I'm hoping if you can help. Our son will be going to school next September and we cannot decide whether to send him to specialist school or mainstream. He has delayed development, non verbal and has a one to one written into his EHCP. He is going through further testing currently to see if there will be any further diagnosis. He is a very happy little boy who goes to nursery currently. Both mainstream and specialist school have said they can meet his needs. Has anyone got any experience of this and which one worked well? Any positive or negatives for each one.
thank you so much.
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KLM16
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My son was at a special needs mother and toddler group then a special needs school then a special needs residential school and then special further education as well but it was a sensory type programme due to his complex needs. Ultimately you have to decide but I can’t see how he could go to a mainstream school if he’s non verbal and other difficulties but maybe I’m mistaken. Are you not being advised by professionals that work in this area. It’s so hard when your new to all this and having to go to these meetings at schools surrounded by professionals it can be really daunting. What you don’t want to do is set him upto fail but neither do you want them to not stretch him to his full potential either very hard for you good luck in whatever you decide.
Thank you so much for your reply, yes we feel the same we want to ensure he still progress but not to much out of his depth. The professionals we have involved have given mixed thoughts, some feel a specialist school with others thinking a 1/1 in mainstream.
Just wondering would it help you to have a consultant social worker ? I have to say for us personally it was a god send as they don’t work for the local authorities so they work for you and your son and they know all the system and can guide and advise you through the quagmire. I used my sons money which was allowed as it was for him I was doing all this for at the end of the day. Always remember as long as you are working in yours sons best interest at all times you honestly can’t go round.
Hi jofisher, - could I ask you where you hire a consultant social worker from as this is something I would like to have in place for my son when we start to look at the transition process for him in a couple of years. I have had a look on the internet and nothing is coming up. Many thanks
He is 12 but I have been told that at key stage 3 or approx age 14 you look at transition. I have been told that at that stage you have to box clever as if you are considering something like residential support for your young person down the line you have to mention it at this stage. I wanted support to guide me through this process and that person being independent from the council.
Ah ok I will give you Vanessa Evans number so you can call her to discuss she can work remotely anyway and she can best advise where to find someone or you may also choose her who knows until you have spoken. Here’s her mobile number 07554 992560 all the best she is lovely by the way so easy to talk to and she genuinely cares and she’s a Mum too.
You should have support from social services with the transition I would have thought as children’s services are not bad it’s when they become adults is when the problems become or can become really interesting. I knew a consultant social worker personally as I had worked for the company she worked for so I’m not sure where to find one but I could give you her number maybe she could advise you. Let me know if that’s of interest to you.
Thanks very much jofisher for your advice. I will have a look into that for when he is an adult as I think a consultant social worker is the way to go.
Hi Jo, no we haven't got a consultat social worker but I will definitely look into this. I just want to ensure he is happy and thrives as he is currently in a private nursery and they have been amazing and he really enjoys it.
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Special school definately. I work in a special school as a support assistant and we get so many children half way through their primary years who would have benefitted from being with us from the start. Mainstream like to think they can meet needs but often it is the 1:1 who does all the work then the parents are disappointed when their child comes to a special school and is expected to do their own work with support. A child will get overlooked even with a 1:1 in a class of 30. Special schools have much smaller classes (8-12 children in our school), speech & language daily as all staff are trained and specialist input weekly, OT is in weekly etc. my son went to a special school from half way through reception year (autism, communication difficulties). You will also not have the disappointment every time a child has a party and yours is not invited. Special schools are inclusive - children do not get excluded from activities because they have additional needs, adjustments are made and extra staff allocated. There is a high demand for special school places so if they say they can meet your child’s needs it probably is the best place for him. Good luck.
Thank you for your reply, its such a difficult decision as our son goes to school next September but due to the high demand we would need to put his name down now amd you never know in a year time where his development will be. Can I ask from your perspective as you work in a special school how the children delvop socially e.g. friends, out of school activities etc.
