Lunch and break time

Unstructured time at school can be particularly tricky.      The National Autistic Society has created a guide for parents and carers to understanding and coping with difficulties at lunch and break times.       Click icon to view.

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Early Years

At ages 3-4 ALL children qualify for 15 hours a week free education.       Some may also qualify for free places aged 2.
See: in brief        Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire Council sets out more general information under the heading:  Early years education

Mainstream school

With mainstream schools, smaller ones may provide a more calm and adaptable environment for pupils with additional needs.

The National Autistic Society has several pages about Education.       Click icon to browse.        In particular one of these pages sets out how to get extra help in mainstream school / college.

Additional needs

For children with an Education Health & Care plan a more specialised environment may be offered by schools for additional needs.        Here is a guide to choosing a special school.         Click icon for more about SEN.

Parents in the Grantham area might find a place for their child at:

• Ambergate Sports College & Sandon School – GANF caters for pupils aged 3 – 19 with moderate to severe learning difficulties and complex needs.        Many are on the autistic spectrum.      Grantham
• Greenfields Academy is a Specialist School for SEMH pupils (Social, Emotional, Mental Health) aged 4 to 16 years.      Grantham      (previously  Phoenix Academy)
• Gosberton House Academy is a specialist primary school mainly for children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.       Near Spalding

More pages

Autism discussion

Bill Nason developed the Autism Discussion Page to discuss tools that help children on the spectrum feel safe, accepted and competent.       Click Facebook icon to browse.       He has written an article for Autism Parenting magazine with the title, Can my child ever learn to live on his own?       Click page icon to view.  

He has also written a few books, notably The Autism Discussion Page on the core challenges of autism: A toolbox for helping children with autism feel safe, accepted, and competent.      See Amazon       Good Reads

Making it work

Getting what your child needs may put parents up against difficulties and obstacles.        Professionals may try to fob you off to begin with suggesting that things might sort themselves out – perhaps partly because they do not see your child at home.       See:  GAIN tips.

Ambitious about Autism has a lot of online discussion about educational issues.      See website: www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk
Twitter has a link to the website at the top of its display.       Look for the magnifying glass icon on their site to search.

School Transport

Cereba, the UK based charity, has produced a booklet about School Transport.        It lays out the basis for the local authority to decide whether a child cannot reasonably walk to school.        See also Cereba website.

Schooling problems

High-functioning children can be very resourceful, but it may take some time for them to get on top of things.

School refuser:  Read about the experience of a  Teenage girl  and a  Teenage boy .        They show very different approaches on the part of the parents.       Both are taken from the same on-line  Discussion .

Learning to read:   In this case things suddenly clicked at the age of 7.

Secondary school:   One of our committee members says,  I found my first year at Kings’ School a bit intimidating.    There were quite a few in my class who were clearly much more clever than me.       I was much more comfortable in the second year, having been put in a class based on my grades at the end of the first year.

Explaining to a child

You may want to explain autism or related issues:

• Children with special needs: How to explain disability to a child – Huffington Post.          See  article
• Question:    We recently got a diagnosis.      How should I explain high functioning autism to my affected son and his ‘typical’ siblings?           See:   Answer.          Also, this book is highly recommended by parents.           See  Amazon UK
• 15 children’s books.         See  article         Amazon UK

More generally, the National Autistic Society offers tips for communicating with an autistic child.      new

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See also Preparing for change about leaving primary and secondary school.

Social skills

• Options Group has produced a help sheet about developing emotional and social skills.       For more about Options Group see  Specialist services
• Prep focial success is a book aimed at parents of children on the autistic spectrum.        Amazon offers an eBook version.      The Amazon page says that it offers a four step programme:   PLAN, REHEARSE, ENCOURAGE, PRAISE and, the PREP program can be applied to a number of settings including school and group activities such as sports or clubs.        There are good reviews on Amazon but the NAS, Ambitious about Autism and NetMums did not seem to mention the book as of Aug 2015.       Click icon to see the authors’ Facebook site.

Medical appointments

Click icon for an autism help sheet on preparing for appointments with medical or clinical professionals, produced by a speech therapist with Options.          See also more help sheets.

Sleep & Dreams

Click page icon for the National Autistic Society article about sleep or PDF icon  for helpsheet on sleep and autism.        See also:  Nightmares        Social stories below might be adapted.

Thula the therapy cat

Iris was a 6 year old on the autism spectrum.         Her mother was surprised to see the way her daughter bonded with a cat that the family was looking after.           She bought a cat of a recommend bread.         Here is a brief video presentation of the story and here is an illustrated article.          See also more pictures.

Here is another case of a father who took is son cat shopping at an animal shelter.

