Canopus

I already know this but head teachers provide information to LA officials that they use to decide whether to provide a statement if a parent tries to request one, which is what happened. That is where the bit about the high ability in literacy and numeracy comes from. The parents are not holding their breath. Again, it boils down to timetabling and staff availability. It has been mentioned that if the deputy head manages to put the student into the non-EBacc set then he will include this on his CV to demonstrate that he is a tough individual that does not cave in to parent's requests even if they are in the interest of the child. Whether this is true or not is difficult to say but the parents can't help thinking that there is something political or career related in the mix. The deputy head seems unperturbed about preventing one of the best students in science and maths in his year from achieving top grades in GCSE, and making him share many lessons with people who disrespect him.

He doesn't have a statement of SEN. Both primary and secondary schools refused to offer him a statement because his ability in literacy and numeracy is too high. The non-EBacc set has kids with a wide variation in ability for foreign languages. Some who are hopeless are not studying it for GCSE and others are taking two foreign language GCSEs with predicted A* grades. Very few of the kids in the non-EBacc set are above average ability in maths and science. There are more talented linguists in the non-EBacc set than in the EBacc set which contains a significant proportion of kids taking one language GCSE scraping a C grade but none who are completely hopeless. The parents have concluded that it won't help anybody or do their son an ounce of justice if he is put into the non-EBacc set. They will not be fobbed off with false promises or stupid compromises, like being put in top class in the non-EBacc set with the potential to move up to the EBacc set if things go well. It's blindingly obvious that if he doesn't take a foreign language for GCSE then there is no chance at all of being moved up into the EBacc set. If he takes French for GCSE then there is no guarantee that his standard will improve any more in the non-EBacc set than the EBacc set due to the wide variation of abilities of kids in the non-Ebacc set. What has happened is that the parents have discussed the matter with the French teacher explaining that they are acting in an unjust way by depriving their son of the opportunity to take triple science and higher tier maths simply because he struggles with French. They have suggested creating two classes in the EBacc set, one for kids who are good at French aiming at A* grade and another for kids who struggle and are happy with a C grade. They are still awaiting the outcome.

I have semi-reliably been informed that there is significant inconsistency in the Bikeability training and it applies to how they handle kids with SEN. What is written on paper is far from what takes place in reality. Imposing a requirement that the bike must have gears is the sort of policy they could get away with 20 years ago but anyone imposing it today is unethical considering that more kids have a BMX than a mountain bike and their parents might not be able to afford a mountain bike just to take the Bikeability test on.

I suspected at the outset that it's all down to timetabling. When the EBacc set have their foreign language lessons there are no other subjects available for students who are weak at foreign languages and the school will not give them a free study period instead. Eventually the deputy head reluctantly admitted this. Nobody is sure exactly how disability and SEN policies square with EBacc. Triple science and higher tier maths is not a right even if students are of exceptional calibre. The deputy head re-iterates that the student in question will still get GCSEs in maths up to B grade and double science up to A* grade. His parents have written a letter stressing that he wants to study maths and science beyond GCSE level and taking double science and intermediate tier maths will put him at a disadvantage. Many A Level maths courses will not accept intermediate tier maths GCSEs. The deputy head doesn't care less. The parents get the impression that he is career building and by being a hard man puts him in a better position to take a position of a head teacher (of another school) in the future. Part of the problem is that the student finds the French teacher rubbish and unhelpful and there is also a personality clash. The student has asked for more help with French but due to cutbacks the school is unable to offer it. The parents are looking at another school that is more accommodating and willing to offer triple science and higher tier maths. If all else fails they will withdraw their son, stating a reason why, and find alternatives outside of the school system as they refuse to accept stupid compromises and second best.

