Special Needs Education

[Meg888]

My daughter has a condition called dyspraxia and ADD (without the hyperactivity). She's in year 10 in mainstream school and has a Statement, entitling her to the maximum support (15 hrs a week). I have a special needs review this afternoon and received a report over the weekend regarding her abilities etc in school. They've predicted a G grade for maths in year 11, and write that she's easily distracted and needs pushed to stay on task. She says she has to ask for support, she's placed to the back of the class in both maths & english (she has no behavioural issues at all either at home or school). I've never been fully happy with the support they're supposed to supply. She has constant problems with people in school ridiculing the way she walks etc. She gets picked on and I've took up several bullying issues with the school, sometimes things get done, more often than not they just fizzle out. They're not serious bullying issues, more sort of general stuff, but it upsets my daughter all the same. She has a couple of particular lads in class who throw things & call her names when the teacher is not looking. Even when a teacher catches onto some of this, they're not being reprimanded properly. She has work experience this year, and opted for health & social - so they're sending her to a hairdressers for 2 weeks as all the H&S placements have been taken up. I feel this meeting this afternoon is just a paperwork excersise so they get the funding for her, but they don't actually care about her. I feel this report was a way of telling us not to expect anything of her, so they don't have to try. I honestly feel they have failed her; also listed in the report was, she's got top attendance, punctuality - always dressed appropriately, turns up to lessons with all the right equipment & hands homework in on time, so she & we've done our bit, but they havent. I'm considering changing her school for the last year, she would be very happy if we did as she hates that one. Would this be such a batty idea? There is another local high school who's head has really turned it round in the last few years. It produces great results every year. My daughter will never be an A pupil, nor will she be a rocket scientist - but I feel someone needs to give her a chance at doing better than her current school is predicting.

[VHG]

My son, who is now 21, has Dyspraxia and he went to a mainstream school, though it was one that had good support for children with special needs.

He generally had support in the classroom, though not always, and often when say a supply teacher came to the school they were given no advice on my son's condition and would often set written tests (my son has trouble writing).

My son would get nought out of ten (as he could not write the answers down) and this made the class think he was stupid (in fact he is very bright and probably listened more attentively to the teachers than the "normal" kids).

Unfortunately he also suffered from bullying, both verbal and physical, and this upset him greatly. My wife would stand for none of that and was usually up the school to report the bullying (quietly but firmly) and the school were usually very good, often suspending the boys for a day or so as a punishment.

No child (special needs or not) should have to put up with bullying and the school should come down hard on any type of bullying. If they school wont do anything then escalate it, or go to the local press.

My son left school and then went to college for 2 years which he enjoyed, and he now has a job (only 3 days a week, but it is a job).

If you feel the other school has better suport for children with special needs consider moving, though switching school can be upsetting for the child concerned, joining when everyone else has already been there for a couple of years.

[VHG]

btw I am afraid many schools consider children with special needs as having no hope and often talk them down when it comes to academic qualifications.

My son loved history but the school talked him out of doing it as it would have involved a lot of writing.

I often wonder how schools would deal with someone like Stephen Hawking, in a wheelchair and severly disabled. If he expressed any interest in an acadmic career they would probably talk him out of it.

Funnily enough the senior doctor where we live who treats my son also has Dyspraxia so there is hope.

[Meg888]

Thanks for your answer VHG. I'm glad your son has overcome his schoolday problems to find a job. Dyspraxia is a difficult condition to understand, I struggled a lot myself - so I don't expect others to know everything. I've known a long time there was something with my daughter, and she has come on massively from being a toddler who couldn't speak/crawl/walk. She was always very late with her milestones, but when she got there, she was like lightning! The other school doesn't particularly stand out because of special needs ed, the new head teacher has turned it from a fairly low standard school to one of the best in the region in just a matter of a few years. They are so passionate about their pupils and do not tolerate bullying. My daughter's school are just pen pushers who try to blag through the day the best they can.

[sunflower68]

Meg 888 your predicament for your lovely daughter is really close to my heart; I have worked in a special needs school for 10 years and mainly with "Post 16". Although completely biased of course, I wouldn't hesitate to send a child who is struggling in mainstream through no fault of her own to such a school as mine. We have no more than 10 students per class with 3 to 5 teaching assistants as well as a teacher. All the students are so very different and their abilities so mixed but it really works them being together. Any higher abilities are recognised as are lower levels ( we have a high achieving 19 year old autistic student working alongside a young lady with profound and multiple learning disabilities and yes they are doing different levels but they both sit in on some lessons together. )
If a student is showing to be progressing really well in a certain subject then "inclusion" can be addressed which will mean he/she can make visits to mainstream school for that specific lesson, with a teaching assistant (a good one will have a radar for bullies and they will not get a look in) with a means to achieving gcse in that particular subject. You just don't get that 1:1 attention in mainstream.
Bullying is so rare in the school; most of the kids have empathy with each other and are so sweet natured it is a lovely place to be.
If gcse is not her thing there are other certificates they achieve such as "Asdan" . Lifeskills is a top priority so on the timetable for our 6th formers is cooking, budgeting, independent travel, college links, enterprise along with numeracy , literacy, pshe, ict, personal presentation, art and music, sports and work experience (lots of it). Our students actually leave school with a food hygiene certificate so are one step ahead of many mainstream school leavers.
If your local special ed school were ours, the head would gladly show you round with your daughter so I am sure others do this.
It is a huge step but I am a firm believer that mum knows best very often. Mum's instinct and all that....meg find a place you both feel comfortable looking around, be it mainstream or special ed and have a look online at the Ofsted report. Even be so bold as to ask parents at the school gate about the school. You care enough about your daughter so go for it!!