Experience of FE

[hsmum]

Hello,

 

I have just been offered a post as co-ordinator for ASC support at a college of further education. I think it is vital to incorporate in our practice, strategies which students with ASC have, themselves, found useful. Therefore, I would be really grateful if people who are students in FE or who have recently been students and who have ASC could briefly detail: what problems they faced and what strategies or help they found most useful in the college context. Please do not give your name or the name of the college involved.

 

I hope I am not breaching any forum rules with this request.

 

Thank you,

 

 

Janet

[Kathryn]

Hi Janet,

 

Absolutely fine and within forum rules so don't worry!

 

I hope you gather some useful information. I know first hand experiences are espcially valuable but I have some thoughts on this as a parent of an FE student if you're interested.

 

K x

[bid]

My DS failed spectacularly (twice) in mainstream FE!

 

None of his tutors were even told he had AS, etc, despite coming from a special college back into mainstream. As a result he has given up trying to complete his A2s.

 

Luckily, and completely down to his own fantastic efforts, he has a full-time job, and is enjoying earning spending his own money.

 

Bid

 

 

 

[pookie170]

Hi Janet,

 

my aspie lad is only 11 so I don't have quite the same kind of perspective as Bid, but what I think might be useful is this-

 

I was a lecturer at a local college and I dealt with students who had many, hugely varied additional needs. However neither I, nor the CQL/Head of departments were ever informed as to the nature of these needs or even given any advice on how best to support these needs during teaching. It was plainly obvious if someone turned up with visual aids, and we were informed when of a few, practical things such as 'xxxx requires all handouts to be printed on pink paper' but even down to things like someone needing to sit near the board, we were told nothing.

Of course, student confidentiality and privacy is paramount and I would never seek to take those things away from someone, but it was nigh on impossible to meet some students needs without basic knowledge of how we could best support them....

I think it would be an excellent idea to ask each student whether or not their lecturers could be informed of their conditions, at least then they'd have a fighting chance of getting the support they deserve. We muddled through, mainly through discussing problems with the students themselves, but some were not able to communicate their needs- heck, they barely knew me, and knew my Dept.Head not at all- it must have been so intimidating for them. I hated,hated,hated knowing that I was failing them and was powerless to do anything about it. But my protests were always met with a stock 'This is college/government policy-we're not allowed to disclose.' (I hasten to add, my superiors hands were as tied as mine!)

I would have been more than agreeable to signing any sort of declaration of confidentiality in order to have the appropriate level of knowledge to meet those students' basic needs......

I don't know if my rambling post is of any use, but thought I'd include it anyway....

Good luck with the job, it sounds great and I bet you'll enjoy it immensely.

Just be prepared for a bit of frustration in the form of admin and red tape!

 

Esther x

 

 

[hsmum]

Hello,

 

Thank you for the replies. I am sure they will be helpful. Kathryn, experiences of parents would be very welcome as well. Esther, I think your comments are really valid and I also have experience of the lack of information available to lecturers in colleges, and thanks for the warning about red tape.

 

Janet

[pearl]

JP had a pretty damn near perfect experience of FE. We were incredibly lucky in that it had a dedicated AS support team. He went on a bridging course the summer before he started, & they did loads of assessments in that time. He had a couple of ESW's helping him with one of them as the main contact between college/home. They acted as notetakers in class & differentiated the curriculum for him.

 

Going to FE was his first experience of travelling alone. If it had been necessary an ESW would have come to our house & accompanied him initially, but he didnt need that. He knew students on the college bus & was mostly fine. After a few months he wanted to get the service bus home on the day he finished early. His ESW accompanied him to the bus stop the first time then phoned to check he'd got home ok.

 

When it came to him applying for apprenticeships they really went the extra mile, & accompanied him to tests & interviews etc. even though it was beyond their remit.

 

I simply cant find fault with how he was looked after. We all miss college terribly. You do just drop off a cliff at the end of it.