The only able bodied child in the class....

[Lettie99]

My DS's proposed placement by the LEA is in the only SLD in the borough. The alternative special school is for mild MLD only - so only one option for us according to the LEA. Our issue is that we know our son, being non verbal with development delay, requires specialist care,and the special SLD school proposed has a strong focus on medical and disability needs. He would be the only able bodied child in the class, and in his current nursery environment, he seems to be interacting and starting to model the kids around him. I am very concerned he would not get this exposure or interaction in the proposed special school. I don't mean to suggest anything negative regarding children with more physical needs, but my son's opportunities to model will definitely be affected. Do you think this an argument for me to propose another school?

I agree too. You know your son best.

Yes - go with your gut feeling. I know what you mean about not wanting to sound negative about children with different needs but you must put this to one side or it might be used against you.

Spilt placement? Use the advice of the SLD school and socialise at local MS with support?

yes, MLD would be better;
don't quite agree with Nympha, MS/SLD mix might sound great in theory, but children are cruel and maybe he would socialise with MS at the low end of primary, but beyond that it's not that likely

We have chosen to send dd2 (ASD, LANGUAGE DELAY) to MS in september. We liked the look of the sn school but it wasn't for her and the ed phyc said she would benifit more from a MS setting. Luckily our village school is tiny (around 60 children), dd2 will be in a class of 10 children (1 teacher and 2 TA) and will also have a 1:1 (fingers crossed). We thought about doing a split placement but decided it would confuse her and make her stand out even more at MS.
Dd1 goes to the same school and has Aspergers, she is in her 2nd year and is doing well (has friends and doing well with reading and maths).

Could you look around at a few schools (MS and SN) to get a feel to what suits his needs?

Isn't it your legal right to put your child in mainstream education with support?

Yes, Roz, in theory but with what support? DD1 needs full 1:1, LA won't give it, so she will go to Special School.

Lou, if the statement says that the child needs x number of hours support, then by law thats what they should get, no?

My dd2 has 2 support workers for the 2 days she is in mainstream school. (2 because of the hoisting - they cannot do it alone)

Lettie, what about mainstream for a few days and sn for the others, then you can increase/decrease over the years as appropriate?

Sorry, really new to this subject, but it just seems to me that if it's your legal right, surely they HAVE to provide something? It seems to me that as closely as you can treat her like any other child the greater chance she will have of integrating with those around her and copying their behaviour and growing up to cope? Perhaps I'm over-doing the legal thing here, but have you seen your local Citizen's Advice Bureau? If you don't ask, you don't get!

ds1 had full time 1:1 in mainstream. If it's needed it should be given. We moved him to special school but I wouldn't be happy with him being the only physically able child in his class (in his SLD school they split the physcially able and physically challenged into different classes- gives a range of ages in each class, but similar disabilities).

Where's the nearest suitable special school? (Remember you can choose out of borough).

It is far easier to demand mainstream than special btw (even with full 1:1 a mainstream placement will be cheaper than an SLD one). However, I think SLD's in mainstream is very very very difficult. Especially for physically able children.

The biggest difficulty for mainstream schools is behaviour btw. If a child is learning disabled but socially able, they can usually cope. If they are learning disabled, and socially delayed - which can give rise to challenging behaviours- they often struggle, or at least it is essential to have someone onsite who knows what they are doing.

But that's the rub, isn't it? We were in the situation that the LA sent through a special school focussed proposed statement. So no 1:1 hours specified due to higher staff/pupil ratio.

To find out what support DD would get at mainstream, we would have to reject the special school. The LA officer said that only if we rejected it would she rewrite the statement for mainstream.

If we rejected the SS, & the proposed statement then came back with 10 hours 1:1, when DD needs 32.5 hourse 1:1, we are up the creek without a paddle. We may even end up in a situation where we have to let mainstream fail her to secure appropriate provision.

She doesn't have mobility needs in the sense of dependency, simply safety.

Everyone we have spoken to has said how hard it is to get a SS place. Lots of children who need it from our county don't get offered it.

So, having seen the school, and seen their passion and their facilities, and their approach, we are going to give it a go.

I would have been happier if I could have seen both statements, and chosen, but in the end the decision is fairly straight forward.

Better to fight our way out of special school, if necessary, which will perhaps be lovely but not pushing her, than begging for a special school place if mainstream fails, and being told no.

There is a boy at the local mainstream who needs full 1:1. School are paying at the moment because county turned him down for a statement outright! They have to wait until they can resubmit. I can't have that for DD.

