hi my sons school is talking of putting my son in a special needs school because of his behaviour.
he has autism and aspergers but he has got a behaviour of if he does not get his own way he hits out.
school are finding they can not cope and say a special school would be better but i am not to sure if this would help or make him worse.
has anybody had experience with special schools and what they are like

i feel as though it is me to blame for all of this

I was pretty much in the same boat as your son is now 20 odd years ago marie, and I can tell you from experience, being sent to a "special" School was the worst thing the "system" ever did for me IMO, they've could've at least sent me to a School in my own area, but no, they sent me all the way up to chuffin' Norton to Gleadless bloody Valley! :rant:

As you can probably tell, I resented every minute of the place, and for a while, resented my Parents for sending me there.

I obviously don't know the Special schools in Rotherham though, so they might be better than the ones in Sheffield, but go round the schools and check them out for yourself, and then take your son to see the one you think is the most apt for his needs.

thanks for replying rich i am trying to aviod special schools as i have been told this could make him worse the main stream school seems to me that they dont want children with behaviour problems in there school as this gives them a bad rep

Marie, the first thing to try and get your head round is that it's not your fault. People are people, are people, are people, and that's the same when they're kids.

What is your son like when he does get his own way, and are there specific situations where he flares up, and more importantly, calms down?

There are special schools and special schools. In my experience special schools aimed at children who have purely behaviour problems can often only do as well as the mainstream school and in some cases are worse as the environment is full of equally disruptive children, often there because the mainstream school could not cope rather than the school being of any benefit to the child.

On the other hand special schools for children with communication difficulties such as Autism can be the best environment and children thrive there, where they could not at a mainstream school.

You need to look very carefully at what provision is being suggested and speak to as many people as you can as everyone will have a different opinion based on their experience.

I think that maybe the school needs help to be able to handle the conflict and understand why Maries son behaves in the way that he does.It is disruptive for the other parents ,I accept that but it is not the parents fault
No one should blame themselves for a child with Asperger Syndrome.They just need very special help and understanding .The worry is what excluding a child does to him or her over the course of his school life is very worrying.

Blaming a child for something (for which they need a lot of help and support by their family and the teachers to overcome) should be carefully looked at.

Hi Marie,

Does your son have a statement of SEN ? ifso how many hours does he get and what other proffisions are on it? and how old is he?

Are the any Mainstream schools with intergrated special need units in Rotherham or a school with an ASD unit?

I also just wanted to echo what others have said that none of this is your fault!!

Hi marie,
I have experience of both Rowan and bents Green having cared for a child who attended both. In mainstream he wasn't coping a blossomed in these enviroments, sometimes you as a parent want them top continue in mainstream when actually it isn't always best! The child i looked after became more self confident, had a good self esteem. He really benifitted from them both educationally and emotionally.
His parents tried to keep him in mainstream but his behavour became a real problem not just for him but for the other pupils around him.
He is now at Noton College doing better than we ever hoped he would.

hi all i have just got parent partnership involved as my son has been expelled from school again they are going to give me as much help as they can
we applied for sen but nothing came avail of it so looking into trying again for it he needs as much help as i can just finding it hard with it all

aww hun good luck , the lad i was telling you behaved in this way as he couldn't cope in mainstream, but couldn't express his feeling to make us understand him. When he started at Rowan there was the odd thing that seemd to upset him but as they had more resouces he was given the bes chance possible and attained alot both emotionally and educationally.

got a meeting at school thursday with education psycology and other people hoping to get this resolved once and for all main stream schools say they want to help and except people with special needs but i have noticed some just dont want them there and this is unfair to the children

got a meeting at school thursday with education psycology and other people hoping to get this resolved once and for all main stream schools say they want to help and except people with special needs but i have noticed some just dont want them there and this is unfair to the children

Marie,

Why have they expelled him? what reason have they given you?

