Blossom House School, Wimbledon - any info/views?

[silverfrog]

I've had a search in the achives, and I see that a few people have considered this school over the years.

Has anyone got any up to date info?

Good points, bad points - anything at all really.

dd1 is 4, and ASD. She is verbal (very!) and not too challenging behaviour wise (actually, really quite placid and passive, which can be a challenge in itself)

We are not in London (would have to move if it was the right school for dd1) so popping in and having a look round is not too easy - would like to gather as much information as possible before we do that.

No up to date info SF, but a friend of mine sent her son there about seven years ago and raves about it. He has Semantic Pragmatic Disorder.

How about moving to Somerset? DS2's (m/s) school is great .

I am quite local to the school, although have had no direct dealings wih it. Local word is it is good - I now someone (vaguely) who has a child there, and they like it.

Another friend looked at it recently, but decided against it for her ds as she found another more appropriate school for him. But rated it well.

I worked with Joey Burgess (many) years ago now, just as she was strating up Blossom House.

She is a lovely lady, so patient and knowledgable.

I worked at a prep school in SW London with a strong ethos of integration and she helped us a great deal.

I have only ever heard good things about Blossom House.

Thanks, all.

Sphil - would love to (shudder at the thought of moving to London) but dh is London-bound with his job, and needs an easy commute to the City (preferably by only one type of train. so now he takes the overland, and walks across London Bridge. If we were to move to London he would take the tube, as no overland necessary). We would consider anywhere with a decent Sn education policy, with those transport limitations!

I saw your last post, sphil. Can I ask - from what you know of your friend's boy (ad his language disorder) do you think it would have suited oyur ds? (difficult question, i know. I'm trying to guage whether they will even consider dd1, and she sounds quite similar to your ds at times)

Pheasantplucker - do you know much about the range/severity of disabilities that they cater for?

Mehgalegs, thanks. ironically, my dsd went to Blossom House a good few years ago (must be nearly 10 years! How time flies!) so dh is vaguely acquainted with Joey Burgess, and says the same - that she is lovely and patient and kind. But dsd is (if she is anything at all) just creeping into the NT end of AS. BH did soem good things for her, but did leave her with a very large "I don't have to do it if its too hard" attitude (not applicable for dd1 - I'd be delighted if they can get her to that level of thinking/functioning!) so our experiences (although hard to generalise across 2 very different cases) are not entirely good.

Hi silverfrog,

I visited Blossom House about 2 and 1/2 yrs ago - can't remember if I have posted about it before. I was considering it for my DS, now 7, who has HFA mainly manifesting itself as language delay. I was very impressed by the school, but ultimately decided it was not for us. My reasons were:

• I observed a lot of behavioural issues in the children I saw there, and feared that my DS would model some bad behaviours (he does not have behavioural issues)
• I had been under the impression that children tended to attend the school for a couple of years then move back to mainstream, but apparently this is not really the case
• my ds was already in a school with good SEN support (the International Community School, near Regents Park)

That said, I'm sure Blossom House is a godsend for a lot of kids, and I would definitely recommend going in for a look.

Silverfrog, sorry I cannot tell you anything more specific, I have not been there myself, only heard about it via friends as it is local to me.

Silverfrog, sorry I cannot tell you anything more specific, I have not been there myself, only heard about it via friends as it is local to me.

Hi! New to Mumsnet and this is my first posting. Our daughter goes to BH - she started roughly a year and a half ago and we have been very pleased with the progress she has made. I would definately recommend you to visit the school and meet with staff. They might recommend meeting your DD and calling her in for a detailed assessment. Let me know if you would like more details. All the best in your search.

