Senior School advice - Aspergers

[VioletsArePurple]

I'm starting to think about senior school options for my now year 4 HF ASD child. He excels at maths and science, and really excels at computing. He struggles with English. I'm not sure he will be able to do the full curriculum of GCSEs in a few years time. I'm under the impression no state school will alter their curriculum so he will have to do things like English Lit and RE. What other options do I have. I can not afford private school, but would consider it if the LA was willing to pay the tuition through his EHCP. I understand this is theoretically possible but unlikely.

Any advice from people who have ASD children already in senior school?

We had exactly the same thing with our HF ASD son. Brilliant at maths, science and computing, but rubbish at English based subjects ( like history, geog eng lit etc). We had various meetings with the SENCo at his school and they have been brilliant. We do a awful lot work at home with English comprehension and creative writing. Things have got better after options year as he was allowed to drop all humanities. The first three years were difficult, but we didn’t pressure or expect too much from geog/history/re and the arty subjects. I would advise to have meetings with the SENCo of the school he will go to and ask them to monitor his English attainment as that is the only one that he really needs to pass.

Do you mind if I ask what kind of school your son attends? Independent/state/mainstream/grammar?

Mainstream grammar school

Ds is 15 and at a state grammar school. He was only diagnosed in September but I deeply regret sending him to this school. He passed the 11+ without tution but this school has been completely the wrong environment for him.

The pastoral care and SEN support at the school is dire. His late diagnosis and awful experience at this terrible school has left him with significant mental health difficulties. My advice would be to look carefully at the pastoral and special needs support the school offer. We made a mistake and Ds has paid the price for it.

Punxsutawney I'm really sorry to hear your son'ssituation. Can you change schools? Or can you work with school to get some reasonable support? Has he got an EHCP?

My ADHD son goes to a state grammar but I have been pleasantly surprised by the pastoral care and SEN support.

How is your son doing academically? Can he change schools for A level?

Violets he's doing ok academically despite everything going on. He won't reach his potential in his gcses but he will do well enough to study A Levels.

I'm determined that he moves elsewhere for sixth form. Even though he hates school he very worried about any change but I think he has to move.

School will not work with us or offer anymore support. At the moment they have said they are going to make us pay for the support they have recently referred him for and have told us they will be send the us a bill in the post. They have no understanding of SEN and no care or compassion at all. I think you can probably tell that our relationship with them is terrible, the Senco won't even have contact with us.

Oh, that is terrible... and illegal. You should get in touch with IPSEA for some free legal advice. If he's 15, is this his GCSE year? So, possibly end in sight...?

Have you considered applying for an EHCP? Or hiring an Ed Psych to go into school to get their attention and explain, from a professional viewpoint, what his needs are? The Ed Psych report will also be very useful in and EHC Needs Assessment request. All this might be very helpful in his transition and support to A level and to Uni.

Yes gcse year, so the end is in sight. Up until now we have not considered an EHCP necessary but we may have to look into it as school are so unsupportive.

Ds has never had any input or assessment with an Ed psych, school have always said that it is not needed. We are looking at a sixth form elsewhere so I hope they will be better. To be honest they can't be much worse!

At the moment there is no way he would be able to live away from home and independently at Uni. I guess we will have to see what his options are when he reaches that stage.

My dd is in year 8 and has HFASD. Her anxiety is so high that school is becoming increasingly hard. We only got the diagnosis in the summer. School seem to be still treating her like a child with anxiety rather than asd. She goes to student support a lot when she cant cope. Some days it is difficult to get her into school.
What reasonable adjustments could/should be expected?

@AnneofAvonlea that is such a good question. I think what are suitable reasonable adjustments can vary so much. But it sounds like she needs a variety of adjustments in place to help support her anxiety. Have you thought about sending an Ed Psych into school to suggest what adjustments would be appropriate to help her meet her potential?

I didnt know I could do that @VioletsArePurple. Ive sent an email asking for a meeting and asking for extra help in the form of her going to learning support rather than student support, maybe having an lsa to help her, or moving classes (due to issue with another child) and asking for and ehc assessment. So I will see what they say to all of that first.
I am happy to pay for ed psych to go in if that's an option.

Of course you can. So often kids with Aspergers are able to perform academically ( and so school says they are fine) but actually they are suffering and eventually that impacts their academic performance. My aspie is still in primary. He is academically very capable. But he suffers from social anxiety. He hardly speaks at school. He never shuts up at home. His last school would sit him in a corner with the other disruptive kids whilst they educate the others. We left that school for one that actually cares about his education. There are two legal questions the LA can ask in determining whether you need and EHC assessment (1. the child may have SEN and 2: the child may benefit from the provision in an EHCP). No other questions are legal. It sounds to me like you may need to apply for an EHC Need assessment and get a good private EP assessment to support your fight for an EHCP.

www.ipsea.org.uk/ehc-needs-assessments

Thanks. I will see what the school say to my request for an assessment. I would like to do it with their support really.

She is refusing to see her psychologist after 3 sessions so it has been suggested we try an OT now. I am just running out of ideas...