Bullying

Why might autistic pupils be at risk of being bullied?       What can parents do about it?        Click icon for National Autistic Society guide.

• A book by Luke Jackson with the title Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome has a well written chapter on bullying.           See Library books for more about this book.
• Childline is a free, private and confidential service where you can be yourself.        Get in touch about anything:  online, on the phone at any time.             See:  website        bullying

Mothers’ Experiences

Click icon to read about parents whose school-age children have either autism or Aspergers.

Early Support

Lincolnshire County Council provide an Early Support, Care and Co-ordination service, or ESCO for short.        The eligibility criteria have been extended from children with complex health needs or disabilities under five to include young people up to eighteen years of age.         Click icon for more information.

Toileting

• ERIC is a children’s bowel & bladder charity serving the UK.       Their website has a page about children with additional needs.        Have a look under Help & support along the top of their screen – e.g. Fact sheets      Guides         They have a helpline.       You can fill in an enquiry form requesting a call back or an email.
• Bladder & bowel is a UK Disability Living support group for promoting continence and product awareness.       Have a look at their resources for children and young people.        Their helpline is a Manchester number.       They also have an online contact form.

See also 

Lincolnshire SEND plans

A £50m investment was approved by Lincolnshire County Council for SEND provision some time ago.        Click icon for summary.      The council is working with Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum to develop a new strategy for special education.       new

County news reported construction getting underway in Dec 2020.    

Ombudsman complaints

Children with special educational needs and disabilities are increasingly being failed by the system designed to support them, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.        The Ombudsman is now upholding nearly 87% of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan cases.       Click icon for full article.

Educational psychologists

Following a report showing an insufficient number of educational psychologists, £30 million extra for training has been announced.          Click icon to read about it.

SEN crisis

The mother of an autistic son, aged seven, wrote about her fight to get him assessed and placed in a school that could meet his needs.        Click icon to read the article of 26/Oct/2018.

Robot coding

Click icon for a video about a computer coding project that is believed to stimulate children on the spectrum to take an interest in and develop social & communication skills.

Lincolnshire SEND strategy

Lincolnshire County Council is developing a new strategy for special education.       They give it the title:  Building Communities of Specialist Provision for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Lincolnshire.       The Lincolnshire  Parent Carer Forum has dedicated a section of their website specifically to these developments.          Click icon to find out about it.

Parliament inquiry

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism has produced a report.          The Click icon to see the Special Needs Jungle’s (SNJ) take.            The SNJ is a parent led group.            See SEN Information for more about them.

Teenage geek

Autistic teenager creates artificial intelligence but ‘can’t get school place’.              It took Kari Lawler only a week to build her own virtual assistant, which operates on the same lines as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.            It’s incredible when you consider what the large technology companies have spent on producing something not very different to what Kari has managed to achieve in such a short space of time.               Her parents have not yet been able to get a school place for her since she was diagnosed and finished at primary school.

SEND Reforms

• How are the SEN & Disability reforms of 2014 going?              The picture does not seem to be all bad but there is room for improvement.
• Updates continue to be added.
• If you are experiencing difficulties you are not alone and it might be worth looking for helpful details.               For example, one survey revealed that only just over half of pupils with SEND (54%) believed that teachers and other school staff were preparing them well for adult life once they leave school/college or training  …   Could this perhaps reflect a generalised insecurity felt by pupils as they look ahead to the future? 

Click icon to browse articles about reforms.       See also: What Parents told the government        See also:  Botched job?
From–statement–to–EHCP

Pupil referral

Peterborough pupil referral service is for children and young people aged 4 to 16 who are not accessing mainstream school for a variety of reasons, including needs best met in a specialist setting.      See: service

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Parents are free to apply to schools outside their home county.      After visiting schools of interest and deciding on your preferences, the next step seems to be the  admissions process for the county in which you live, e.g. Lincolnshire

The schools

Medeshamstede Academy is a state school for pupils aged from 4 to 16.       All pupils have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for communication and interaction with a diagnosis of Autism as their main presenting need.        See: website       new 

The Lime Academy Orton Special School.      Pupils aged 2 to 19 are admitted to the school via the Peterborough Local Authority admissions panel.      See: summary       school website        new

Heltwate School is a co-educational special school for children and young people aged 5 to 19 years with Moderate to Severe learning Difficulties,
Autistic Spectrum Condition and many additional medical needs.      See: website

Marshfields School is a mixed, day, community special school.        We cater for 170 learners aged from 11 to 19 each of whom has a Statement of Special Educational Need, primarily for moderate learning difficulties.       See: website

Park House School is an independent school for students aged 6 to 19 with a diagnosis of autism who would benefit from 1 to 1 or 2 to 1 adult support.      See: summary        school website