Have your voice heard - SEN and transition

[Normalpeopleworryme]

I am a PhD students looking for case studies to explore. I am interested in families of children with SEN in year 5/6 who are considering transition from mainstream primary to...well, whatever the options are. I have already interviewed some educational psychologists and school advisors, but find they are "toeing a party line". I would like real opinion, from real parents, and shock horror, the children themselves, to gain a more holistic understanding of this time.

Message me, and I'll provide more details.

my Ds is in yr 5 and will be participating in the transition for sec sch next year. would love to contribute to your study,

Tried to send you a message but it said you haven't enabled that facility so you may want to look into that.
I have a child in yr 4 but he has to transfer to middle school in September, as we have a three tier system in this area. He is diagnosed with Dylexia but also has emotional needs as a result of early neglect and trauma (he is adopted). I am very concerned about his transition but have so far had a positive response to my concerns from his new school.
Their ideas so far have included
1.Tailoring his form class to ensure he is with his friends.
2.He finds it very stressful when he is in a class with children who have particularly unpredictable behaviour, so the school may be able to ensure that his exposure to children with severe behavioural difficulties is limited.
3.Extra visits this term to help familiarise him with his new surroundings and key members of staff.
4.Agreement to provide a specific key worker at school who is aware of his needs and will make contact at certain times of the day and be available if he needs support and reassurance
5.Acceptance that it is initially more important to prioritise his emotional needs, to help him settle in to his new school and only deal with the academic needs once he is relaxed and comfortable in his new surroundings. He will be more able to concentrate and learn once his emotional needs have been met.

1. They have recommended colour coded timetable and stickers on exercise books to help with the transition of moving around the school from subject to subject.
2. Giving him a buddy to make sure he gets where he needs to go, throughout the day.

I am pleased with these as I feel it's a very personalised plan, but would be interested to know if there are other transition plans that others way have found to be effective that we've not thought of.

I should say that the school have come up with these ideas on the back of the information that I have given to them, which I think saves a lot of time for everyone as generally we know best what works for our children. I will be leaving the handing over of information about my sons academic needs to the two schools for now. I'm waiting to see what they come up with and will only get involved if I don't agree with what's been put in place.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have
Hope that helps

Thank you both very much. I tried to contact both of you, but it says that you have opted not to receive messages from other users. I adapted my status by clicking on "my mumsnet" tab on the light blue tab line, logging on, clicking "email options" and adjusting the C-A-T message by clicking "allow this" (CAT = contact another talker)

Sadly, I'm not looking at middle schools for know, although I'm convinced that Local authorities using the 3 tier system may have less of a jump in primary-secondary pupil no's in special schools. The new school seems to be doing everything right, I am impressed.

English1 - you can contact me on [email protected] if you'd like more details!

Hell my son has recently got is his Statment of SEN he is year 6 and will be transfering from mainstream primary to a large mainstream secondary in Sept. Please feel fre to contact me if you require any more info.

Hell* sorry I meant hello!!

would have loved to have joined this site few months ago,my son just going to transistion in sept to secondary,salt would have been awesome,to help with transistion and youe studies

Hi my ds has sen support and is in year 6 moving to secondary school sep 2011. If I can be of help please let me no.

I am a teacher who is exploring the subject of moving schools. I am very interested in area of transfer of children who have Special Educational Needs from a Primary school into a secondary setting. To better understand the process it is very important I get the views of parents/ carers who have had a child with a SEN who attended a mainstream Primary, and moved to a special school between year 6 and 7.

Part of my study is a questionnaire that will take between 10-15 minutes to complete. I hope you feel you can help, so we can improve the process for children who have SEN.

Due to sample size I am really interested in views of parents/ carers in the following Local Education Authorities in England:
North East
North Tyneside
Gateshead
Durham Council
Hartlepool Borough Council
North West
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
East Midlands
Northamptonshire County Council
Yorkshire & The Humber
North Yorkshire County Council
Wakefield City Council
West Midlands
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Stoke-on-Trent City Council
South East
West Sussex County Council
Surrey County Council
Medway Council
West Berkshire Council
South West
Bournemouth Borough Council
Plymouth City Council
London
Camden
Brent
Greenwich
Hounslow

Please click on the following link to get to the questionnaire:

questionnaire
The questionnaire will be open until the 29th October.

Thank you for your time