moving for schools

[Phoenix4725]

maybe should have posted this in aibu but am coward and after other day figure be in for a pasting from people that don`t have any understanding so posting here for balanced view

Ds went for a ican assement in and it has given me a lot to chew over , he has delayed recetive of 2.7 this has not improved in over 12 months of Ms school and a lot of input from me.He also has a expressive problem and is only around 2.1 this is not improving ,
he has other issues ie pen holding etc ,moblity but these are physocal issues .He tends to rely on signing a lot# school ahve tried to bring it in but faling to as hard as only ds requires and he is now getting very isoalted and changing from happy little boy to one thats sad/angry and soiling himself at school

Ms has done nothing for him by there own admission placement is failing ,local S&l unit is resource and will only get 1hr a day there and they have admitted that ds is worse than anyone they had before and dont use makton in unit or throughout school so ds will yet again be only signing child

I am considering moving nearer to the ican school area and fighting the local lea for a place there but means moving all of us ds16,ds12,dd6 and ds 4.8..

Has anyone else ever took the gamble and upped sticks and done it am talking move from Essex to Surrey

we did.

I was in Kent, and getting nowhere fast with dd1. she was dx'd ASD at 2.6, and is an August baby, so should have started school in Sept 2008, aged just 4. We battled the lea all the way - they said first of all she should be in mainstream - dd1 is scared of children (ok with adults on the whole) so there is no way putting her in with 30 other children was going to work.

she has a severe langugae impairment, and is often misunderstood/overlooked for support because she appears to cope so well. in fact, she is very good at quietly imitating, and if something bothers her, she is likely to get even quieter -passive to the point of comatose sometimes - so if you are not constantly guaging her reactions then things are very easily missed.

by the time she was supposed to be starting school, we had no statement in place (despite battling for over a year by this point) and so we kept her at pre-school while we worked out what to do. Kent is extremely inflexible on this, and if she had stayed there for the year, she would then have had to leap into Yr1. she was turned down for the ASD unit because she was too passive (?!), and so the only other school Kent could offer was an SLD school, which is not appropriate for dd1.

so, we found a private ASD school in Surrey, and within 2 weeks we had moved and had her enrolled. she spent last year there too (again, it was a pre-school, but we thought at least this one would have a decent knowledge of ASD. sadly we were wrong)

anyway, it didn't work out for dd1, but it did mean we knew exactly what we wanted. we had tried mainstream, tried specialist ASD, and we are now in a very strong position with Surrey lea to win the exact type of school we want (ABA school) because we have a proven record of dd1 not achieving anyhting by any other method.

so, the move was both a disaster and also very positive - mothing simple in this life, hey?

dd1 has now started at an ABA school (again, we are luckily able to privately fund while we fight), and we are heading off to tribunal later this year. our case is very strong, and eventhough the reason for the move (the first school) didn't work out, it was still invaluable for us in narrowing down exactly what dd1 needs, and why.

sorry for the length

ysadly private funding while i fight will be out .Though have phoned the school i want and after long discussion with head her seeing papers etc she feels ds fits their requirements exactly in her words would love to get her hands on him as so much potential

Can iask did you have any other dc of school age ?.

Can i ask what surrey ar elike for Lea and funding ds does have a 27 hr statement but i do know where want him to go and figure will probably go to tribunal

Ds has same problem hes July birthday

no other children school age at home. we have dd2, who is coming up 3, and I have 2 stepchildren, but they are at university now!

surrey are certainly better than Kent for statementing, and allegedly they fund "other" provisions if they have no space in their own provisions.

I only know about ASD provision, so can't help you out there, but they are well provisioned for ASD (well, they have lots of schools - they wouldn't suit dd1, so we are fighting for a different type of provision)

we got an agreement that they have noo space for dd1 quite easily (well, i say easily, it was a couple of months of arguing!) and also seemed to get approval for out of county/independant schoolling fairly easily. we have fallen at the final hurdle, and nottoo sure why, (well, i know leas hate to name ABA, so it could be that) but we sould win at tribunal.

the main problem you would have is whether Surrey have provision in one of their schools - do you know what schools they have that they would say are suitable, and whether they have space in your ds's year?

oh, afaik, as soon as you move lea, they call a review of statemnting (I might be wrong - maybe someone else knows for sure?)

we have been advised this is the case, as dd1's school ois actually back in Kent, but we cannot move back there as they will review her statement, and as we haven't proved she cannot learn in a Kent school, only in Surrey provision, this will not count (ffs!) and we would have to go through whole farce of putting her in somewhere to fail again...

so I'd try to find out if this was the case for you. you mmight end up in a situation where you'd be fighting to get a statemnt for your ds, as surrey are fighting to not fund the ican school, iyswim?

I have left a message on your other thread, I know of a school in my area(ish) that may suit your ds. It's one I looked at for my DS2 about 15 months ago, but the journey's would have been too much for me as I had 2 older DC's still in MS in my end of the town, and was 'just' too close to qualify for taxi's. Might be very good for your DS. It's a ms school with a speech and language unit (mostly used for deaf DC's but all DC's at the school are taught makaton) If you add me on fb, I will let you know name of school, as is still in our LEA. You would qualify for taxi provision.