From what you have writen here it doesnt sound like his current school have any intention of even trying to meet he needs!! if indeed the actions of your son that caused him to be expelled are a direct result of his disability then i think you will find that this goes against the disability discrimination act!! parent partnership should be able to advice you on this. However the thing with parent partnership is that they are also employed by the LEA so i would always treat the advice they give you with caution. There are other independant advisory services that can help you, have a look at theses sites

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/

http://www.special-educational-needs.co.uk/sos!sen.htm

http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/

http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=143&a=9995

Hope this helps xx

my daughter goes to wolley wood in shiregreen its a pmld/sld school

shes in foundation stage and in her class are 4 children with purely physical problems, 3 boys and 1 girl with autism and my wee girl who stradles the 2, she has cp and a social/communication disorder they think is autism

shes doing well there but then i know at the moment theres no way she would cope with mainstream ( or them with her, they tried and had to refuse her )

i know hartley brook school in shiregreen has an intergrated resorce

( were right on the border of sheff/rotherham )

hi sumayyah lack of social communication can also be called asperges which is what my son also has on top of his autism he can not explain how is hes feeling or tell you how angry he is so his way of dealing with it is to lash out
i have also found out from my daughter that what triggered it today was a lad was pushing him and then got in front of my son which caused him to get angry and when the teacher tryed to calm him he lashed out at the teacher and headmaster so that is why he got suspended because of the hitting out

hi sumayyah lack of social communication can also be called asperges which is what my son also has on top of his autism he can not explain how is hes feeling or tell you how angry he is so his way of dealing with it is to lash out
i have also found out from my daughter that what triggered it today was a lad was pushing him and then got in front of my son which caused him to get angry and when the teacher tryed to calm him he lashed out at the teacher and headmaster so that is why he got suspended because of the hitting out

You need to be prepared for the meeting today and make sure that you say what it is that you want for your child.Stand up for him and explain why he would have done what he did.Good Luck

hi sumayyah lack of social communication can also be called asperges which is what my son also has on top of his autism he can not explain how is hes feeling or tell you how angry he is so his way of dealing with it is to lash out
i have also found out from my daughter that what triggered it today was a lad was pushing him and then got in front of my son which caused him to get angry and when the teacher tryed to calm him he lashed out at the teacher and headmaster so that is why he got suspended because of the hitting out



Hope it all goes well for you today, stick to your guns!!

for what its worth i would be asking myself, if its worth fighting your battles with this school? if so then push for funding from the LEA for extra support for your lad. This can be given almost instantly in extreme cases.

Also marie i know that your son has only recently been diagnosed can i just point out (for the benefit of others reading this thread ;) ) that Aspergers is an Autisic spectrum disorder.

thanks everyone for your support in the meeting tomorrow i am going to ask for him to be put to a special school i think this might be best for him because at the mo he aint gonna change over night so this is going to be a on going battle which i dont think him or me needs to go through

hi all meeting went well going to try half day school and they are going to look into understanding dominic more they are going to apply for sen so fingers crossed we get something sorted

hi all meeting went well going to try half day school and they are going to look into understanding dominic more they are going to apply for sen so fingers crossed we get something sorted

Marie - do rotherham have an ASD teaching support team?

Sheffield does and the have helped my daughter (she is just 6 and also has ASD) alot (not enough!! but they have helped).

Marie - do rotherham have an ASD teaching support team?

Sheffield does and the have helped my daughter (she is just 6 and also has ASD) alot (not enough!! but they have helped).

How do you access the team?

Your child's school can request support from the Autism support team. They are part of the Special needs team.

How do you access the team?

Hi Yellowrose,

As buckley says, the school can access the ASD team, however my daughter hadnt actually started at school so ryegate reffered us.

They were a big help when she first started school as they provided some training to the class teacher and the class TAs, they spent about 10 weeks coming in to school for one afternoon per week.

Your child's school can request support from the Autism support team. They are part of the Special needs team.

