Placement

[madme]

Hi my son is statemented. He is currently in a small independent specialist school. We won at tribunal as the cost was no more than mainstream with ot salt and lsa provided we paid transport which we agreed ie tribunal did not accept that son needed a small school despite copious medical evidence - unfortuntaely his old Head teacher made out that we were just over anxious parents etc and no problems in school - bullying didnt exist , no headaches - he was referred to a neurologist! - So a somewhat pyric victory. We now face transfer to secondary. He still remains anxious at school, has fragile self esteem . Current school say needs similar provison at secondary. His psch agrees. Lea have consulted quite a few schools who agreee but one has said can meet needs. This school has no specialism in any of his difficulties - adhd aspergers dyspraxia dyscalculia= THey do have a behaviour unit which children spend up to 40% of time to learn beahviour managment according to ofsted report. He doesnt have behaviour issues at school at present. There has never been anyrisk of exclusion. He has always tended to bring home his frustrations! When not in the unit they attend normal lesson - english maths science dt and pe in usual groups - upwards of 28 and sometimes 30 plus. He has a high Iq but difficulty particularly with maths. Given his iq he ought to be placed in the higher sets but then classes would be even larger. Im surprised that this school has agreed. We are going to visit. Is there any research on the effects of placing asd children with EBd children. Im aware that its not a good idea but is this "view" actually based on concrete research? Also the tribunal last time appeared to accept that his old school was no good - 600 plus, but not that all such large schools would be simialrly stressful! Am I supposed to experiment with him? He had got to the point of climbing out of the car on the way to school - but as never witnessed by his old HT she denied. Prposed school is about that size. We say too big and inadequate provision. It would be nice however to be able to point to evidence or resaerch. Please any views asap? Thanks