Applying for primary school

[2Siobhan]

I cant believe it's nearly time to start applying for primary school, how time flys.
Nathan currently has a speech delay which he has been seen for by salt and is about to start at a childrens centre's language group for. I was just wondering is a way of finding out if there are schools that are better than other and dealing with these types of issues.

Siobhan

if you are lucky you may be able to get someone in the "system" to give you some suggestions about schools - but you may also end up hearing the party line of "all schools cater for SN these days". You can investigate yourself - combination of Ofsted reports (which always have a section about how the school caters for kids with SN), visiting/phoning the school and grilling them about what they do to support kids with language problems, and seeing if the local grapevine can give you an indication.

sweeping generalisation coming up - but a
"nice" school full of kids with high levels of attainment on entry may not be the best one for a kid with language delay - so be prepared to broaden your mind as to schools that are less posh/academic.

Thank you for your reply. I did ask his inclusion office that visited him at the nursery he has just finished and I did get the "all school..." line so not much help there. I have shortlisted 4 now but not sure about preferences. Three of them are very good schools and as you mentioned are ''above attainment on entry''. The one that is below is a nice school with great potential and my mum works there which is a great bonus as I would not have to worry about childcare and of course my mum would be thrilled. If Nathan didn't get the place in the language group he would have gone to their nursery full time. I did go to the open evening for the Nursery when I thought he was going there and I really did like the school and the atmosphere was fab but I haven't visited the others.

xx

there are some schools with a SALT type group for kids in teh school. our former local school had one ( have now moved area) lots of kids in the catchment had language delays and SALT service had managed to swing some money for the school with worst foundation stage profile for language development.

Its also worth visiting schools to see if you can imagine your ds fitting in and enjoying school life. Talking to the head/class teachers can give you a feel for the ethos.

Also ask your SALT what she thinks.