Most children develop well socially. Because the classes are so much smaller they have a close group of friends in School. It is difficult out of school as the children are from a wide catchment area so don’t live near each other to be able to see each other out of school. We have a lovely charity in our area which provides play activities for children with additional needs and respite for their parents so friendships can be maintained out of school that way. Our school runs after school clubs as well. From my experience of having a son who spent 9 weeks in a mainstream school in year R being taught in a room on his own, before I managed to get him moved to a special school where he was included in everything I would say special schools provide much more opportunity for social interaction. Additionally the children learn to try things for themselves first, in mainstream with a 1:1 it tends to get done for them as time is tight and there is the need to keep up with the rest of the class. We often have children who start in year 7 having spent their primary years in mainstream and they are shocked that they are expected to do all the work themselves (we differentiate everything according to ability). I personally would choose the special school but understand it is a big decision.
My son went to main stream until he was 11. He has autism & communication difficulties. He struggled all the way through. The teachers had no time for him because they had 29 other kids in the class. We made the decision to send him to Special school at age 11. It was the best decision we have ever made. If we had made the decision to send him to mainstream high school we would have had 5 years of hell! Special School had smaller classes & inclusion of all children no matter what there abilities & all the teachers were just fantastic. It was a massive relief as if a weigh had been lifted of my shoulders. He had 5 happy years & so did I.
Thank you so much for your reply its lovely to hear that your son had a happy 5 years but im sorry to hear of the struggles in mainstream, I think this is one of the hardest decisions and I just want to make sure we get it right for him.
Hi I’m a teaching assistant and a parent of a child with special needs ( Down’s syndrome). Our child attended mainstream primary with 1-2-1 support. At the time we thought it was the best for him but now having knowledge of how mainstream schools cater for children with special needs I would have chosen special school. I became a TA after my child had left primary.
I had to consistently pester the Senco (was told to by my child’s TA) for learning materials for my child. He was excluded from the annual school play ( while I watched!). He Iooked at his TA sat by his side to his peers on stage ,confused. This pain will stay with me. I complained . Their reason …he would have missed his reading session if he had attended play rehearsal. We sent him to special school for secondary purely on the basis that he may be bullied at mainstream school. He is now at special needs college thriving.
I am now working with a child with autism at mainstream primary. The child is settled in our class routine. When he’s disrupting the class I take him out and do 1-2-1 teaching . I personally feel he would be better off at special school as he would have more resources and support in place. I feel it’s not my place to let my views be known to parents as I’m unsure how it will be interpreted.
As we’re moving up a year we will see how he will cope with more learning and less play routine but what ever arises I’ve got his back whilst I’m with him.
My son is 23 now. He is severely autistic and non verbal. He went to mainstream infants school, repeating year R. It worked well. He had 1:1 support and they were fantastic with him, there was a sensory room for when he got overwhelmed and lots of systems in place to support his needs. He went onto mainstream junior school but it didn’t work well at all. He had 6 different TA’s and there was no consistency and behaviours started to develop. By the end of year 3 we were picking him up several times a week because they couldn’t handle him. In year 4 he moved to a special primary school, then onto a special senior school. He stayed then until he was 19. He’s just finished 3 years at a specialist residential college!
Mainstream can work, depending on the child and the school. I wouldn’t change sending my son to mainstream to start with because he loved it there and they were fantastic.
My son transferred to a SEN school at 7 and it was the right thing for us. I would suggest that you visit the SEN school and see if your your son would fit in there
Hi my story goes back a few years my son is now 34. He was at mainstream until 10 years old with 1 to 1 help coming in, he then received a statement of special educational needs and we had a choice of him staying in mainstream or going to a special school. He was a very quite shy little boy who was really basically confused with everything to do with school and struggled in every single area. He was diagnosed with a moderate learning disability. When we had this choice we thought special school would be better for him, smaller classes more intensive help and a slower pace of things. Unfortunately looking back it wasn’t right for him socially. Educationally he still came away struggling I’m sure not due to the school as it was a very good school and he had a lot of help. All I’m saying is think about he’s social needs as well as his educational needs, I know it’s easy for me to look back with regret now and who knows maybe he would of struggled at mainstream school as well with bullying etc..but I definitely know now he missed out with the social interaction of mainstream. 😢
I have Austism and Dyspraxia and I was always in mainstream school with various support brought in depending on my age however I am quite a verbal adult and sometimes had to fight for my needs being met so I am not sure how that would work if I was non verbal . I was also diagnosised quite late in life . The mainstream schools etc were very good .
