Best Choice for Aspergers Child - TWGSB or Bennett?

[mystery]

And I heard of a boy at TWGSB who was pulled out (or maybe asked to leave) after a couple of years or so. He had Asperger's Syndrome, but he ded also have some quite severe behavioural problems (not sure whether they were related to the Aspergers Syndrome or not) so it may not be relevance to you.

[hamster]

There are lots of boys with forms of autism in grammar schools; this type of school seems to suit them well.

[kentmum1]

The grammar schools often have a fair number of SEN, including autism. It is certainly not unusual. In fact the other year, possibly 2008, in that year's exam results it showed that Judd had had 32% special needs, Skinners' 16% and TWGSB about 4%. Quite often, it's the highly selective schools that have the most as many of these boys have a very high IQ.

I have since remembered that my son at Bennett told me that his friend, who is Asian, received some physical bullying from a much older boy in the toilets the other day. In fact, it sounded quite nasty and he tried to push his head in the toilet, and I don't think the boy reported him. He also wasn't planning to tell his mother! No matter how good the pastoral care, I'm sure there are the usual tricks in all these schools.

[strobeme]

Thanks to everyone who's provided their thoughts and experiences. Our dilemma has further increased though. The day after posting the message, we got his scores and ( to our great surprise) found that our son got the top 420 score! Although we have visited both, we previously hadn't considered Skinners and Judd as realistic options for him. Any thoughts on these as well now would therefore be very appreciated. ( I'll post a new thread as well for this query)

[SSM]

I would say consider the journey as well as the school, especially if there is not much difference with the schools.

Schools have teachers to keep the kids under control, but unfortunately school transport does not.

Travelling to school on a train full of other kids was a real eye opener to my boys

[Lemmie]

Apologies for dragging up such an old thread but it goes to the heart of our situation as well and I wondered if anyone had any further input since last year.

Strobeme, What did you do in the end and are you now happy with the decision you made?

We live in Matfield and our son has taken his 11+ in the last few days. He's dx with High Functioning Autism, but without a Statement. My main concerns for Secondary school are with organisation and staying on task.

The schools we are considering are Bennett (my wife is a regular church goer in T Wells), Judd & Skinners'. I would be interested to hear opinions from parents of children at any of these schools...

I'm also interested to hear from parents of children living outside Tunbridge Wells and how your location affects entry. I'm aware of TWGGS policy and the meeting last night... it would be nice to hear that we're not totally stuffed and that we have realistic options other than Mascalls!

Thanks.

[Blue Peter]

it would be nice to hear that we're not totally stuffed and that we have realistic options other than Mascalls!

Please be careful what you say about Mascalls as many people are exremely happy with it and it is the most oversubscribed secondary school in Kent. It has a very good Special Needs Dept. There is an Open Evening this Tuesday - why don't you go along and have a look - I think that you might be very pleasantly surprised.

[Lemmie]

I have a totally open mind. I apologise if that came across poorly. It is on my list of schools to visit... but not having visited schools at this stage it isn't at the front of the list for us. If it was our first choice we wouldn't have put our son in for the 11+.

I have heard a lot of good things about Mascalls in general terms, but we're looking at it from a SEN perspective and have heard mixed impressions from parents... as you will do about any school. I wouldn't take anything I read on a forum as my only source of information and I would hope people wouldn't do the same with my comment!

[Blue Peter]

I have PM'd you.

[Lemmie]

Thank you, received and replied.