Mainstream secondary placement that is working, AS

[Karen A]

Hi all.I am feeling brave so thought I would ask a question with some trepidation.I gather that there are several teenagers with AS who attend specific Specialist Private Provision who have carers on the Forum.There are several more who are not doing so well in mainstream or are in alternative provision such as PRUs.

As a mum looking at mainstream secondary schools for Ben who is in year 6 and Dx AS on Monday I was just wondering if anyone here has a teenager in mainstream secondary school where the support is working ????

Please don't all laugh at once.

 

Just to add there is Specialist Provision that is excellent in the area but Ben is very bright and verbally articulate so needs an accademic environment which the Specialist Provision cannot provide.Karen.

Edited October 8, 2008 by Karen A

[Diane]

Hi Karen,

 

I think the success of secondary mainstream depends on what levels of anxiety your son has. I have known kids with AS do very well in mainstream with minimum of help. There are success stories out there.

 

My own personal experience is that my DS although very intelligent and articulate struggles in main stream because his anxiety causes him big problems socially.

 

I suggest you talk to the school and have a look round, ask them what their expereince and support is that they put in place for kids on the spectrum. I do not know if you know anyone who already has children in the secondary school but it could be worth talking to them. If they do not have children who need extra support they may know another parent who does.

 

There is no right answer, wouldn't it be easy if there were we would all be happy and not having to fight the LEA's every step of the way for support for our kids.

 

Good luck with this.

 

Diane

[lisa35]

ditto to Diane, we re just waitinfg to move our 13 year old to a school, with specialist provision, he is also very intelligent, one of the schools we looked at would not have been suitable, but one we going to is, you have to know questions to ask, and go along and look xxx

Lisa

[Karen A]

Thanks.I do know others who are doing ok at the school we are looking at and the school appear to be doing a good job.

I was wondering how things are generally because I got the feeling lots of teenagers appear to not do so well in mainstream in Secondary school.Karen.

[Suze]

Hi karen, after a really awful time at primary with big anxiety and anger issues, my boy went to a very large(2000 plus) high school with ASD provision/unit.H e is supported via this by staff trained specifically in asd , virtually full time.Not always 1:1 as he will share a TA in a class with another autistic pupil.He also has dyslexia and other stuff but has a very high IQ.The provision works well as he does,nt go into assembly, we use a dicta phone for problems, he uses the provision at break and dinner, he has a quiet space there, he is disapplied from several subjects so he can use some free periods to do his homework at school and to do more maths and literacy as he is very behind in these subjects.

...........My son is now in yr 9 and has had a very successful time at high school so far, he still has lots of problems but his placement has been very beneficial to him and we are very thank ful for it.

[Kazzen161]

Just to add there is Specialist Provision that is excellent in the area but Ben is very bright and verbally articulate so needs an accademic environment which the Specialist Provision cannot provide.Karen.

 

There is a range of specialist schools (as opposed to special schools) and there are those that take children of average+ intellectual level (there is also one for exceptionally able children). There is also the consideration that an unhappy child will not learn anything however good the school.

 

My experience with mainstream has not been good, but that son does not have a Statement. I think you have some chance if he has a Statement, but you do need to monitor things carefully.

[Stella63]

Hi Karen,

 

My own experience has been mixed. AJ has not dealt with the whole school experience but that is more to do with the ADHD and ODD than AS and I am convinced he would have hated school wherever he went.

 

OJ has been a real success in mainstream (and we really didn't think he would cope at all) the support is fantastic and as the school takes more and more AS kids the levels of understanding is increasing (partly due to the fact that I work in the department and provide more practical strategies than maybe you would get from going on a course). Obviously there are problems, and for OJ, PE was a huge issue last year but things have calmed down now and he is flying high!

 

Ultimately it does depend on the child and the teachers and support staff and a whole host of other factors and it is really difficult making those decisions for your own children. Hope that helps!

 

Stella xx

[Flora]

I think it depends very much on the personality of the child and the presence of co-morbids, if any. My eldest ds found mainstream secondary a nightmare and is now in a specialist AS school; however this was purely down to severe sensory issues. My youngest son who is also on the spectrum but with no apparent co-morbids is doing absolutely fine, in fact possitively thriving, in mainstream secondary school.

 

Flora

[JsMum]

For us Js is a specialist school, he has average IQ and has massive abilties in ICT and Science, however in a mainstream it was more the enviroment, the distractions, the size of the building, the mass crowds, this isnt even getting to the learning part, or the social part or the emotional part, its just litrately standing in the corridor of a school that caters over 1500plus children, many also on the SEN register, many more not even identified SEN though in isolation everyday due to undaignosed conditions, we havent even got to the point of vulnrability, and health and safety, Its soo complex and it doesnt really touch the edges what Mainstream poses for children who are similair to Jay who have complex special needs with impairments and abilities.

 

Because of all the above we searched and researched specialist provision, J managed just 29 days in yr 6, his full time statement was wasted simply because J was too mentally destressed about the whole mainstream school, even though the school tried a lot of things.

 

There is specialist special schools out there but it looks like you have to fight the system to get them in.

 

JsMum

[Nic m]

Karen,

 

hi, i just wanted to tell you that my daughter is in mainstream secondary school with no support and so far so good! I have written before of our difficulties with her first primary school and the improvements that happened when i moved her from there were amazing.

 

She is now about 6 weeks into secondary school and she is doing well, the school are very good and the staff have been more than willing to speak with me as a parent and have reassured me they will do what they can to support my daughter.

It is a very well run school, and at the moment i have an advocate liaising with the school making sure my daughters needs are not ignored while they await yet again the system acknowledging her diagnosis and her other medical needs.

There have been a few moments where her literal interpretation of certain situations have got her into trouble (nothing major) but in all honesty these situations have helped highlight to the staff how subtle my daughter can present, and it has been taken on board.

I spoke with the senior staff of this school 2 years before moving her there and they have been true to their word so far.

As long as things continue on this path i will be a very happy parent.

 

My nephew attended a mainstream school with limited supports and coped well (there were incidents along the way but not anything that was not dealt with and my sister was happy with the school).

Good luck with your search and i hope you find what you need. It is amazing the difference a good school enviroment makes.

 

N x

[Karen A]

Thanks all.It is great to discover that there are some people around here with positive experiences of mainstream secondary.

The hints for what to look for are really useful too. Karen.

[Stardust]

Hi Karen

 

I started off with huge high hopes for my son at secondary school and for the first two terms, bar a few hiccups, it all appeared to be going well. The cracks started to appear in the Summer term of Year 7. Two weeks into Year 8 and he was refusing to go.

 

It was a whole mixture of the noise, chaos in changing classes, not being able to understand higher level language, no friends, bullying - I could go on....

 

As a consequence, we applied for a Statement and managed to get him one as even the LEA assessors said he needed one and they also all recommended he went to a specialist school. The LEA for a start insisted on mainstream (his old school) and this week, as you will have read, they have backed down from mainstream.

 

Ideally we would like him to go to an AS specific school because he is bright and he wants to be sociable and at the school of our choice we are sure he will thrive.

 

I think the problem with mainstream is that there are just too many teachers, too much changing of lessons and, I know they cannot help it, the teachers do not have the time or the expertise to differentiate enough for our children.

 

As I said in the beginning, we did have high hopes, it just all got too much for my son in the end. Maybe your son will have to try it and if he "fails" then that gives you more evidence of why he should move schools.

[Clare63]

Same as Stadust here Karen, but then every child is different.

 

Clare x x x