This is such a difficult one. My son had the same diagnosis as yours plus fine motor skills difficulty (mainly writing). I would push hard for speech therapy dispite him being non verbal as yet. He needs a way of communicating via sign language whilst trying to develop his speech. Possibly look for a school with an attached speech and language unit as they are better equipped at teaching children with receptive and or expressive language difficulties. In my experience main stream 1:1 helpers end up helping the entire class not just your child. Plus despite how lovely they are it is so easy for the 1:1 to unwittingly do the work for them which in the long run doesn’t help . By year 3 mainstream school were having to admit they couldn’t fully meet my son’s needs. (He also got bullied).The best advice I could give is visit the schools, look at the children in the class, choose the school where the children are most similar to your son. Your son is your best barometer and you know him best. If he is happy great, if not push to move him, call for an earlier annual review.
Remember nothing is set in gold, you can always force the LEA to change his school. I wish you and your son the best.
My son is Down Syndrome and began in a mainstream Reception class.At the end of the year we were told that he was going to be kept in Reception the following year because "he isn't ready to move up". He had made some friends, or as much as 5 year-olds do, but he was not going to be allowed to move with them. And we wondered if he would be 10 before the school thought he would be "ready to move up".
By coincidence we moved to another area (in a different LEA) at the end of that school year and, to cut a long story short, our son was placed in a Special School - somewhat against our wishes.
This turned out to be a really good thing. Apart from having a good all-round education, our son - who is now 21 - has a group of close friends that he meets regularly in various out-of-school situations (Youth Clubs, McDonald's, sleepovers), which I doubt would be the case if he had attended mainstream school.
PS Your post has certainly created some strong replies!
Thank you everyone for your kind words, advice and experiences it really appreciated. Hopefully whichever school we choose our son will be happy and thrive from the environment.
Hi there. My son is now 52 so missed the 'Statementing' but with suggestions from Child Guidance[ nursery] Ed: Psych: GP, he was accepted in MLD Assessment centre, then continued in MLD through to Senior school. he is a loner--[no Mates] good with adults, and always near Staff. I was advised he would struggle in Main stream, and although Classroom Support Folk are now in place, I am not convinced this really works. I Never got the PLEA--- : i want to stay home- my leg/head/toe ,hurts: which showed me he enjoyed school. I've never regretted my decision . Try to see Ed.Psych for deeper Schools advice; they should know the good places. Goodsearching .
My brother is autistic, and I've been a teacher for 30 years, so have been watching. In addition to the above people, my thoughts are:
- mainstream schools do SEN on the side, usually with underpaid staff who tend to leave/have vacancies hard to fill, so if the mainstream school can cope one year, it may not the next. A special school will always have the SEN as the focus, and staff who focus on it.
- we have a fair few students in my mainstream school who really need to be in specialist provision, but it's so hard to get hold of, so they get stuck. I'd you're in the hard-to-get place, you can leave it. If you're not in the hard-to-get place, it can be hard to get in.
Hi. My son is 10 and he started a specialist school in February. I wish I’d moved him from mainstream earlier. In my opinion mainstream can only do so much even with a 121. Good luck x
My son had a dual placement on his statement ie he went to both as I couldn't decide. He had 2 nurseries and 2 primary schools Most of the week he went to a specialist setting and twice a week went to a different school which was where his ms brothers were. It was the ms headteacher who suggested it (she was a former sen headteacher) I had never heard of the model before but there were 2 other pupils in the specialist setting doing the same and going into their local ms on a part time basis. By year 6 the ms inclusion had gone down to one afternoon a week as academically he couldn't manage but joined in for practical sessions such as PE, golden time, art and music . He went to a specialist secondary but I would do the same again if I was in that position.
It's very hard to integrate a child with these difficulties in a mainstream setting but not impossible. The curriculum and mainstream environment become increasingly less suitable or adaptable after Early Years. The staff wont have the right skills or time for a child with significant send. You will need an excellent one to one who will be isolated and left to work a lot of what the child needs y themselves be cause schools are busy. The local authority will delay any move to a special school through tiresome meetings and reviws. They will u derfund the placement and the school will be stuck trying to secure more resources. They will not have helpful contacts with send support services eg holiday clubsTake an send school that feels happy. Help your child to join local clubs eg swimming and beavers. Best wishes x
I had the same experience, however, it was a little different. I saved up some money and sent my child to an independent school hallfieldschool.co.uk/ My child had ADHD and the school mentioned they could meet his requirements and they did. Choose carefully because you want your children to have the best experience at school
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