This is an important year for Megan’s education. Last year was very successful for her and we were very proud of the amount of effort and work she put in to progress as much as she did but still, it was in a very non-academic environment – almost like a very structured Nursery – and this year is the first year of ‘proper’ schooling with teachers expecting significant feedback and measurable targets and all that.
Obviously, there’s been lots of discussion between us and the school about how suitable these things are for Megan and there’s widespread agreement and understanding that she’ll need a lot of latitude in certain situations. She’s also not very familiar with her two new-ish support workers who she only met for about a week before the end of term in July.
Its also unfortunate that she’s going through a period of not sleeping very well. Wake up time is around 2am so she’s pretty tired by the time its time to get ready for school. As are we!
However, as with most things, our wonderfully stoic daughter has taken all this pretty much in her stride (or so it seems. Calm waters can sometimes hide strong currents so we take care to take nothing for granted). Naomi reported that she _ran_ into school on Tuesday and actually had a minor meltdown when it was time to go home. Thats not great obviously but better that than the other way around!
Yesterday, her afternoon support worker said that she was very chatty and communicable – leading her (the support worker) by the hand to the things she wanted or (occasionally) asking outright. I think its fair to say that Meggy loves school.
However, as I said at the start we have to be aware that this is something of a make or break year for Megan. The tight structure could work both ways. It could make her feel more secure and know whats expected of her, or it could add too much pressure to feel she has to conform to (to her) an alien way of thinking. If the latter does happen then we’ll need to think long and hard about where we go next. Our only really viable option in terms of state education is a special school but we’ve already been there for a look around and it wasn’t a good experience.
That leaves private education which we simply cannot afford. The prices for autism specific private education are outrageous. We may be able to get the LEA to either fund or part fund it but this is very very unusual.
Its at times like this that I do get genuinely jealous with the options parents of non special needs kids have. If they don’t like a school, they can swap to another one with very little hassle. If we feel a school isn’t right for Megan, our next choice is usually a school that we feel is even _less_ right for her.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Hi Kev
Well, there is a third option – a DIY, a route followed by Gayle. Of course there was no option for her since the school option meant ritualised child abuse combined with a cognitive deprivation curriculum. Jan was sure gonna thrive under that one. To be honest, I haven’t had to deal with the range of problems a lot of parents seem to have to cope with and even so, I spent thousands (yep, thousands not hundreds) of hours making up for the academic deficiencies of the school – a very small Catholic school with an excellent reputation. IMO schools and ASD don’t mix unless you can finangle the bone deep acceptance of Alex Bain’s alma mater and the sensory lot doesn’t make the thing completely impossible – hence the necessity of a very small school. Having said that, there is simething to be said for a school that cares and can be persuaded that ,appearances to the contrary, this child can learn algebra or whatever they seem particularly dubious about. So they can be worth hanging on to even if it does not seem to be working out in the short term – they’re likely to be educable.
Good luck to Megan
I’m glad Megan is enjoying school so far, and I hope all continues to go well!
And yes, you are right, finding a good school shouldn’t have to be so difficult. I remember being bounced around from one school to another when I was about Megan’s age, and I didn’t know why. I got the idea that we were trying out different schools to find the best one, like trying on clothes at a store.
When my son started school, I went all over town and talked to the administrators and teachers at several different schools. I still didn’t know anything about autism then, and I thought that finding a school that was a good match for a child’s personality was just part of what parents did. It wasn’t until quite recently that I realized most parents never had to be concerned about that issue.
Im really glad that Megan is enjoying her new school, Ive just started to work in one, its like starting school all over again!
Scary as well, because its my old college, which I left a few weeks ago lol
Good luck to Megan, say hi for me 😀
True Alyric, we could go for the home-school option. I am concerned that neither of us could do justice to Megans education but maybe thats more because we’re not sure right now how we would go about it. Your experiences were interesting – feel free to expand on them :o)
Bonnie – exactly. You never realise until you have a child with special educational needs just how limited and (sometimes) second rate your options are. It does grate on me that there isn’t more choice for autistic kids.
Matt – you’re working in a school? Are you a teaching assistant? Forgive me if I sound a little nonplussed ;o)
I said ‘Matt says Hi’ to Meggy but she just blanked me! Sorry mate ;o)
Nah Im an ICT Technician in a school – also in charge of A/V stuff, performaces sound systems data projectors and the like, so pretty much everything technical – its a school that does yr 9 -11 and yrs 12-13 (6th form) as we run the three tierd system this end of the woods
Ah well, Im not much like Buffy tbh 😉
Meggy sounds so much like my Zoe!
We’re extremely, unbelievably, extraordinarily fortunate in that there’s a state-funded school specifically for autistic children not far from us (we’re even in the bus zone!), and Zoe is enrolled there for next year. As far as I know, it’s the only school in the city (which has a population of about 4.5 million) that is autistic-specific, although there are, of course, many other special schools around that can take autistic kids (we checked that out too).
Good luck to Meggy in her new adventure!