Would you put sibling in ARP school?

[Sprogonthetyne]

My eldest (6) has autism and attends an ARP about 15/20 minutes drive away, he's been there a year and the placement seems to be working well for him. He currently gets school transport and is picked up before I take his younger sister (3) to school nursery at our local school.

My youngest is also on the diagnosis pathway, but her needs are less extreme, so I suspect when she gets to school she will be supported in mainstream (though that could change). She is due to move to reception in 2024 and I can't decide if we should stay at the local school or try for a place at the mainstream part of her brother's school through sibling link (she'd have a fairly good chance of getting in).

Pros of local school
-currently settled in nursery
-friends near by for playdates
-currently supporting diagnosis
-easier transition to local secondary

Pros of brother's school
-really good senco/ more sen aware teachers
-same inset/casual cloths/events
-could drive both so no taxi for eldest

Which would you choose?

Tricky. As you set out there are positives of both.

What is the local school like for supporting SEN? Have you spoken to their SENCO? How do DS and DD get on? Obviously they wouldn’t be in the same class, but would either benefit from being completely away from the other? Have you spoken to parents of DC in MS in the ARP school? How forthcoming is support for DC wholly in MS classes.

The local school used to have a great senco (who got eldest the ARP place) but she retired earlier this year. The general ethos is still good but at the minute her job has been split between two of the teachers, who are doing it alongside their normal teaching so obviously have less time and experience then the old dedicated senco, so to be honest I have less confidence then I used to.

The kids in the ARP spend at least 50% of the time in the mainstream class, so all the teachers at that school are use to teaching children with more significant needs. However the sen base does mix year teaching groups, so it would be possible that if DD gets taken out for intervention they would end up in the same group some of the time. They get on well, so the problem would be more DD following big brother around and living in his shadow not fights or disagreements.

Have you checked that sibling link applies to siblings of a child in resourced provision?
In our authority resourced places are allocated by a panel so treated like special school applications.
Just a thought.

She wouldn't get a place in the actual unit without it being named on an EHCP, but the sibling link would work for a mainstream place in the school the ARP is attached to.

Have you confirmed this? I used to be on the panel for our resourced provisions place allocation. Pretty sure the sibling link didn’t apply for RPs in our borough as it does in most schools.
Lots of parents of autistic children would opt for a school with provision for the reasons you noted.