Went to the open evening at our catchment secondary school last week. I went with/for Dc3 who is in year 6 but the special needs department was open for viewing/chatting with staff so I ended up having a nose around and asking questions about dc4 who is in year 4 and dc5 who is in year 3. Dc4 has moderate learning difficulties and dc5 has autism. They are both in mainstream primary. Dc4 has an ehcp and dc5 is in the early stages of being assessed for one.
I've been trying to work out whether special needs school or mainstream would be right for dc4 and dc5. I've found the entry requirements for special needs schools really confusing and everything on the websites were really vague as well. There is a lot of talk about support for "children who need it" but without any clear indicators of what support my dc would be entitled to or even if they would get into special needs schools. I want them to be at a school with at least some children who have similar needs to them. Dc4 in particular is very sociable and loves to help. I don't want him to end up in a school full of children who he has nothing in common with.
Anyway the special needs department in our local mainstream school was really good. It was really helpful to be able to tell them dc4's end of primary school target (to be able to write/spell well enough for other people to read and understand his writing) on his ehcp so they could have a good idea of where he will be at the beginning of year 7. It was a really positive experience and I left there feeling a lot less confused.