I hadn't been expecting much because I've never been convinced Ds1 is in the right school. He has autism is 5 in reception, not talking and doesn't understand much language. He is in a special school for autism/ complex learning difficulties.
He is capable of learning but in almost 2 years of schooling he has barely learned a thing. I absolutely know he can learn because I do stuff with him at home and dependent on interest levels he picks things up very quickly. He loves numbers and can be interested in letters. Obviously the lack of receptive language is a huge barrier but there are ways of working around that. He learned to order number when he was 2. he could match letters match some words at 3 match some words to pictures. Copy sequences, match pictures etc. He is still doing these things in school. He can order 1-20 at home but they are making him match numbers at school. I have told them several times that he is capable of doing more than the level they are teaching him at but they really aren't listening. The teaching methods they use just aren't suitable for Ds He needs explicit teaching and they teach everything in indirect way and its going over his head because of the language problem. He is getting more behind every year. I really need to do something but I dont know what. I really wanted to be positive and believe DS could learn at the school but its become so clear that he cant. This school was really the only choice we had as the only other suitable school where he went to nursery was full and they use the same teaching methods there anyway.
I just feel so sad that DS is just making do. He really loves going to school and they do nice activities but he needs to be somewhere he can make progress. We have the annual review on Monday but its just so depressing.