Special school or local comprehensive?

[elliejjtiny]

I had a really long post nearly finished but then mumsnet crashed and I lost the lot so I'll be keeping this one brief and feel free to ask questions.

DS5 is 10, year 5. He has autism without learning disabilities but he is emotionally aged 3 and he can't be trusted with scissors, needs constant supervision. He has no friends in his class and heavily relies on one of his brothers (aged 11, year 6) both at home and in school. Council agreed to assess him for an ehcp last week.

I am looking at the following schools

School A (local comp, 5 minutes drive away. Ds2 and Ds3 currently attend, Ds4 going there in September)
School B (mainstream with autism unit, 20 minutes drive away, very mixed reviews)
School C (special needs school, 20 minutes drive away, mostly children with severe/profound learning disabilities but has a few children with similar needs to DS)
School D(special needs school, 30 minutes drive away, similar to school C but newer and nicer facilities, more extra curricular activities)
School E(independent special needs school for children with autism, trauma, emotional delays (I think the official term is SEMH), 15 minutes drive away and conveniently located very close to the local college where DS1 currently attends and DS2 will go in September.)

My priority is DS5 being happy. 2nd most important thing is that he reaches his potential. School C and school D do not do GCSE 's, not sure about school E. Currently, despite maximum support, he is scoring zero on all sats practice papers because he refuses to write anything or tell the scribe to write anything. Obviously there is a long time before year 11 but I don't want him to have 5 unhappy years in mainstream so that he can do GCSE'S and then him not being able to do them anyway.

Ds5 wants to go to school A and be with his brothers. It's not his decision but if his happiness is my highest priority I feel I should take his views into account. I haven't talked to him about the other options but ds4 is talking about school A a lot because he is going there in September and DS5 has said he wants to go there too. He knows about school D because we go there once a month for the council run special needs group and he knows 2 other children who go to school C. Dh is in favour of School A because he thinks DS5 is more likely to fulfil his potential there. I don't know if school A can meet his needs yet or not. The L.A. will be in favour of School A as it's the cheapest. Ds5 also massively struggles with school uniform. He goes into school so much happier on PE day when he can wear school t-shirt, school jumper and jogging bottoms. Normal uniform is school trousers, shirt, tie and jumper. School have allowed him to not wear the tie. School A and school B are very strict on uniform. School C and school D have uniforms but are much more casual and they are flexible if children want to wear jogging bottoms instead of formal school trousers. I think school E is non uniform.

Should I be trying to get DS into one of the other schools? Or should I just go with school A if they are willing to have him?

Does school A have a nurture group? If DS is emotionally aged 3, my concern would be he will struggle socially and emotionally in mainstream, particularly as he moves up the school and the gap widens further. This will negatively affect DS’s happiness.

Further down the EHCP process, I would look at school C&D. Would they be willing to bring in tutors for some subjects if DS would be able to sit GCSEs? What provision do they offer the similar pupils now?

Is E a SEMH school for pupils with challenging behaviour?

I would push the primary school to allow DS to wear PE kit every day as a reasonable adjustment.

I'm not sure about a nurture group at school A but they have a sports club specifically for SEN students and they encourage the more vulnerable SEN students to come to the SEN department at break and lunch times. All SEN students are welcome and they are allowed to bring their non SEN friends as long as they are respectful of it being a safe space. They also do an "insight to apprenticeship" scheme (I think that's what it's called) from year 9 where they take a group of students to do practical activities, including some at the local college. Yes, I think school E is for children with challenging behaviour.

My friend's son goes to school C and he is similar to DS5 but more severe needs. His mum told me the school have said no to taking GCSE'S. I'm not sure if that's for everyone or just him. There are only a very few children with no learning disabilities at school C, about 7-10 in the entire school I think, and I'm not sure about school D. The vast majority of children with high functioning autism go to mainstream where we live unless you can persuade the LA to fund an independent specialist school like school E. I'm not sure if that's the case everywhere or just here.

With your DS’s presentation, I would rule out school E.

I would speak to A, C and D as well as checking if there are any other independent schools within travelling distance - for secondary 1hr15 is normally considered the max recommended travel time, but some do travel further.

Many with what used to be called HFA are in MS, but there are other options where that isn’t appropriate.

Thank you. I had a look at the websites for both schools C and D and neither do GCSE'S. I have looked at the other independent specialist schools and they are all fairly similar to school E.