When to start looking at secondary schools?

[KezT]

DS will be going into year 5 in a couple of weeks. That is two full years away from secondary school - but his primary school has been asking me about my preferences already! We have pretty much narrowed it down to one school, so is it too early to try to get hold of that school and talk to head teacher/look around/aclimatise DS to a big secondary?

 

He is in mainstream primary, and we are looking at mainstream secondary atm. However, he does have a lot of support currently. I am not sure how that support transfers? Also, should the first move come from us or from his current school? he does not have a statement, our LEA swears there is no point unless we are looking at non-mainstream. he does have audit funding.

[call me jaded]

You could go to all the open evenings this Sept/Oct and get a flavour and ask to speak to someone about SEN whilst you're there.

 

Your Parent Partnership Service should also be able to tell you how the system works locally.

 

[chris54]

It is not unusual these days for school to be thinking up to 2 years ahead when it comes to new intakes.

 

You will need to apply in the autumn of next year about 10months before he will be starting.

 

If he has a statement, towards the end of year 6 there, by then the secondary school place will have been allocated, you need to have a review of to take into account his future needs. If not you will need to talk to the new school about his needs.

 

There is a little known bit in the intake policy of most schools which gives children with a statement preference over other children when it come to a school place in an over superscribed school.

In other words unless it can be shown that it would be detrimental to other children you are all but guaranteed a place at the school (mainstream) (in your area) of your choice.

 

In my area we have the added pleasure of the 11 plus. This is right at the start of year 6 when most of the children are in fact 10. It consists of 2 tests each about 2 hours long. And on that the whole of their future education hangs. 25% of children go to Grammar school. But I digress.

 

My son is also about to start year 5 and like you we have all but decided which school he will go to next. It will be our local secondary school which is soon to become a satellite of a big "College", but we will see.

[Daisydot]

My son's primary school recommends visiting all the secondary schools you wish to consider during the Summer Term of Year 5. There is certainly no harm in ringing up for brochures and researching everything on the internet before then. You will be required to tell your local authority which school you want, usually they want this by September / October of YEar 6. The Statement will be issued by 15 February in Year 6 naming a secondary school. If you disagree with what is named on the statement you can appeal to a SENDSIT tribunal.

 

I am at the Year 6 stage with my son, and despite thinking about nothing else recently, still dont know which school to name !! I have a pretty good idea which school our LA will name. I have felt with my son that Year 6 was the right time to "introduce" him to secondary school so he hasnt had any assessments or visits anywhere yet as I felt it might panic him if I did it earlier. WE have done a lot of looking and thinking though.

 

 

Good luck with your school visits.

 

 

[Kazzen161]

I woud go to the open evenings/days in the autumn. Then you can make an appointment to see the SENCO if you want to find out more.

 

It is no good arranging visits for your child to get used to the school, until his place has been confirmed.

 

Even if you make a decision now, keep an open mind, as schools can change drastically with a change of staff/Head/ethos (as happened with my youngest son).

 

In our county there is a category "needs to go to this school for social, medical..... reasons". These gets second priority after Statemented children. Worth checking, as you could argue your child needs special consideration (especially if it is not your catchment school).

[Sally44]

DS will be going into year 5 in a couple of weeks. That is two full years away from secondary school - but his primary school has been asking me about my preferences already! We have pretty much narrowed it down to one school, so is it too early to try to get hold of that school and talk to head teacher/look around/aclimatise DS to a big secondary?

 

He is in mainstream primary, and we are looking at mainstream secondary atm. However, he does have a lot of support currently. I am not sure how that support transfers? Also, should the first move come from us or from his current school? he does not have a statement, our LEA swears there is no point unless we are looking at non-mainstream. he does have audit funding.

 

It is not true that any child that remains mainstream cannot have a Statement. That is an illegal blanket policy. There are plenty of parents on this forum whose children are mainstream with Statements.

What support does your child get at the moment in terms of hours of support and input from staff (ie. TA support during lessons, breaktimes or dinnertimes) or therapies from outside agencies such as SALT or Ed Psych or OT?

 

I have already looked around some secondary schools and my son is only 8. I wanted to get a feel for what they are like. I still have a couple of other ones to visit.

Itemise all the support your child currently gets and discuss whether he would get that at secondary school.

[chris54]

It is not true that any child that remains mainstream cannot have a Statement. That is an illegal blanket policy. There are plenty of parents on this forum whose children are mainstream with Statements.

 

I am not defending the the AL concerned but what they are most probably saying is that the level of support that would be judged necessary is already being given under delegate funding and therefore no extra funding would be given even if a statement were given. This does not mean that a statement should not be given as it may cover other areas and not just funding.

 

I would suggest that most children who have a statement are in mainstream schools.

[KezT]

The actual reasoning given was that a statement would be a lot of additional stress and effort for us, him (and I assume the LA ) and is unecessary unless we were looking to move him out of mainstream as all his needs are currently beung funded and seen to.

 

I have to say, the school he is currently in has been fantastic (we moved him there when still looking for a diagnosis, but they were aware of the likely ASD before he started). He currently has FT ASD trained LSA in class, an assigned support worker during lunch & break, and he is withdrawn from a couple of classes (and half of lunch time) and has separate sessions with the LSA and/or SENCO during those times. He has seen a PT, and been signed off from them (his gait is apparently "not due to physical problems"), and SLT who have also signed him off for now. He is still seen by CAMHS and the Paed team & Ed Psych regularly.

 

I am concerned that the one-one LSA will dissappear when he moves schools and want to get that in place in plenty of time. In his old school, he spent the whole school day outside the classroom - when he first moved to this school, he spent a term under the teachers desk The school funded the LSA first part time and now full time out of their own budget while waiting for the DX & Audit funding to come through. He now works with the class on nearly all subjects and I do not want him to go back to hiding under the desk or running off to a cupboard!