I dont think this exists anymore as I think the team was disbanded at the end of June time.
Check, but I am sure this is right..

hi the school have just got me to sign a form for the autism society to see if they can help at school.
i have heard that there is not just me having probs with the school me and another mum has had different stories told us by the school regarding our child being put to a special school

hi the school have just got me to sign a form for the autism society to see if they can help at school.
i have heard that there is not just me having probs with the school me and another mum has had different stories told us by the school regarding our child being put to a special school
When you say autism society, do you mean The National Autistic society or something else??

it is the autism communication team who attended the meeting and i think it is these who are looking going to observe and offer advice to the school

it is the autism communication team who attended the meeting and i think it is these who are looking going to observe and offer advice to the school
It may be different in Rotherham .The Sheffield one was disbanded I think

It may be different in Rotherham .The Sheffield one was disbanded I think


I dont think they have Espadrille (not completely anyway) we were at Ryegate just 2 weeks ago, and the Pead there was saying to us that she had just had a meeting with the ASD Teacher that has dont a lot of work with my little one.

I dont think they have Espadrille (not completely anyway) we were at Ryegate just 2 weeks ago, and the Pead there was saying to us that she had just had a meeting with the ASD Teacher that has dont a lot of work with my little one.

They were based at Prince of Wales school and that team was disbanded in June.
Dont know what happened after that.They do have support in schools but it appears now that Autism team was closed.There are SENCOs in all schools who work with special needs of course.

The Autism team is now part of the Special Needs service. It's the same teachers and teaching assistants, just under the management of the special needs team, rather than as a separate service.

My son now attends a special school after two years in a mainstream school with an integrated resource. I had massive concerns about sending him to a special school as I thought it would make it worse but my fears were unfounded. He has flourished there and I am so glad I let him go. If it doesn't work for your child then you can review it but in my experience it was the right thing to do. The teachers there know what they are doing and my sons behaviour improved dramatically because he was in a small group with people who understood him. My advice would be to go and have a look, speak to other parents who send their children there and take it from there. Hope it all works out for you. x

my daughter goes to wolley wood in shiregreen its a pmld/sld school

shes in foundation stage and in her class are 4 children with purely physical problems, 3 boys and 1 girl with autism and my wee girl who stradles the 2, she has cp and a social/communication disorder they think is autism

shes doing well there but then i know at the moment theres no way she would cope with mainstream ( or them with her, they tried and had to refuse her )

i know hartley brook school in shiregreen has an intergrated resorce

( were right on the border of sheff/rotherham )

hartley brook isn't very good :( my nephew with ADHD goes there and recieves no support whatsoever.

hmm thats not good since its been suggested madam move there next year, wooley wood want to kick her out!

My friend has a son with ASD who goes to Bents Green school, they have found it is great there for him, with very small classes, very calm and supportive.

We get a lot of parents who take their children out of school altogether because of autistic spectrum disorders who find that they do a lot better home educated. If anyone would like details of home education let me know.

My friend has a son with ASD who goes to Bents Green school, they have found it is great there for him, with very small classes, very calm and supportive.

We get a lot of parents who take their children out of school altogether because of autistic spectrum disorders who find that they do a lot better home educated. If anyone would like details of home education let me know.

One of the children I have had in my care in the past goes to bents green and has done well, he had alot of input there and he is now confident and happy.

hi all i have just found out from my sons school that the reason he cant stop in his main stream school is because of fundings and not enough staff to deal with children with autism so they are looking to try and remove them to special schools

You can appeal to the education authority to get a full statment, Sheffield doesn't give these out easily.

You can appeal to the education authority to get a full statment, Sheffield doesn't give these out easily.

the school has is applying for a sen statement but that is just so that they can get him into a special school at the moment he is only doing half a day school he is not allowed to go full time as they cannot cope with him

erm your son has a right to an education, its an infringment of his rights to only allow him in for half days.
finding for staffing levels to "cope" with him isnt your concern, they should be demanding the lea supply funding for a one to one not banning your son from full time schooling. have they asked any of the NT children to do half days? i doubt it

this is exactly whats happening with my nephew atm, I've said for years it isn't fair as he is so far behind the rest of his class now :(

The Autism support team has been abolished in Sheffield. There is now no support for schools. I know this because my husband who is a teacher was quite angry about this because no consultation was made before withdrawing this service to schools.

There is some support which will be allocated according to what resources are available.The funding isnt allocated directly to one child so is spread throughout the needs of all the kids.There is some talk that kids are getting about 9 hours of support each week, but I am not sure why it is 9 hours.

