Aethel wrote:
Did you put in your CAF yet? Just to add that we looked around both these last year (and have friends whose children have been there...) both St Bernard’s and UCGS have good SEN support. Bernard’s have had a recent SENCO change so I don’t know their new one but the pastoral support there generally is verybstrong and it’s probably where we’d have sent our DD2 if she’d passed.
UCGS has a very lovely and competent SeNCO who is proactive and supportive of choldren: the staff are a little more variable as the school itself is under more pressure from all areas to perform highly (they had hugely successful progress 8 and general results: they are now the only Slough GS to not prioritise local children apart from a few token places, and to accept rank-score-based applicants from pretty much anywhere. Consequently exam “tourist” parents who used to squirel their overtutored DC into Langley and Hershel are now targetting UCGS. So your child may find themselves in a highly pressurised cohort.)
So both schools are good for SEN, certainly they have a better rep for this than LGS (whose approach when questioned was “oh, we don’t really get children with SEN here: children at LGS will EXCEL, we have four school counsellors to support them”)
I hope you get the school you want, and that your DC enjoys themselves there and feels supported.
Thank you useful to know I terms of pressure I did nt think of that side for UPGS but am very happy with the SEN side as this is more my focus to have the chance to perform well the academic side will come whichever school as long as teh SEN support id there. Thanks for your detail.