Special Schools or Mainstream School - Short Listing

popsy

Hi,

Does anyone have any good ideas about how to understand more about the provision for SEN at a state school easily?  I am looking for a school for my daughter and have quite a wide area to explore.  I have a few friends at local schools but they don't really understand the SEN provision, I will obviously meet with the SENCO team eventually before we decide but I want to create a shortlist.  All of the school websites make them sound the same but I am sure they are not all equally good at special needs.  Any ideas?

SENmum07

Hi Popsy. You are right and this was exactly our experience when we were looking for a school for our son. Finding a mainstream school that actually understands SEN and not just claims to understand it is incredibly hard. Try this website: https://www.senschoolsguide.com/
It's great as it focuses specifically on SEN education but not exclusively on special schools, or private schools. They also have Ofsted's ParentView data for the schools that have it available so you can see what parents there actually think about the school and how it deals with SEN

SENmum07

Oh and stay positive. It took us a couple of years and two different schools but we got there eventually :-)

janer1967

Hi and welcome I hope the information given is useful. You may find more in our other sections eg parents and carers 

forgoodnesssake

Our experience right from nursery, through infants, juniors, high school and now uni was basically there seem to be roughly 3 sorts of attitudes that you'll encounter!

1) *big sigh*..".oh well we can try but this, that and the other will be really difficult, and of course he won't be able to do that subject cos its always taught in that tiny room up 3 flights of stairs, and of course we could move the bookshelves in the open plan class-room but we don't want to....but of course we are truly inclusive so if you really want him to come here we'll manage" *another big sigh*

2) "Yep, great, had a kid in a wheelchair/with a communication aid/visually impaired 6 or 7 years ago so we know all there is to know...*patronising laugh*  don't you worry we'll be fine"

3) "OK, well I'll be honest we have not had a pupil with this sort/level of disability before but we would really like to make it work so lets start a discussion about what's going to be needed"

And as you might expect number 3 was always the one that worked for us...

Chloe_Alumni

Welcome to the community @popsy (and @SENmum07!). 

Here is an article which looks at choosing the right school for your disabled child. I hope you are able to talk to others about this.