My worry is that with so many kids now getting diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and these kids behaviour is often challenging, how can the teachers cope without the support.

I have noticed a lot of jobs being advertised for support staff, but these are relatively low paid staff and how much training in Asperger Syndrome will these new people have?
I hope that the LEA will look at provision for training of staff in schools for teachers and also to raise awareness of bullying.

The LEA don't need to do that. Schools can arrange for training of their staff as they have at my husbands school. But without the support team it makes it more difficult to even arrange these things. Having a support assistant without proper training is worse than having none my husband has found from experience in other schools as a poorly trained assistant can make a child anxious and agressive.

it seems that there is a lot of mianstream schools that are having trouble coping with children with autism,adhd and other disabilities.My sons school just haven't got the staff or fundings to help children with these problems and it is very annoying for us parents

I think really someone should call for a review of support for children with special needs as it seems no one is happy with the present situation, neither teachers or parents or children. It's become a lottery as in some schools there are more trained personell than others and to be honest in some schools some teachers who are very ignorant of what needs to be done. So much money is being spent on the top end of education eg post 16 that insufficient spending is available for nursery and primary. Cheap options have been made by the government in that classroom assistants are used to fill gaps that should have been filled by fully qualified teachers. Classroom assistants though not untrained are asked to do the same work as teachers for almost half the pay.

hi all just a quick up date to this thread have spoken to education department today they are revuing my sons sen statement soon and have said if i want to move him schools i can look into ways of transfering him to cause little stress or i can wait and see what happens in review meeting and if nesseary they will get him extra help in school i have got a meeting tomorow with school so see what they say

Thats sound better but Sheffield isn't all that hot on statement provision so keep fighting hun

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SENDISTtribunals/#detail

Not sure if this has been posted here already, it is relevant to us in that it's yet another erosion of parents options and choices.


Changes have been made to the tribunal systems as a whole, including the special educational needs tribunals, there has been very little consultation.

As you are probably aware when parents of children with special educational needs disagree with the Local Education Authority (LEA) over the provision for their child's education, the parents can go to a Tribunal to have their complaint heard. The Tribunal was supposed to be free and informal.

However, the government is proposing to change these SENDIST Tribunals by turning them into a proper court hearing. The proposed Regulations are so legalistic it will be impossible for parents to attend Tribunal without a barrister. The extreme expense will prevent parents from appealing (about £20,000 plus). Lay representatives cannot work under these circumstances as costs can be awarded against them. They do not qualify for indemnity insurance.

The LEAs would also have the power to assess disabled children against parents' wishes, which parents could be forced to pay for. This extraordinary power is not available to the High Court, unless parents are suspected of child abuse. If the changes to the SENDIST Tribunal goes ahead, parents of disabled children will be hugely disadvantaged and the children will ultimately suffer.

Many people with SEN children are still not aware of the governments
plans. Feel free to pass this on to other forums.

More information available here

http://www.sendist.gov.uk/importantInfo.htm

The group of people affected directly by this change at any one time is small (only those currently appealing the LEA provision for their child) and so it is crucial that as many other people respond as possible as it could affect any of our families in the fullness of time. Please sign the petition.

Every Child Matters.

The way of working is now about inclusion and integration so that kids are educated in teh classroom.This is a great idea so long as resources are put in place to enable all children to achieve their true potential.
In my opinion and experience, I dont believe that (generally) a child who has Asperger Syndrome should be educated in a special school.They are often high functioning and as such achieve higly in academic areas.

What is lacking is social skills training and I shall be asking about this tomorrow at a meeting I am going to.
I believe that there should be funding in place to help all children with Asperger Syndrome as not getting the help when first diagnosed affects the school life and the rest of their life.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SENDISTtribunals/#detail

Not sure if this has been posted here already, it is relevant to us in that it's yet another erosion of parents options and choices.


Changes have been made to the tribunal systems as a whole, including the special educational needs tribunals, there has been very little consultation.

As you are probably aware when parents of children with special educational needs disagree with the Local Education Authority (LEA) over the provision for their child's education, the parents can go to a Tribunal to have their complaint heard. The Tribunal was supposed to be free and informal.

