year 10-11 work experience

[orangegoblin]

Hi my son came home with a letter about work placements in year 11, my son is 14 yr 10, and has split time in mainstream classes and ASD facility within school,he has aspergers, however my concerns are how is he going to cope in a working environment without his support, are the work placements aware of the child with ASDs? What is school policy about work experience and ASDs? would love to hear about anyone else who has been there and how their kids have got on, or any other info about this, Cheers.

[oxgirl]

Hi orangegoblin,

 

You don't have to go with the school work placements, you can choose your own placement and arrange it yourself. I did this for my lad when it was his turn, he was also in an ASD unit attached to a mainstream school. His interest is fish and aquatics so I arranged for him to do a week at the local aquatic centre. I visited them and talked to the manager. They were very flexible and my lad started off doing just a couple of hours the first day and an hour more the next, until, by the last day, he did 10am - 4pm. On the second day his TA visited to see how he was getting on and, as it was very local to me, I took him there and collected him and was at the end of the phone if any problems arose.

 

Is there anything you could think of that your lad would like to do that you could arrange yourself or will his TA and the staff at the unit help you to support him? If required his TA could go with him to support him or go in to visit him and liaise with the placement on his behalf.

 

~ Mel ~

[Suze]

Hi welcome , my son was like yours and in main stream high but within an ASD RESOURCE there.When he had his work experience we like oxgirl found it ourselves.He has a keen interest in cycling and bicylces, so we contacted a specialist shop thats about 8 miles from us.We explained his difficulties and took him over to visit.They were very accomodating and he had an enjoyable week there.We had to take him and drop him off.His TA visited him there also.We were keen for him to do it as we felt it would help him socially and make him more independent.He helped in the back workshop mending brake cables and fixing the bikes etc, I think it gave him a good taste of what a working environment is like.It isn,t a big place , only 4 staff and all older gentlemen who were very caring , so he was at home chatting about the Tour deFrance lol...

[orangegoblin]

thankyou for your responses, i have a lot of food for thought so far, it is parents evening in Nov. so will have a talk with teachers, but yes it seems that finding our own placement is the way to go.

[smiley1590]

work experience got me used to environment,colleagues made me realised what was involved in daily routine what was expected of me and what i needed to do what skills/abilities i would need make it more predictable! i really enjoyed work experience through my secondary school ...gave me foundation/structure to my child care knowledge /skills

 

XKLX

[Kathryn]

My daughter's school encouraged pupils to find their own placement if possible, but they would allocate local placements to those who weren't able to do this. We couldn't find anywhere appropriate for her to go, so the school assigned her to a local graphic design company as she had expressed a vague interest in this field. However she got more and more anxious as the time approached and we were worried about how she would cope - at the time she wasn't coping too well with school as it was.

 

I can't remember if we expressed our concerns to the school or if they picked up on it themselves, but in the end they allowed her to do her work experience in the school office instead. This was much more manageable for her: in fact she enjoyed it, especially the fact that it wasn't like normal school and there were no other y10's around! I'm not sure what she actually achieved but she enjoyed pottering around on the computer.

 

I hope you resolve this one: do let the teachers know your concerns as early as possible so they are fully aware of what they need to do to support your son. It should be an enjoyable and stimulating experience, so if you can find him something he is really interested in, half the battle will be won, I think!

 

K x