Does your kid's secondary school require students to have a predicted C grade in a foreign language to be allowed to take the triple science GCSE? I have received an unhappy story of a secondary school student with AS who is being denied the opportunity to take triple science and higher tier maths for GCSE simply because he struggles at French and is predicted lower than a C grade. This is despite him being in the top quartile of top set for both maths and science and predicted A* grade in both subjects. The reason is because the school allocates students into an EBacc set where all take triple science and higher tier maths, and a non-EBacc set where all take double science and intermediate tier maths. As a foreign language is a requirement for EBacc, then all students in the EBacc set take one but it is optional for students in the non-EBacc set. His teachers feel that he is up to the academic standard required to be in the EBacc set with the exception of the his French teacher who recommends that he drop French for GCSE. The student himself is happy to take French and accept a low grade if it enables him to take triple science and higher tier maths. His parents have discussed the issue with the deputy head but he does everything by the book and is unhelpful. There are only two students in the school who are up to EBacc standard on every subject except for foreign languages. To make matters worse most of the kids he gets on well with are in the EBacc set and the non-EBacc set is full of kids who disrespect him. He feels very demoralised at this situation. His parents are doubly heartbroken in that he is denied the opportunity to excel in subjects he is good at and the way the government is trying to get more kids to study STEM subjects but allows schools to impose stupid barriers by having to be good at a foreign language. They all think that the EBacc disadvantages students with uneven profiles more than it works against students who's strengths are the arts and creative subjects.

Past experiences have revealed that some instructors are middle aged road bike fanatics that expect every kid to be able to proficiently shift gears at the age of 6, and other instructors are miserable old women that throw a fit if they see a bike without reflectors. If the 9 year old takes the Bikeability test then he will probably use the AS support group BMX that doesn't have gears or reflectors. Bikeability tests are mixed ability so there is a concern how instructors will handle a kid with AS and sensory issues at the same time as physically well co-ordinated streetwise kids who are already experienced at riding bikes. Some instructors have never had to work with late bike riders so they hold an assumption that every kid has been riding a bike without stabiliser wheels since they were 4.

I'm after information and experiences for a 9 year old with AS. He has never had a bike of his own but has ridden a scooter regularly since he was 4. Recently he has been riding his friends BMX and the one belonging to the AS support group. Next term his school is offering the Bikeability test and now that his parents have found out that he can ride a bike they would like him to take it. There have been a few other kids with AS who have taken Bikeability tests over the years and their experiences are somewhat mixed. Some instructors are fantastic but others are middle aged men in lycra who have no understanding of AS or any complications it causes. I have received some information that Bikeability can only be done on a bike with gears as part of it includes the ability to use gears correctly. He has not yet tried riding a bike with gears so he has no idea how to use them.

Has anybody's kids with AS ever passed a Bikeability test in Y5 or Y6 at school?

There's a variety of reasons why independent support groups ended up being taken over by the NAS including struggling financially on their own; lack of awareness by members of the real interests and agenda of the NAS; organisers duped into thinking that the NAS has a mountain of resources to offer them; democracy where the majority of the members of the group want the NAS despite a few wise individuals reliably informing them that a takeover is a bad choice that will reduce useful services, amongst others. The reason why the NAS persistently focuses on children and ignores adults all boils down to funding. About 90% of the funding the NAS receives comes from the taxpayer rather than individual charitable donations, which results in the NAS organising its services in a way to receive the most government funding. There sadly isn't much profit to be made from adults with AS (by any ASD support group, not just the NAS) apart from those requiring residential care services so the NAS provides very little in the way of services for them. This situation is unlikely to change in the forseeable future. In recent years there has been much criticism of the NAS in that it is a 'fake' government funded charity with an agenda of chasing public money rather than a genuine charity relying on voluntary donations supporting the people it should be supporting, or that it isn't really a charity but a quango.

The NAS has 'wrecked' several independent support groups after taking them over. Parents and members of independent support groups thought that joining the NAS would be more beneficial in the long run than staying independent because of more access to funding, resources, experts, media coverage, and other perks. What has happened in reality is that the groups end up having their agenda dictated by the NAS head office according to their interests rather than the needs of its members. Many groups that once provided practical support and services to people with ASD have been turned into conferences for parents and carers dominated by a handful of people who just want to talk about a few instances of people with severe traditional autism whilst showing no interest in larger numbers of people with higher functioning AS.

