Questions to ask school about transition to secondary

sogs

Hi All,

My son has additonal support needs and is going to secondary this year I have a meeting at school with various professionals and teachers which I am a little nervous about as I will be going alone anyway I struggling to think of questions I should be asking about support he will get etc, I would like to hear from anyone in this situation or has experience of this if you could give some ideas of what to ask?

regards

sueeve

i would want to know if there are any subjects where he won't be having support.
You don't indicate the nature of his difficulty, but I would think assurances about communicaton betwen home and school, as he may not be reliable on things like writing down his homework, and writing it fully enough that you understand it. I hope that you meet the SENCO, who will be coordinating support, and it would be helpful if you have a method eg email address, by which you can conatct her easily if problems arise

pollypenny

You also need to ask whether there will a specific teaching assistant allocated to him, one who will follow him to the various classes.

soupdragon10

Does your son have a statement of special needs? If he does it may be worth looking at what details this gives about the support that should be provided.

If he has a statement and you don't think that the support being proposed is sufficient or will meet his needs in the new environment then you are quite at liberty to request a review of the statement by the LEA stating reasons.

Make a list of the areas where he needs support and make sure that these are all being covered. Also ask about arrangements for induction before September, some schools are happy for a longer transition period for students (for example those on the autistic spectrum) where change is a big challenge.

If you are concerned you might want to find out if there is a parent partnership in your area who can provide support http://www.parentpartnership.org.uk/