Starting college.

[siriusblackcat]

DS starts his college course tomorrow.

He has ASD and anxiety and is moving from a Specialist provision to mainstream.
He's so nervous, he's barely eaten all week and can't sleep. It's an induction day tomorrow, they don't know whether it'll be half a day or a full day 🙄 really helpful when he needs to know what's happening. Also LA haven't sorted out transport yet so DH is having to take the day off work to take him and pick him up.

The whole house is currently on edge, my own anxiety is horrendous tonight, trying to keep it hidden from him to keep him calm.

He's been so cocooned in his school and now getting chucked into mainstream is terrifying.

I do hope it went well today. ds1 did a similar move at this age and once he was past the first week which was a bit chaotic & overwhelming it went well (less than 20 pupils to several hundred was a big shock to the system for him). The biggest thing was the staff expecting him to be able to ask for help rather than asking him whether he needed anything. I guess this is the change from special to mainstream. They also scared the life out of him by telling him how hard he would have to work which was nowhere near as great in reality as he had been led to believe. We did find the SENCO stepped up though when we told her he was needing more support than he was initially getting so don't be afraid to ask for help if he needs it.

I hope it went well too. My ASD DD started College this week. So far it seems ok but she's the Queen of masking.

How is it going @siriusblackcat ?

Badly.

He just couldn't cope, he attended 1 day and it was too much for him. There were cock ups left right and centre and it all broke down 😢

He's starting a bespoke program with a private setting this week, only 1 day a week as college are having to outsource his funding to them. I'm praying it works.

So sorry to hear that, I do hope the private setting is successful.
It must be very stressful for you.

Sorry to hear college hasn’t worked out. Have you requested an early review of DS’s EHCP? In the meantime, the LA must still ensure anything detailed, specified and quantified in F is provided.