This is something I have thought about. Do some environments exacerbate AS traits in a way where a certain individual might been seen as a bit eccentric in one place but has something seriously wrong with them in another place? If so, then could there be more unrecognised cases of AS in towns like Cambridge that have a high percentage of parents who are highly educated in technical subjects than in towns dominated by less educated parents? Is getting a diagnosis harder in some areas than others?

Why is it so difficult to bring race into a discussion without at least one person calling me a racist? I have long held the view that most people prefer to associate with their own types rather than those from a dissimilar background or those where conflicts of interest resulting from cultural practices are likely to arise. Basically it's birds of a feather flock together. You might not like my view or agree with it but it helps to explain the ghettoisation of schools in some cities where one school is dominated by kids of one ethnic group or religion and another school a mile down the road is dominated by kids of a different ethnic group or religion. Ghettoisation is not without its critics but more often than not it results from parent's wishes that their own kids are in an environment with plenty of kids from their own background. The disparity in wealth and income in Britain is undeniable but the traditional working / middle / upper class system is actually more of an indigenous British mindset rather than how things work in reality in today's modern and complex society. Many people of a foreign origin prefer to relate to people of their own background, culture, and religion rather than people of their own social class from a different background. It also explains to a certain extent why there is greater social mobility in certain ethnic groups than there is amongst the indigenous British population, because people from poorer backgrounds have more opportunities to connect with people from better off and professional backgrounds. I'm a bit dubious about whether kids with AS benefit from being in an ethnically and cultural diverse environment. More than once I have heard parents of kids with AS from an indigenous British background say things along the lines that it's hard enough for their kid to learn the social skills and etiquette for mainstream British society without having to learn those for hundreds of other cultures as well. NT people are better at adjusting their behavior to the social norms of a particular group at moments notice than people with AS are. On the other hand, it is quite possible that many kids with AS from an indigenous British background fit in better in a school with a high proportion of kids from a particular foreign background because they see things through different eyes and think with a different mindset. It isn't a subject that has been well researched. I don't know much about mixed race people or how they fit into the overall big picture. My science teacher told me that mixed race people often suffer from an identity crisis, and are prone to depression and unhappiness with themselves, but that was over 20 years ago and things could have changed in the meantime.

I had white British kids in mind for the purpose of this question and also assumed that any kids of foreign origin would prefer to be in a school with large number of their own type but I'm unsure how mixed race kids fit in.

Has there been any research into the best and worst demographics of a school population for kids with AS to share a school with? Do kids with AS generally feel happier and more confident in a school where the majority of the kids are white British or in a school with a high proportion of kids of a particular foreign origin, and therefore, form better peer relationships whilst problems resulting from AS are reduced or better tolerated? I recently received a scrap of information from the HE community that the best schools for kids with down's syndrome are those with a high proportion of middle class Indian kids and the worst largely comprised of a mixture of lower class white British and Jamaican kids.

Slight mistake. Should have said "largely populated by people descended from those who were living there 100 years ago". I'm not sure if technical jobs are strongly correlated with the numbers of kids with AS. My parents aren't technical and I have encountered more kids with AS from non-technical parents than technical parents. Most are upper working or middle class. I have a feeling that kids with AS are rarer than average in some of the new towns like Basildon or Telford although Milton Keynes could buck this trend. I have wondered about badly economically deprived areas with a high percentage of council houses that are almost entirely white British and experience outward migration of people with very few moving in. Examples include Knowsley and parts of Teesside and Tyneside, possibly Hull. Kids with AS do seem a bit under represented in much of the London postcode area but there could be many factors at play here as it's a complicated area, although outer London is probably about average. I can't quite work out seaside towns with over half the population past retirement age that don't have many kids to start with. The south west is a bit mysterious. Only a few decades ago much of it was very rural with its own people but in recent times it has experienced a large population influx from the rest of Britain that complicates the situation.

I have an article somewhere about a concentration of kids with AS in Eindhoven which has a very large number of people working in electronics and software. One parent thinks that kids with AS are more common in medium sized towns in the south of England, and are rarer in rural areas largely populated by people who were living there 100 years ago; some economically deprived parts of the north of England; in and around the Welsh valleys; and inner London.