Thanks, pheasantplucker.

baglady75, thanks for that. If you don't mind me asking, how severe was your ds' language delay? can you remember what his language was like at 4ish?. That's interesting what you say about behavioural issues - it would be a concern for us in the same way. What were you impressed by, in particular?

justcoping - I would love to have more details - anyhting you feel up to sharing, really. I spoke to admissions there this lunchtime, and they are getting the woman i ncharge of Early Years to ring me back, but would love details in the meantime. What difficulties did your daughter have? How much hands on time does she get with SALT? Is the OT as integrated as they say it is (have read mixed reports on this - sometimes it is talked up, soemtimes downplayed). would they be likely to have issues over late toilet training? Will leave it there for now - don't want to scare you off with too many qustions

Silverfrog, DD has no specific diagnosis other than a genetic abnormality which seems to be the only reason (without being substantiated by the medics) behind the speech and language delay, gross and fine motor skills. She gets SALT inputs daily in a group of four and OT sessions thrice a week in a group of 6. More than the actual SALT sessions all the other subjects are also tuned to the language needs of the group - this has been key in making her access the curriculum. I am aware that OT and SALT is provided in more intensive sessions for children if they need it/ or is provided in the statement. We went in without a statement and it took us about a year to get the statement sorted with the school named.
There are a lot of children who came to the school when they were same age as your daughter and are now with our DD who is 8. For most of the kids the structure of the school and the intensive inputs has done miracles and we are aware of few who have moved to MS or are in the process of doing so. Though that is the good indication of the success of the school it all depends on each individual child.
In our case we are very happy with the progress our DD has made and are keen for to build on her skills.
Go and have a look at the school yourself - see the same age group, look at the older group, meet with the OT head and SALT leader for the group. As far as I am aware it is a small group and they have some very experienced and patient teachers working with the group. Hope this has been helpful.

Hi

Have visited this school and am going back in November to look again for high school. The only thing that put me off is that my dd is quite able academically and apparently wouldn't be challenged enough (her current school feels this).
I found the school very therapy based and 2 of my friends children go there and have made fantastic progress.
I wasn't aware of the behaviour issues so maybe that's something I need to consider!!!

Silverfrog -at age 4 I would say DS's language delay was fairly severe. He had a decent vocabulary but found it very difficult to string sentences together. He had a lot of echolalia. Obviously this affected his social skills and school work as well. (I'm happy to say, his speech is now nearly age-appropriate, and he is doing well socially and at school too.)

OT was actually one of the areas that impressed me the most at Blossom House. When I visited, a group of children around DS's age were having a group OT session that looked fantastic.

Justcoping - so glad to hear that your DD is doing well at the school!

from what I've heard it is an amazing school for children who fit the profile - an independent ed psych and a private SALT both recommended it for DS1, and I think for him it would have been brilliant. He is sort of middle-spectrum ASD with age average cognitive skills and a severe speech and language delay (at 3 1/2 he had a vocab of about 80 single words, no sentences) and sensory problems, and the behavioural approach combined with lots of therapeutic input was what I was looking for. For us it would have meant a move to SW London and we preferred South Devon...

Hi Silverfrog - sorry didn't get back to you yesterday but had mad hospital dash with DS2 (asthma) - he's fine now.

To answer your question, I think Ds2's language delay is much more severe than your DD's though they are very similar in other ways! Therefore BH may well not have suited him. Having said that, he has never had any intensive language input at all, apart from what he has had in our home ABA/VB programme (like yours, part time and fairly low key) so who knows what he could achieve if he did get this kind of teaching?

Shame about Somerset, though I feel I must mention that DH commutes to London about twice a week.

thanks all, that's really helpful.

I have spoken to the admissions lady, and I am waiting for the Early Years head to get back to me.

It would be a huge move, but if it is necessary, then so be it.

DIL - wish we had the option of Devon

x-posted. sphil - I hope ds2 is feeling much better.

thanks for your help, we are weighing many things up...

in about 15 years, when dh can go in a couple of times a week, we will be OUT of commuter towns... (mind you, he talks about doing that, but I sadly feel that he is far too married to his job to ever ease up!)

but he's getting on a bit (bless him ), and can't face more than 90 mins door to door (and given that Paddington to the City would take a large chunk of that, we're a bit stuck!)

Hi everyone,

I phoned BH the other day and they thought my son (Aged 9 - Year 5 and Sats equivalent level 2c at the end of Year 4) would be too low academically to attend the school. Have I been mislead ?

Hello mums

I know this thread is old! Anyone has views on blossom house?
What's it like? And if anyone has kids in junior school and if they can share experience?