Research School Policies

Policies that schools are legally required to have on their website can give you lots of insight into how the school works. These can be useful in getting a feel for how a school deals with behaviour issues during the school day and how they might support your child with special educational needs.

It's useful to take a look at the following policies, and ask questions if you need further clarification:

• SEND Information Report - Intended to tell you how the school's SEND policy is used, for example, how help and support for pupils with SEND works in their setting. It should be what happens and how, rather than what they aspire to. 
• Supporting Children with Medical Conditions Policy - To show parents how the school supports children with medical conditions, both physical and mental, to fully participate in school life, remain healthy and achieve their academic potential. 
• Behaviour & Discipline Policy - Explaining the roles and responsibilities of the head teacher, senior leaders, teachers and support staff in maintaining discipline through behaviour management and the structure of consequences for pupils. 
• Inclusion Policy - The inclusion policy describes the cultures, policies and practices within the school and how they respond to the diversity of pupils in their locality, concerning ethnic, cultural and health-related issues. 
• Uniform Policy - The uniform policy sets out what uniform items are acceptable for children to wear to school for both everyday wear and sports. State schools have recently been asked to remove unnecessary branded items from their uniform lists to make uniforms more universally affordable. 
• Attendance Policy - It is a statutory duty for parents to ensure that children attend school. According to law, schools must record and publish their daily attendance registers with the appropriate authorities. The attendance policy sets out what is considered authorised, and unauthorised absence, and the consequences of missing school regularly. 

Look at the School Environment

The school environment can have a big impact on the day-to-day activities your child will engage in. While some children may thrive in bigger schools with vast outdoor space, other children may prefer smaller class sizes or more compact spaces. 

It's important to consider what your child enjoys, how their needs are supported and what resources the school has to support their needs. 

Areas to research when looking at school facilities include:

• Size - Consider if your child feels comfortable with more space, like large outdoor playing fields, or if your child prefers smaller more compact school sites. 
• Facilities - Schools come in a variety of shapes and sizes, while some may have focussed on specific subject areas, like becoming a hub for sports, humanities or the arts with stronger spaces and technologies in those areas, other schools may have focussed on providing more technology for every classroom, or creating impressive communal areas like cafes or libraries. It's useful to think about what your child enjoys most and how schools can cater for this. 
• Outdoor space - If your child enjoys sports or regularly has excess energy to burn then sites with large outdoor areas might be useful to consider. However, if your child needs support with movement and mobility a smaller site may be more appropriate. 
• Accessibility - Due to the variety of sites of state schools in the UK, accessibility for mobility aids is an important issue and something to ask about when you visit the school. Many schools feature ramps, accessible routes and other features to be inclusive, however, this may depend on the age of the buildings.

Visit the School

Once you have a list of possible schools, it's helpful to contact them to make an appointment. Many schools hold open evenings for parents and children to visit and get a feel for the school atmosphere that's not possible to feel through the school website. 

Things you may want to consider before your visit:

• Asking who you will meet at the school and how much time they will be able to spend with you. 
• Ask if you can speak to the school SENDCo (Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities Co-ordinator) to talk about your child's needs and what support they can offer.
• Think carefully about whether you want your child to attend with you on the first visit. You may want to discuss this with the school. 
• Decide if you would like to bring along someone with you, like a friend, relative or volunteer, who can discuss their first impressions with you afterwards. 
• Consider if you wish to have a guided tour. These can be useful during school hours in term time as it's helpful to see how children at the school go about their day. 

Read things to consider long a school visit for your child with SEND

Transport to School

Considering how your child will get to school may form a big part of why you are choosing to find out more about particular settings. Every neurodivergent child is different, so while some children will feel confident and competent taking a bus, or walking to school on their own, others may struggle.

Based on the vicinity of the school your child may need to:

• Walk to school
• Take the bus to school
• Be driven to school by you

Free transport arrangements can be made depending on a number of things, which include:

• If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• If you are from a low-income family
• If you live over 3 miles away from the school
• Conditions of the route including street lighting, volume and speed of traffic

Find out more about school and college transport here

Mainstream Schools

The majority of neurodivergent children are educated in mainstream schools where different and diverse children learn alongside each other in the same classroom, this can be referred to as inclusive education.  