Are kids with AS more common in some parts of the country than others or are they evenly distributed amongst centres of population? What this means is that in two towns of equal population picked at random is one likely to have a lot more kids with AS than the other, or are the numbers approximately equal for both? Also, in particular towns do some neighbourhoods have more kids with AS than others? If the population is distributed unevenly then what are most and least likely demographic profiles of areas where kids with AS reside? I believe that kids with AS are not evenly distributed and there are localities where it is quite common (like every primary school has them) and other areas that are AS deserts.

A cure for ASD can only be developed if people with the condition are willing to voluntarily go forward and submit themselves to research and experiments that could result in permanent damage or death. Who exactly is going to carry out this medical research? If NHS doctors are unable or unwilling to do it then it will end up in the hands of people who are not doctors or qualified to practice medicine, such as biochemists, working in backstreet laboratories rather than in hospitals. If such practices are made illegal in Britain then they will move to countries where medicine is less regulated. Would you entrust a biochemistry graduate with no medical training in a third world country or former Soviet state?

I think that a lot of the problems originate from almost every family having one person who insists on celebrating Christmas according to tradition or the way they celebrated it in years gone by. Usually it is some elderly relative or in-law who would be devastated if Christmas wasn't celebrated their way. Sometimes they, and younger members of the family, feel that they have to comply with this individual's wishes because it could be their last ever Christmas.

There is a heated discussion on the NAS forum about whether Santa is silly with salient points about the ethics of telling a lie in order to uphold a childhood joy and the situation regarding classmates who follow religions other than Christianity. http://community.autism.org.uk/discussions/general-discussions/general-chat/santa-silly

There definitely is some truth that Christmas is handled better as kids get older. It makes me wonder whether a significant proportion of kids with AS do not enjoy or appreciate the so called magic of Christmas that is upheld by adults who enjoyed Christmas as a child themselves. It is not unknown for kids with AS to spend Christmas at the homes of friends or classmates who do not celebrate Christmas in activities they want to do.

A girl in KS1, who has a brother with AS in KS2 at the same school, was picked up from school one November afternoon in tears. In her hands was a letter saying that the school would not be holding a Nativity play this year because rehearsals and preparations would divert too much time away from academic studies. Last year she was promised a main character in the play. The latest Ofsted report for the school was quite critical and emphasised that standards in English and maths were falling. The next week she was handed another letter saying that the school was holding an inter-house quiz afternoon followed by a party for KS1 kids instead of a play in December. Her brother felt chuffed and gutted at the same time. He wasn't keen on the Nativity play when he was in KS1 then said that he would have much preferred a quiz, followed by a ramble of how schools rarely offer activities that kids with AS have potential to excel in. Towards the end of December information had leaked out that the school had cancelled the Nativity play because of pressure from Muslim parents and used the Ofsted report as a smokescreen. About 1 in 4 of the kids who attend the school are Muslim who's parents feel that the school should be more inclusive towards them at Christmas by holding activities they can participate in. Of course, such a move has created tensions with many non-Muslim parents who's kids make up the majority at the school which look as if they will campaign to the governors to have the Nativity play restored in 2014. What do you think of this? Was the brother with AS acting in a bad way? Is popular opinion more important than catering to the needs of individuals?

My experience is that not very many adults or teenagers with AS like the concept of Father Christmas delivering them presents. They think it is a silly lie once they find out that Father Christmas doesn't exist and neither do they share any the joy or fun that the people who believe in continuing the custom do. Christmas food is another problematic point but why should kids be made to eat food that they don't enjoy just because it is festive?

Moderate depression?! Looks more like severe depression and self harming. This is very serious and I advise you to get this seen by an independent psychologist NOW. I speculate that it's something school related and it's of utmost importance to get to the root of it. Abandoning hobbys and interests is a common sign of childhood depression that isn't always picked by educational psychologists. Sometimes it results from a lack of respect for them from one's peer group or family. That could well be the reason. The problems might not be academic or a fear of failure but because of a lack of friends and unpopularity amongst the other students. Friendship is just as important as academics in school.

What aspects of Christmas do your kids with AS like the most and the least? Are there any families here who don't celebrate Christmas?