Schools in England

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Hello! There's a possibility we will relocate to the UK because of work and I'm wondering if there's anyone here who has either attended school in England or has any knowledge about the better schools in Essex area... Are the schools ASD friendly?

Our son who has been diagnosed with autism is in 1st grade. He is high functioning, however has a para who works with him. At our current school in the U.S. they give our son lots of space and encourage independence. We also live in a somewhat small town in an affluent area -- we feel safe and there isn't a problem with bullying or concerns over safety.

I am just starting to research schools in the area of Essex, how the catchments work and so forth. Any advice, opinions, and so on would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.

Hi, not sure about Essex but I currently go to school in England, in Northamptonshire.

Are you looking at regular schools with good special ed. support or looking at special ed. specific schools?

Hi, Droog -

We're looking at regular schools with good special ed. support (that's the kind of school our son is enrolled in now in the United States and it's working out really well.)

Thank you.

OK. I'm afraid I can't really help, I know next to nothing about the schools in Essex and was simply being inquisitive. Unfortunately this isn't a popular enough forum to guarantee someone from Essex is on here, however I can help you by directing you to a massively popular forum; google 'the student room'.

I can almost guarantee you'll get a response.

Bonne chance.

Thank you very much for the reply and for the forum referral! It's much appreciated. The school our son now attends is wonderful, so unless we find reason to feel positive and certain that there are plenty of equally good schools in England, then we'll probably stay where we are.

Thanks again!

Although my Asperger's was not diagnosed,as a teenager I went to school for 5 months in England.It is a totally different system than here in the states, and I really learnt so much and appreciated the differences.You really have to work there,the teachers are totally different (some of mine even yelled at the students ),I enjoyed the electives which I got to choose (cooking,modern European history,painting)..I hope your son is of an to appreciate it instead of be confused and overwhelmed by it all.I am so grateful for it!

Thank you, Mackica.

I've heard that about the teachers in the UK...

Thankfully, there's just a small chance that we will be relocating. You make a good point in saying that you hope our son will not be confused and overwhelmed by the move-- ideally, we'll stay where we are since it's such a good school.

That's great to hear that you have an appreciation for your experience going to school in England.

as a teenager attending an english school in kent, i have to laugh about the yelling comment... don't they do that in the states? at my school we tend not to take it too seriously (i did at first, until some of my classmates told me that they were only joking). Also, I can say (although in a somewhat biased opinion) that english schools are very good - they offer a lot on the curriculum, and leave room for extra study - but somehow i don't think your son would be able to attend mine as it is all girls. Most schools in the south east have school nurses and careers advisors whom are available for students to talk to, although obviously it varies with the school but special educational needs programmes are pretty well developed over here. hope this helps

Although I'm in Australia and cannot offer any specific advice what I can say is that from people I have heard in the UK the National Autism Society or the like is really great. We have state based ones in Australia and they certainly know what the good schools are, which ones are more inclusive, supportive, etc, etc. What I do understand about the UK is that it is largely based on the Local Area Authority or the like that you live in as to what services you get both in and out of school for people with disabilities. Some are brillant and do everything you can ask for and more, others you fight tooth and nail to get the most basic of basic things and then only if you are so profoundly disabled as to not be able to do a thing.

That does help, thank you. We live in a more progressive part of the U.S. so most teachers wouldn't dream of being overly harsh or disrespecting a child. But of course they do need to discipline students when necessary but the teachers in our area are generally excellent. But there are places in America -- down South, for instance -- where corporal punishment is legal.

That's good to know, thank you! Looks like we'll have to do our research and investigate what local areas are better than others.

Not sure about Essex specifically, but if you can get your son statemented with an IEP, you should be able to get a set amount of hours for support from the school.