When appropriate resources and training are in place, neurodiversity affirming education in mainstream schools can really benefit them. Schools that confidently understand the challenges their neurodivergent students face can build:

• Inclusive classrooms - This can be beneficial for SEN peers and their mainstream peers alike, by teaching everyone to be mindful of diversity and allowing children to make friends with peers from a range of abilities and backgrounds. 
• Differences are less recognised - Inclusive classrooms are filled with diverse learners, all with unique strengths and weaknesses. Inclusion can give children an opportunity to build and maintain friendships and find commonalities with their peers to learn that difference is normal. 
• A sense of belonging -  Developing a positive community where neurodivergent children can feel safe to engage with the rules of the neurotypical world, build their confidence for when they leave school and support later employability skills
• Strong SEND Support - Extra SEND support can be beneficial for all, with opportunities for future students as schools improve their send provisions including specialist units for specific needs and hiring more SEND trained staff. 

Specialist Provisions in Mainstream Settings

Many children whose needs are not able to be met in mainstream schools are able to thrive in different specialist environments. There are different types of special provisions which can either be attached to a mainstream school, or fully separate. 

Provisions within mainstream schools include Specialist Resource Bases (SRBs) which provide places reserved at a mainstream school for pupils with a specific type of SEND, taught for at least half of their timetable within mainstream classes, but requiring a base and some specialist facilities around the school.

Provisions within mainstream settings can allow young people to be better included within the school community while having access to more specialist support than a purely mainstream setting can give. 

Special Schools

Special schools are for children and young people with specific special educational needs. For example, Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC), a social communication disorder, or social, emotional and mental health needs. A child or young person would be expected to manage a mainstream curriculum in a special school. 

You and the local authority might decide that a special school or post-16 college is the best way to support your child's education. They can also be referred to as 'specialist settings' and require your child to have an education, health & care plan (EHCP) to be able to get a place. Children with EHCPs are not admitted through the admissions process and are placed in schools through the EHCP process instead.

Your local authority may give you a list of schools in your area, or suggest schools they think can meet your child's needs. 

Types of Special School

Special schools are specially built sites with more specialist funding and resources where children with SEN can have individual targeted support. Complex needs special schools are for children and young people with a significant learning disability and other needs. These might be communication, emotional, physical or medical needs. 

The benefits of a special school if your child has an EHCP includes:

• Smaller class sizes and a better child-to-adult ratio, mean children have more support from highly trained adults. 
• Specialist equipment and resources based across a broad range of SEND conditions or focussed on specific areas in specialised schools. 
• Highly trained staff who have experience and expertise with different SEND conditions. 
• A more flexible approach to your child's daily structure, with the opportunity to collapse their timetable for extra support in a particular area, or go on trips tailored to your child's needs. 

There are different types of special schools which support different special educational needs and disabilities. They may specialise in:

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition (emotional, intellectual, social understanding) and learning
• Social, emotional and mental health
• Sensory and physical needs

Some schools may cover a broad range of conditions like visual impairment, speech-language and communication needs (SLCN) and neurodivergence, while others may specialise in particular conditions, like autism. 

Getting a Place at a Special School 

If you are asking for a change of placement from a different school, the local authority will consult with several schools, including local schools and any you have identified. To name a school in your child or young person's Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), the following things will need to happen:

• Your local authority will need to consider your preference
• Your local authority will agree that the school can provide support for your child's plan
• The named school agrees they can meet your child's needs
• Your local authority agrees to fund the place

It's useful to be clear why you want a special school place and to show how your preferred choice of school can meet your child's needs. Consider using any assessment reports, emails and letters to support your request.

Getting Advice

It's useful to get some advice from professionals who work with your child on whether your preferred school can meet your child's needs, for example, this could be their SENDCo or an Occupational therapist who has worked with your child. They may be able to suggest appropriate settings for your child. 

Look at reports you have received from professionals and highlight any recommendations about your child's needs that would be better met in a special school. You can also use any assessments your child had before applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), for example from a child development centre (CDC) or a speech and language therapist. 

Find out more about your options for choosing a school with an EHCP here