[welshie]

hi

When my son Daniel was due to start school baring in mind he had no speech and his fine and gross motor skills were very poor the education authority wanted to send him to mainstream on the understanding they would review this if he didn't cope!
We knew at that time in his life there was no way he would cope in main stream,we already had our daughter in mainstream who was getting no support and struggling.
We had to fight every step of the way we were fully aware it was down to funding and we were appalled.
WE were lucky and managed to fight our way into a placement in a special needs school for Daniel until a time we felt inclusion into mainstream was around the corner.That was another battle ground.We are lucky i suppose as mainstream with support has worked well for both our children.But it took along time getting right for Sarah i'm just sorry we couldn't move here from the school she was in earlier.
Sadly it is true that therpy is difficult to maintain when they move school that was a different battle we had when Daniel left special needs.
Special school gave Daniel the best possible start and the foundation that gave him is why he's the young man he is now i feel there's a place for both and should always have both there for our children.

[Speeds]

Well I thought I would post a postive to my last post.

Thomas has been awarded 24.5 hours up from his 18.9 hours which means that he now has full curriculum support.  I am very pleased.

[johnvb]

Great to hear your battle has paid off! You'll have to set up an advice line for us all to share your tips!

John

[Speeds]

You are very kind John.  My only tips are that you have to be selfish and think of your child only and not everyone else, which goes against my nature but had to be done.  Thomas matters more than 100% so everything I wrote was the truth about the negatives and tried to show how they could be positive with support.  Also behaviour difficulties are difficult as they are unpredicatable so in effect the LEA really had no choice but to support him for full curriculum hours.