Choosing a Secondary school without a statement

[gorby928]

Hi Guys

Long time no post,well our son AJ (age 9)Aspergers has just started year 5 and apart from the homework is doing ok.We will be starting the process of looking at secondary schools this week.I know its early but all the parents we speak to tell us we need to start looking now.AJ hasnt got a statement,we have been declined twice(thinking about first tier?).So we are looking at mainstream schools in our area.AJ has a formal diagnosis of Aspergers but as I said early no statement,is there anything we need to know that might help us get a place in the school of our choice,or are we just another small fish in a big pond? we are trying to stay local to us as my wife doesnt drive and has our 3 year old to take to nursery so we will have to put AJ on public transport on his own as I start work at 8.00am.So any advice would be great and i hope you are all well <'>

[Sally44]

Concentrate on his strengths and weaknesses when looking at any potential mainstream secondary schools.

 

Some schools have an ASD unit. IF there is extra training/expertise across the whole teaching staff, that might be worth a visit.

 

Regarding Statements. It is often automatic that LA's refuse to assess for a Statement. You have to appeal. On appeal most parents are successful. On what grounds did they either refuse to assess, or assess and refuse to issue a Statement?

 

Does he get any professional input or therapy presently? Does he receive any support in school in terms of hours or TA support. Is he on school action or school action plus for anything. Does he have IEP targets? If not WHY because he must have clinically significant difficulties to have got a diagnosis of Aspergers?

 

What are your concerns for secondary school ie. anxiety, social communication, learning environment, understanding lessons/planning projects, organisational skills etc.

 

Could he travel on his own on the bus? If he had a Statement, he may well be eligible for transport to/from school. Or if he is more capable the Statement should have a target of teaching him to become independent in travelling to/from school.

 

If the LA have always refused then you need to get the request in asap, because if they refuse again you need to appeal. Then if you win that, there is another 26 weeks in which the LA will write and finalise the Statement. He will be in year 6 by then, and you need his placement to be named in the Statement by the February in year 6 - so you don't have time to wait.

Edited September 17, 2011 by Sally44

[chris54]

I assume you have a few school that are withing realistic travel distance.

If you live more than 3 miles away from your nearest suitable school then you are entitled to free school transport. This can take many forms from a door to door taxi to a bus Pass. If you choose a school other than your local school you may not get school transport, a lot depends on your local councils interpretation of the law.

 

Without a statement your child will be treated as any other child when it come to a school place. You can put down any school you like but ultimately its up to the council, using a set formula, which child goes to which school.

In our case, even with a statement, as the school has two sites 5 miles apart, its up to the school which site our son went to. And there is no appeal against it.

 

So if you think that your child need to go to a particular school because of their SENs then you need a statement and get that school named on it.

 

Secondary school may seem a long way off but as has been said you need to get thing going now if you want to go down the statement road.

Many councils seem reluctant to issue statement for children with lesser needs, on the ground of delegated funding, but even though no extra funding follows these children, it does give that child additional consideration when it come to school places etc.

[gorby928]

Hi

thanks for the quick replys,yeah AJ is on school action plus and does have an IEP but I think it isnt as much as he should be getting,i.e. in a goup situtation not one to one.At least that was the case last year? This year is has just started and I couldnt get to see the senco as she was teaching all day? As for the schools some are within 2-3 miles of us the rest outside of that.He does love his PC but I dont want to tie him to one subject just yet.Well next week we are looking at 5 schools and then some the week after so I will keep you informed and thanks once again.

[chris54]

A bit of topic,

When school choice is talked about, it is always assumed that everyone has a hand full of schools withing a realistic travel distance.

As far as secondary schools are concerned there is our local school the next one is being about 15 miles away. For any one here who chooses that one and gets a place there its then up to them to get their child to and from that school by car each day.

[Kathryn]

Hi Gorby,

 

Getting a Statement which names a particular school is the only way to guarantee a place at that school. I'm not sure from your post how far you pursued this process: you may want to take advice and consider whether it's worth trying again and going to appeal if necessary, but that's up to you.

 

Withot a statement as other have said, you are subject to the same admission process as every other child and your son will get no special treatment simply because of his SEN. Check carefully the oversubscription criteria for all the possible schools in your area, as these rules will indicate the likelihood of getting a place. Put down as many schools as your LA allows you to and try to ensure that at least one of those is a school he would easily meet the criteria for. This is usually your nearest community school. If you select popular schools which are some distance away, in a different catchment area or have additional faith based criteria which you can't meet, you run the risk of not getting any of them, and being given the school from hell which nobody wants to send their children to.

 

Having said all that, there is one small ray of hope, some schools have in their criteria a category of "exceptional social and medical need", so check this for each of the schools you are considering. If you could present evidence to qualify your son for this category, he woud be placed higher on the priority list than most other children. Usually stringent evidence is needed to convince an admission authority that a child has an exceptional social/medical need for a particular school and very few children will qualify under this rule.

 

Good luck with it all!

 

K x

Edited September 17, 2011 by Kathryn