Help needed.Don't know what to do about school problems.

[reallyworriednow]

Sorry,a bit long. Ds will be going into Year 10. He has been at a specialist resi school for around 18 months since the environment in mainstream proved too stressful. He is academically very able and his sm says that he would need to be extended beyond his peers. He also needs a calm, non stressful environment in which to learn.

We found it very difficult to find the right school as many did not cater for GCSE's but we were assured that this school could provide them and meet his needs. Well, ds actually feels more stressed by this environment than in ms as many of the children are disruptive and he feels he cannot learn. He says he often walks out of lessons because he finds the work too easy and 'insulting' to him. We have had various meetings with the school and have been assured that things will be much improved next year as the class won't be so disruptive, there will be more specialist teachers etc.

I have just received his annual report and the levels are lower than when he was in Years 6-8 at mainstream . Ds has also said that all the things that were said to us in meetings are now not going to be happening and that we are just being fobbed off and nothing will get better. He says that the staff have been mentioning lower level GCSE's but this is not what we were told and he is certainly capable of high levels if correctly supported. The promised ICT equipment has not materialised and the specialist teacher is not seeming great as he couldn't answer various questions or supply information that ds needed to know. He has done a few taster days with the new class and again has said that the work is too easy. They are apparently 'assessing his levels' but they've had plenty of time to do this already.

Ds does now not want to go back there and says he that has 'given up' his dream to go to uni . I am not happy that a lot of their promises do not appear to have been kept and if I request another meeting I am worried they will now say that settling in time is required etc and another year will end up wasted. What do I do? I don't really have a great relationship with the LA so not sure how helpful they will be and I can't really think of any alternative placement.

[reallyworriednow]

Not sure- he spends loads of time on the pc now and will hardly leave the house. I think he would need constant supervision/pushing to learn on the pc. Are there any samples that give you an idea of what's involved? Do LA's fund this type of thing?
Ds has a similar profile to your ds Polter.

[Pinkrose1]

Would a private day school be a financial option? I don't personally like the idea of private education but the smaller, quieter classes and the higher academic expectations sound perfect for your DS.

[tempe48]

The bottom line is that specialist schools are all about "bums on seats" - they are a business and they have to survive. They do promise you the earth to get your child in; then they will do what they were always going to do. They also cannot control to an extent their intake. It depends partly on Tribunals and partly who LAs send them - and LAs often send the children their own maintained schools don't want, which means some behaviour problems.

My son (no sn) was bored all through ms schools, and was only really happy when he got to university. Even in mainstream, they normally teach to the middle of the class. He always said he learnt more from his own reading and us, than he did at school.

If you talk to the LA, there is the possibility you will find him back in mainstream before you can say "Jack Robinson"! They don't want to pay for a specialist school.

Sometimes, you have to decide what is really important - would mainstream be better? You could move him to another specialist school and encounter the same or different problems. Or, leave him where he is (moving them is an upheaval in itself), until he is 16 and maybe move him then. What some of the specialist schools do with particularly able pupils is arrange for them to do some GCSEs at a local college. Can you ask them to do that?

[reallyworriednow]

Thanks all.
tempe the school doesn't have any arrangements to sit GCSE's at a local college even though it does say this is an option in their Ofsted report. He could do vocational studies at local college but this isn't what he really wants to do.
The LA specialists agreed that ms school was not suitable so they can't really place him back in one now. It's all very difficult.