I couldn't possibly say a nice thing about the UK school system with regards to special needs treatment. Our son went to a proper SEN school for his first year as he was totally unable to communicate or learn, they did wonders for him. He then moved to mainstream education with a special needs plan and each and every school we tried just treated him worse than the last. His needs were ignored with such terrible statements as "we don't think he's as bad as people make out" and was basically treated like he was a trouble/stupid child despite the fact he had an autism diagnosis with over two years delay in all areas at minimum. He lasted two terms before he regressed to worse than he was when he entered that first SEN school. They basically broke him utterly. They even decided to throw out his special needs learning plan without consulting or informing anyone.

Our daughter has pretty severe Asperger's and she did fine for the first few years but at about the same time our son hit problems, so did she. All her problems with understanding 'normal' things started coming to the front and she just got more and more in trouble for 'not trying' or 'being lazy'. And in the areas she was ahead in she got told she wasn't allowed to use her advanced knowledge and had to stick with the simple methods being taught to make it easier on the teacher.

So we pulled both of them out of the state school system and now Home Educate them. There are frighteningly large amounts of parents of SEN children who do the same, it's pretty much the norm these days it seems. The school system just doesn't and won't look after SEN children properly.

Zulaxia, what you have described is something I have heard of many times. In my state in Australia and many others kids are assessed as to their needs and are then allocated an amount of money. The parents have total choice as to what type of school they want the child to attend, and how they want that funding spent. It is assessed at the beginning of primary school and again at the beginning of secondary school, 7 years later. We have 7 years of primary education and 6 years of secondary. It means that if parents want their child in a special school the whole time they can choose to do that. My understanding in the UK is that the local authority decides if the child attends a special school and can remove them if they have decided they no longer need it. Specail schools recieve standard funding but then use the funding from each of the specail needs kids to reduce class sizes, have higher qualified teachers, aides and the like. Those for students with profound disabilities can have class sizes as low at 4 with a specail education teacher and aide. Those for students with mild intellectual disabilities like down syndrome would normally average class sizes of 12 with a special education teacher and aide. The average class size at the mainstream schools is 25+, with a standard teacher and no aide. Sure the parents could request that the funding allocated to the child be put towards an aide, but unless the child is profoundly disabled it would not be full time. But to me the most important thing is choice for parents. There are brilliant special schools and brilliant mainstream schools and most of it has to do with the principle, but what I do know is that it is impossible for a teacher to understand each and every disability. Our specail education teachers specialise in an area of disability, ie autism, vision impairment, hearing impairment, mild intellectual disability, physical disability, moderate to profound intellectual disability, deafblindness. Like any profession there are good and bad in all teachers and all areas, but parents need to have the ultimate choice as to what type of education they want for their child. We do have many instances in which special schools will run classes for particular types of disabilities in mainstream schools, and then the kids often spend part of the day in mainstream classes, but they also have access to a specail teacher. A child with aspergers would not get any additional support and would not qualify for a specail school and so those on the milder end of any spectrum of conditions are missing out, but for those that qualify they are getting full choice and to be that is how it should be. I do not know of any parent who would not want their child to be a part of the community, but they also need for the child to be able to get an appropriate education and if the only way for that to happen is in a segregated school then what is wrong with that. We do have schools of distance education in every state and that would allow any child to be educated at home with occassional visists, ie termly by a teacher, but they do have a half hour one on one telehphone lesson with a teacher every day and the parent also gets all the materials provided, which is much easier than homeschooling alone. Any child can use that, but it may cost if there are not distance, medical or pscyhological reasons for the child using the school.

I should add that I have many issues with our system, it is in no means perfect and the fact that only those with more severe conditions get help is really a problem for me, but I do like and do feel that parents should have full control of the money set aside for their child and decide what type of school is best. The funding cannot be used in private schools.

Hey there, I went to school in Essex. What part of Essex are you looking into?

Some parts are particularly rough, (well, a fair amount of Essex can be) such as Basildon, Stanford etc. It isn't too bad but there are probably some nicer areas.

I specifically was in Thurrock area. What do you want to know about Essex schools in particular?

Thank you! I think the team from our current school could probably help too. They could probably talk with the school in the UK and get things going -- I hope anyway.