Additional Needs

Pressure

Posted by Carolyn Voisey on 18th May 2015 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

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At the same time, I’m scared that he’ll end up atrophying in a school that doesn’t push him and encourage him to develop and progress.

I honestly don’t know what to do for the best anymore, and it’s terrifying.

Currently, we aren’t convinced that Sam’s education provision is the right one for him... his teachers are missing him communicating, and don’t want to believe what we tell them he’s doing at home.

Currently, we’re awaiting a reassessment by an educational psychologist which will (hopefully) make things a little clearer but I’m not convinced that it’ll take much of the worry away.

Having a child with complex issues like Sam is a rollercoaster with even the most mundane things.

We don’t have the same choice as other parents in what school he attends, and the SEN schools by us, while all rated highly by OFSTED, don’t necessarily meet his needs.

Some are a long way away, meaning my little boy has to travel for an hour to get to school of a morning.

Sam like many others, finds himself in a school where the staff don’t have the time or resources to work with him as an individual - bless them, they try their hardest but how can you give one child 100% of your time and attention 100% of the day when you have several other children all needing that same input?

Having a 1:1 is a great help for many children, for us this is just yet another battle to fight as the Council feel that the School doesn’t need a 1:1 for him - I suspect if I have to point out one more time that a 1:1 is for HIM not the school I will probably go completely mad.

Sam’s current school is a generic SEN one. Currently we’re looking at all options including home schooling (something that I love the idea of but would quite probably hate the reality!), mixing days in school with days at home having intensive therapy and going to a different school full time.

Each option has its pros and its cons.

What we want from schooling is for Sam to learn how to be the best he can be!

I’m not fussed if he doesn’t go on to be a scientific genius a la Stephen Hawking, but I do want him to be able to live happily in an able bodied world, to be able to communicate with people and to be able to have a degree of independence.

I want him to learn how to control his random movements to allow him to use his hands purposefully, to learn sign language so he can let others know what he wants/feels.

I would LOVE him to be able to have a greater control over his body, so that he has an improved chance of being mobile, even if that means he is in an electric wheelchair but can control it himself.

My goals for my sons education may have changed significantly from those I had prior to his birth but the basic aims are the same...

I want my son to be happy, healthy and able to enjoy the life he has.

The worst disability in the world is a bad attitude, my little boy along with all his friends will do whatever they put their minds to x