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Advice re LEAs and schools

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 11:02 am
by hermanmunster
Hi
Have colleague moving from North Yorkshire to some where near Dunstable .. She has a 5 year old who is autistic - not statemented but see EP who advised increased structure - was due to have further meetings re this but the move is happening....

She has to find him a school soon They are looking at Central Beds / Herts / Beds LEA / Bucks . Not much joy when she rang Central beds :roll:

What she needs to know is which LEA is most likely to be supportive and helpful and which are the most helpful / suitable primary schools people have experience off ???


Any comments gratefully receieved!

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 11:37 am
by yoyo123
need an area with good speech and language service, could you find out which PCTs have good provision and work closely with schools? We have (had?) good multi-agency links here in kent

Re: Advice re LEAs and schools

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 6:11 pm
by stevew61
hermanmunster wrote:She has a 5 year old who is autistic - not statemented but see EP who advised increased structure - was due to have further meetings re this but the move is happening....

What she needs to know is which LEA is most likely to be supportive and helpful and which are the most helpful / suitable primary schools people have experience off ???

Any comments gratefully receieved!
Having been through the placing of my ASD DS2 in a state school I feel I can offer some general, very general advice.

I would look for a school that is really on the ball, probably high achieving, we wandered around a few local schools and applied the oft quoted could I see DC here?

In the end we went for the school that seemed to be "most in control" of its pupils, so more time to marshal if required DS2.

It worked for us :) DS2 has made exceptional progress and the whole (ok most) school community has been supportive.

We have had little involvement with SENCOs at the primary but did have five terms early intervention before the age of five :shock:

The challenge is the spectrum is very wide, DS2 was diagnosed as very able and proved to be so. I also remember the stress of transferring from a special unit (so fortunate to have one) to mainstream at age 5, I had nightmares!!

So it is back to basics go and visit a few schools and imagine :?:

steve

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 6:32 pm
by hermanmunster
"all the schools will treat him just the same as all the other children - he will be fine anywhere ".

:shock:

what support is in place at the moment ( if any?)

if she is in touch with other parents can they recommend a school?

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 6:47 pm
by Fluffy66
Hi

My DS is in mainstream but his school has an autism provision attached so the teachers generally have a good of knowledge of ASD's and the resources are there too. This may be a way to start by checking school websites to see what schools have units.

Also local childrens charities may be able to help. Again in Kent we have the Kent Autisitc Trust who have system of emailing group members for feedback on local schools for individual parents, not sure how wide spread this sort of system is though.

Fluffy