[chris54]

There is a little known bit in the intake policy of most schools which gives children with a statement preference over other children when it come to a school place in an over superscribed school.

I think I may have overstated this . What I should have said is that you cannot be refused a place because of having a statement and will be given preference if you can show good reason.

[call me jaded]

I think I may have overstated this . What I should have said is that you cannot be refused a place because of having a statement and will be given preference if you can show good reason.

 

I don't think you have overstated. The admissions criteria for all schools is:

 

1. Looked after children (children in care/fostered)

2. children with a statement of SEN

 

It's a very good point. If you find the right school but don't live in the catchment then a statement would be the way to go. There is a section in the SEN Code of Practice that is just about transition.

 

[chris54]

2. children with a statement of SEN

 

Well I am sure I have read that somewhere but cant find it, It certainly is not included in my AL schools admissions policy.

[Sally44]

The actual reasoning given was that a statement would be a lot of additional stress and effort for us, him (and I assume the LA ) and is unecessary unless we were looking to move him out of mainstream as all his needs are currently beung funded and seen to.

 

I have to say, the school he is currently in has been fantastic (we moved him there when still looking for a diagnosis, but they were aware of the likely ASD before he started). He currently has FT ASD trained LSA in class, an assigned support worker during lunch & break, and he is withdrawn from a couple of classes (and half of lunch time) and has separate sessions with the LSA and/or SENCO during those times. He has seen a PT, and been signed off from them (his gait is apparently "not due to physical problems"), and SLT who have also signed him off for now. He is still seen by CAMHS and the Paed team & Ed Psych regularly.

 

I am concerned that the one-one LSA will dissappear when he moves schools and want to get that in place in plenty of time. In his old school, he spent the whole school day outside the classroom - when he first moved to this school, he spent a term under the teachers desk The school funded the LSA first part time and now full time out of their own budget while waiting for the DX & Audit funding to come through. He now works with the class on nearly all subjects and I do not want him to go back to hiding under the desk or running off to a cupboard!

 

You could visit the secondary schools in your area that you are considering and talk with them about the amount of support your son currently receives and whether they would provide that without a Statement. A Statement is the only way of legally guaranteeing that the support mentioned in it actually happens. Prior to applying for a Statement I was told and promised all kinds of things that never materialised. It is in your LEA's interest (from a budgetary and funding point of view) to persuade parents not to ask for an assessment towards a Statement, because once it has been done and a Statement has been agreed, then the LEA has to provide the funding to meet that provision. At the moment your son's current school is meeting it from their own funding and some other separate funding I have not heard of. But that is only happening because the school are happy to do that. Another school may equally only be prepared to provide the level of support that they allocate within their own budget. That could be considerably lower than the provision he currently receives.

The only other thing I would mention from your post is that you say he has been discharged from SALT. Speech and Language Therapists are responsible not just for the ability to speak and articulate, but also for understanding speech (ie. verbal instructions), comprehension, understanding and giving narratives (can he follow verbal information or give you understandable verbal information). They are also responsible for social interaction and play skills. In our LEA - I don't know if this is countrywide, the SALT department cannot discharge a child if they have a speech disorder. A speech disorder is something that is for life. To get a diagnosis of an ASD you have to have language and social interaction difficulties that are for life. Therefore my argument is that our children do have a disorder and not a 'delay'. Just because they can speak does not mean they no longer have speech/communication/social interaction difficulties. Unless they are suggesting that your child is no longer on the spectrum? That was the approach I took because my son had age appropriate expressive speech - but alot of that was made up of echolalic speech, and I was concerned that they were hinting at discharging him. I requested that all aspects of his speech and social interaction were assessed by a SALT that had experience of ASDs. They found many other difficulties he had ie. problems with auditory memory, auditory processing disorder. I had him assessed by an independent private SALT who produced a 52 page report on his language and social interaction difficulties. And we went to tribunal. He now has a SALT that dedicates a 30 min session per week in school which is observed and practised daily by his TA in school. His Statement itemises each area of difficulty the private SALT reported. He is now diagnosed with Semantic Pragmatic Speech Disorder. He cannot be discharged from SALT. SALT does not continue past primary school unless there is a disorder or it is mentioned in a Statement.

But the biggest improvement with SALT has been on his social interaction and play skills. He has gone from a boy who paced up and down the fence line repeating DVD dialaogue to himself, to actually joining in football with the other children. I never imagined he would do that, eventhough he did keep telling me he wanted to play and to make friends. He just didn't know how to do it.

So I would seriously recommend you look at whether your son does have significant social interaction and play skills difficulties. Why can't he access whole class learning. Is that due to the environment, or sensory issues, or difficulties with following verbal instructions etc. If any of those difficulties are the responsibility of the SALT then I would write them a letter telling them that they have not assessed these aspects of his difficulties, which are consistent with a diagnosis of an ASD and that you would like someone with experience of speech disorders and ASDs to assess him.

I would also seriously consider whether you need a Statement.

You can also speak with the National Autistic Society, IPSEA etc. A Statement does go post 16 and can help with supports needed in college etc.

 

[Sally44]

The National Austic Society do run day seminars about the SEN process, including how to get a Statement. You could phone them and see when they are doing one in your area.

[bikemad]

My son begins yr 6 in Sept but I bean looking at school in April while he was still in yr 5...in Oct/Nov ive got to choose the school I want him to go to.....he is not going to the local comp tho as it is really rough n recently a kid got stabbed by some other boys!!!!!

[call me jaded]

Well I am sure I have read that somewhere but cant find it, It certainly is not included in my AL schools admissions policy.

 

 

There is a section in the CoP dealing with naming a school, but you're right local authorities don't tend to publicise.