have full time one to one and a statement etc? Getting aplace in special school can be very hard.

Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 12:03

thanks for your replies folks, he has a statement, he went to an autism nursery and did really well, its the little things that school dont consider that bother him, big upset at dinner time cos someone was sitting in his chair in the dining room, nobody told me and i found out cos i asked him what he had for dinner and he started hitting his head and crying so i knew something had bothered him, there just seems to be a mis-match in what school think he knows and what he shows us he knows, he has one friend at school who is emigrating next month, i can just see the gap between his peers widening so much and i dont know if its fair to leave him where he is, as for another mainstream school, we looked at so many schools for him and this was the only one , we felt was any good, others made it clear that they didn't want him in there school, and yes we could push for him to go to one of those schools but i dont really want my son to go somewhere he is not wanted.

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Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 12:08

he gets 11 1/2 hours and we battled to get those
he started on fifteen hours but his hours were dropped this term, he has some additional transistion hours but he wont get them for long,
i dont know how difficult it would be to get him a place at special needs school we got his sisters in there o.k but we did have to wait a year for it to happen

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blossomhill · 27/09/2004 12:13

Onlyjoking - My dd (who is 5 and has language disorder) attends a mainstream school that has an attached language unit. It means that dd has the best of both world. She receives a high level of support and teaching and also gets the chance to make friends in the mainstream class. It has really worked for us. I couldn't see dd coping totally in mainstream (well not for a few years) and completely special needs school would not be right for her either.

pixel · 27/09/2004 12:14

We must have been really lucky as we had no problems at all getting ds into a special school. In fact we were the only ones who even questioned whether he could go to a mainstream school and went to talk to the senco as dd's school.
I agree though, that it's worth looking around as the school's attitude is so important. The special schools we visited both had staff with helpful, friendly attitudes and a real enthusiasm for having ds there. They were pleased to show us around and left us feeling very positive. By contrast the mainstream senco made it obvious she wasn't too keen on having him, listed all the negatives and didn't even want to show us around. When we came out we didn't need to discuss it, we both knew it was a no-no.

Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 12:30

we don't have any mainstream school with specialist unit attached, we love the special needs school our twin girls attend, but dont want to give up on mainstream to soon, i dont think we would have a problem getting him a place at special school, they all know us there and i spend a lot of time there helping with swimming/after school club, just feeling unsure about mainstream and don't know if its a glitch or just a mum thing i am feeling

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Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 20:59

been to my girls special school today had a chat with the head who says there will be some vacancies for sept due to lots moving up to comp, which is when my girls will be moving too, i took ds to the after school club at the school and he had a great time on the trampoline and in the soft play, still not sure about if to move him yet, anyone moved there child from mainstream to special needs? any thoughts or advice

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Jimjams · 27/09/2004 22:18

He doesn't get much support does he onlyjoking (for comparison my son gets full time one to one including mealtimes and break times). It sounds as if he will need more support if mainstream is going to work. I do know a child in the year above ds1 who is much higher functioning than ds1. he started with about 10 hours a week but with the help of the school hassling the LEA that has been increased to full time. Do the school think he needs more support?

Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 22:25

well he started off with 10 hours and after a battle i got it up to 15 hours but now it has gone down again, thing is he isn't a problem, in that he doesn't cause them any problems with his behavior, too good for his own good kinda thing, he may not be doing his work but will be reading a book so no disruption, i have a meeting with senco on wednesday but she tends to smile a lot and nod but thats about it, his lsa is great but she is struggling to find where he is at with reading spelling and times tables.

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Davros · 27/09/2004 22:27

OJ, is he in a form with his chronologically aged peers? Would it be worth considering asking for him to be a year or even 2 under his own age? I know this has worked very well for lots of my friends children. Just a thought.

Original poster

onlyjoking9329 · 27/09/2004 22:34

my son has been with his peers since starting school, he has some friends thou it is not your typical friendship type thing, in some ways my son is more able than his peers, but doesnt demonstrate this at school, i dont think it would work to move him down a year or two cos he wouldnt know anyone and in some respects it wouldnt challenge him enough, i am toying with the idea of a split placement that way i will see how the specialist input helps him without losing his place in mainstream, thou don't know if lea will want to do that

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