Being able to have the right support for Oscar at school encouraged us to apply for his EHCP (Educational Health Care Plan) as soon as possible. An EHCP is a document which highlights the needs of a Special Needs child and how the school can support this. The child will have targets to work towards and the school will give parents a learning plan explaining any intervention groups that the child will attend. Once a year parents are invited to a review to discuss the EHCP and this is sent to SENA (Special Educational Needs Addition) who produce a revised EHCP. Granting of an EHCP is not definite. Parents and schools must work together to gain enough evidence. Fortunately in our case, the staff in Oscar’s preschool were brilliant and we were granted one in March 2021 ready for him starting school.

Oscar has settled in his mainstream school brilliantly. Parents have a right to push for the right school for their child. It is difficult to get a specialist place without a lot of stress in many cases and even though Oscar is only in Year 2, I find it difficult imagining him at our local secondary.

For us, our local mainstream primary was the best fit for Oscar as the school was confident they could meet the conditions on the EHCP. He gets 25 hours per week 1:1. The school is always trying to get more from SENA to make it up to 32.5 hours but in the meantime they are providing those extra hours without the funding.

Oscar is able to go to Lunch Bunch with a small group of children and take part in fun activities as well as going to the hall to eat his lunch. He can also choose a friend to go with him to this. The school is supporting him socially by encouraging positive friendships in the class.

We started a handover book at the beginning of Year 1 so the 1:1 staff can write in how he has done in the day. This is essential. It gives me a good picture of the school day when it is hard for Oscar to let me know what he’s done. I can clearly see his progress and how well he is working each day and what activities he has taken part in.

Oscar is doing really well with his writing. He is enjoying reading and his phonics skills are being built up well in his group. He is a happy boy who always wants to go in to school. He enjoys his PE lessons. His relationship with his Learning Support Assistants is so important on a school day. They are able to let Oscar learn at his own pace and look to his interests for example his special box with his cables. His LSA yesterday told me she had to pretend to be a tiger. His tiger is his favourite toy at home and Oscar makes raa raa noises when he’s happy. The most important thing about school for a SEN child is that they are happy and their needs are being supported. The school needs to have a positive environment for SEN children so they feel confident to learn. If not question things and arrange meetings.

He will also be in an ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support) group this academic year. An ELSAs aim is to build up a child’s emotional development. A lot of autistic children find it hard to understand emotions and express themselves. When I take Oscar and his sister to school, it is very difficult to talk to them equally. Oscar definitely dominates the conversations. He expects an answer straightaway and you can’t fob him off with any random answer. He gets extremely excited about things that will happen quite a while in the future. Recently he has been going on about Christmas already and what he might get. Note to self: don’t tell Oscar about things too early! He’s already talking about Portugal and we don’t go until next May!

I think the ELSA group will calm his emotions and teach him how to regulate himself. When he leaves school at the end of the day I think everything explodes out of him- a bit like shaking a coke bottle. Little bits of excitement throughout the day shake him up and then at 3pm everything he has been keeping in shoots out.