[les_leftfoot]

Hi, my brother is 11 and has severe autism, no social skills and servere learining difficulties. For the past few years he has been attending a special needs school in belfast but we got a phone call for an emergency meeting with the school with only a few hours notice. (My sister and I are my brothers guarsians as sadly our mother passed away 2 years ago) anyways, due to the notice we were unable to make the meeting as neither of us drove and both have babies under 6 months - the meeting was becuase our brother had suddenly turned on a member of staff and grabbed her neck, we were both really shocked as its not like him at all, they said there had been a staff change so we knew exactly that this was the problem as our brother cant dealwith new people and change. Turned out they are removing him from his school and we have to find sumwere else  more suitable for him, we are totally devastated but understand that other kids and staff need to be kept safe. They have suggested glencraig in co. down, has anyone else ever had any experience with this school? But it will only be for the school no overnight stays as we made that quite clear! We were told that if he doesnt settle here then worst case sceniro would be muckamore hospital, just cant believe it, so angry!!!!!!

[Speeds]

Oh dear - how insensitive of a Special Needs School not realising that change can upset a young persons ability to communicate and cope.

I have no idea what to say to you but just hope that you can get something sorted.  I am sure you must be able to appeal against this - it seems very harsh - yes everyone needs to be safe but this sounds very much like a knee jerk reaction.

Thinking of you

[sharonbel]

Contact the NAS for advice. Their NI contact details are here.

The phone number is 0845 070 4002, then press option 5.

Your brother is attending a special school and has a statement of special educational needs. There must be something on his statement about coping with behavioural problems. The school cannot be allowed to throw him out like this. They need to support him, and understand the difficulties he is facing in dealing with staff changes.

You may like to have a look at Glencraig, but I personally wouldn't want any relative of mine going there. I don't know if children can even go as day pupils. But I disagree with much of their philosophy. I do not think they help people to achieve to the best of their potential. They are anti-technology. They run a farm and are staffed mostly by young people from mainland Europe on their gap year. I wrote some of my impressions on Camphill on my blog here. The comments from Camphill ex-staff are very informative. One person agreed with an observation that the schools are 'like sugar coated prisons'.
Do not agree to let him go to Muckamore. That is serving as a prison now, with no sugar coating about it.

A further option to consider, is home-education, also known as home-schooling. This is how my autistic son learns and it means that all the stress of dealing with inflexible education authorities is avoided. It is a perfectly legal option, and although it may sound as though it would be so much work, it is worth considering how much effort goes in to getting a child ready for school every morning, dealing with problems at school, calming a stressed child after a hard day. You and your sister need to think about what is best for your brother and yourselves.

Good luck.