"The biggest difficulty for mainstream schools is behaviour btw. If a child is learning disabled but socially able, they can usually cope. If they are learning disabled, and socially delayed - which can give rise to challenging behaviours- they often struggle, or at least it is essential to have someone onsite who knows what they are doing."

Which to be fair, is where we are. DD1 has challenging behaviour, so much of the day would be keeping her in the classroom, keeping her from the bathroom flooding it with water, stopping her climbing, or putting things in her mouth, trying to get her to do what they wanted.

She sounds like my son :-) A big advantage of special school is that he's been able to learn independence. So for example he was able to learn to go to the office and collect the register and bring it back to class alone (he's non-verbal- severely autistic- utterly compulsive). He couldn't have been given that opportunity at mainstream as he would have been out the front door and in the traffic.

At my son's special school (and I'm sure the one you've looked at will be similar) he couldn't flood the bathroom as the handles were at the top of the door so he couldn't get in. Those sorts of measure gave him room to relax, stop being impulsive and learn (both behaviour and academics).

saintly, thank you, thank you, that is what I needed to hear - I could kiss you I am so grateful. Really.

OP, sorry - mini hijack - over to you!

In response to some of the posts about mainstream schools not being able to accommodate children with challenging behaviours (whether related or not to other needs) I just wanted to say that a with-it, interested school will be able to arrange for all sorts of things to be put in place, especially if it's to encourage independence or improve the safety of a child.

When I was Acting SENCo in a mainstream school a few years ago the first request I put in for the class which was about to welcome a non-verbal 4 year old with severe autism and a tendency to run was to the caretaker for supplementary door handles to be fitted to all the doors the child would be passing through. It was done within the day and if nothing else meant that his parents knew he couldn't escape so was safe in school.

As someone has already said, go and visit some of the mainstream schools and talk to the Head/SENCo to find out what experience they have of supporting a child with needs such as those that your child has. The right school for your child is the one that will stretch him appropriately but also support him, not limit him.

I think that's fairly rare SE13- although of course great when it does happen. My son's mainstream school wouldn't even let him use the disabled toilet (and he wouldn't go in the class one because he was terrified of the hand dryers). To be fair open plan classrooms meant the school simply could never be made safe for him - there weren't enough doors for handles although I can imagine the response had I asked .

He has thrived in his SLD school - in part because the environment is set up for him. At mainstream he wasn't allowed in assemblies, he wasn't allowed on school trips, he was never more than 1 foot away from an adult. He's actually more included in the community in special school (he goes out at least twice a week), has the curriculum he needs (lots of life skills as well as academics) and high behaviour expectations (with understanding when he can't live up to those). He's allowed to try. And staff try all sorts of different teaching techniques. I think sometimes people assume that a special school is some sort of poor second to mainstream - of course you need the right special school - all schools vary, but they can be wonderful places with high hopes and expectations for their pupils. I would never let my son near mainstream again.

lou your dd's sounds great. good luck!

I spoke to someone from IPSEA a while back regarding a friend's child and finding a suitable SLD school. The man I spoke to said having a peer group the child can relate to - i.e., with similar abilities and needs - is an important bargaining point with the LEA. I do recommend speaking to IPSEA (Google).

SE13 - I'm interested that you have come across a child with severe autism in mainstream. I have never come across an SLD child with behavioural issues being accommodated at MS. The behaviour seems to be the sticking point, something less likely with PMLD children, who are gaining MS places. This despite the fact that MS schools have plenty of EBD kids who can be very disruptive and mainly don't have 1:1's.

I would really like to see SLD children being offered the choice of MS, but it seems a million years away from where I'm standing.

Re my earlier point about split placement I am basing this on my experience of working in a school with a similar problem. As the children get older and can no longer cope in MS there tends to be a bigger influx into SN school anyway so more socialisation. Obviously you would be able see from your visit anyway what the make up of the school is later on. We got a huge influx at year 7 so the senior part is much different to the primary classes.

There are getting more MS schools willing to accomodate children with SLD but you will still need to consider alternatives as he gets older as it will be less likely at Senior level.

Lettie, IME special schools do have a real mixture of pupils with very different abilities. My daughter has SLD but attends a MLD school and so is in a key stage nuture group rather than a Y7 class. She is probably like your son in that she is very robust physically.

Please visit lots of schools even in neighbouring LEAs. It really helped us see where our daughter would fit and helped us 'persuade' the LEA for an outside borough placement.

If you decide that mainstream is suitable do consider that he may have to move as the gap with his peers widens.

Oh a useful bit of advice we were given when looking at special schools was to look for a child like our son and see how he or she fitted in. It really helped us spot unsuitable schools!