However, the government is proposing to change these SENDIST Tribunals by turning them into a proper court hearing. The proposed Regulations are so legalistic it will be impossible for parents to attend Tribunal without a barrister. The extreme expense will prevent parents from appealing (about £20,000 plus). Lay representatives cannot work under these circumstances as costs can be awarded against them. They do not qualify for indemnity insurance.

The LEAs would also have the power to assess disabled children against parents' wishes, which parents could be forced to pay for. This extraordinary power is not available to the High Court, unless parents are suspected of child abuse. If the changes to the SENDIST Tribunal goes ahead, parents of disabled children will be hugely disadvantaged and the children will ultimately suffer.

Many people with SEN children are still not aware of the governments
plans. Feel free to pass this on to other forums.

More information available here

http://www.sendist.gov.uk/importantInfo.htm

The group of people affected directly by this change at any one time is small (only those currently appealing the LEA provision for their child) and so it is crucial that as many other people respond as possible as it could affect any of our families in the fullness of time. Please sign the petition.
It looks as though many signed this petition but I dont know what difference it will make.

hi all a new update i have been to look around some resource centres this week for help with my son who has autism.
the 1st resource centre i went to was for children with bed behaviour which looked ok but when talking to the teacher i said it would be no good as my son would pick up on the behaviour of the other children it was a great resource centre though offerd plenty of help.
The 2nd was a autism resource centre which teaches children and either helps them back into main stream or refers them to a special school this sounds great for my son who is struggling within mainstream it gives him that bit extra support he needs

hi my sons school is talking of putting my son in a special needs school because of his behaviour.
he has autism and aspergers but he has got a behaviour of if he does not get his own way he hits out.
school are finding they can not cope and say a special school would be better but i am not to sure if this would help or make him worse.
has anybody had experience with special schools and what they are like

i feel as though it is me to blame for all of this

hi marie, we are going through the same as you at the moment our son joshua has asperger syndrome, and is getting no support from his mainstream school even though they have SEN reasouce team,

Every day they are coming to us saying how bad he has been and how it is unacceptable. this maybe, but if they would have pulled there finger out when he first started back in febuary then it wouldnt have gotten to be unacceptable imo.

The school have made promises upon promises that stratagies would be put in place to help joshua but there has been only a couple that has been, but then taken away from him, as his teacher thought they were doing nothing to help, this has caused absolute caos for joshua.

we are at a point were we just dont know what to do. our poor son is getting the blame for them not supporting him.
we have had meetings to air our feelings to the head, but she doesnt seem bothered she just likes to make excuses up.
we are also intouch with the educational psycologist,
ryegate, parent partnership and autism team.

The educational psycologist has been to asses joshua a few times, the first time she came she told us his class was so disruptive that she would have to work with the class teacher, to be able to manage the whole class, to be able to help joshua, as it is unbeleavably noisy and that is one of joshuas downfalls (noise).

We have asked Ryegate for help and advice, all they told us was to leave it to the school, as it is there responsibility and to get intouch with our educational psycologest.

We have an appointment with Parent partnership on wednesday, cant wait to see what they have to say.

Autism team are coming into school soon we have been told by the school.

We are hopeing we will get somewere after all this, but in the meantime we have to watch our son go through imence preassure, and it is so painfull to watch.

I also went through the stage of blaming myself and sometimes still cant help but think it is still me to blame.

Good luck with everything Marie i know you need it.

Hi jon&emma i am involved with parent partnership in rotherham and these are the ones who are helping me get support with my son dominic he is 8 years old and is still struggling but the headmaster is starting to understand a little bit more than he did i also have the autism communication team learning support and the educational phsycologist involved mine is just being looked into for a sen statement but with all the reports and support should be ok.
Hope everything goes ok for you in your meeting at school

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0281

Here is a link to a hopeful development.
Shame it will take so long though.

Just thought you may be interested to know of provision in Sheffield that takes young adults from 16 - 25 years.

http://www.rmet.co.uk/index.php/the_colleges/freeman_college/