This time last year we were doing the rounds of secondary schools for my son. Apart from the usual things parents look at when visiting a secondary school, we had the addition of a disability to consider. My son has Type 1 diabetes, which I now know would cause us endless problems and sleepless nights.
My son's primary school was brilliant. Not only is it a fantastic school, they understand inclusion and despite the fact that he turned up in Reception having just been diagnosed, the school did not miss a beat. My son was not disabled by his condition and the school supported him magnificently. He took part in everything and went on school journey for a week, something many children with Type 1 never get to do. I never once had anxiety about how the staff would cope and whether he was safe, so I was looking for the same in secondary school.
The past year has taught me a lot about the rights of children with disability and the legal requirements. Every school we visited we asked the same questions about how they would manage Type 1. Only one school was actually keeping within the law. Of the schools we visited, most said they did nothing and were not prepared to attend training. One school told us they provided a drawer. When I told them that training was free, their response was that everyone was too busy to attend. All but one school passed me down the chain, away from the SEND team as it is clearly not understood that Type 1 is the D in SEND.
But one school stood out and it happened to be our local school. Everyone we spoke to understood about Type 1, including the Head. They could give us examples of reasonable adjustments and they understood the impact of Type 1 on learning. So this was the school we wanted for our son and as we live less than half a mile away we had reasonable expectation of getting.
What we were not expecting was that the application process itself would be heavily weighted against us. I went on the admissions site and found, to my horror, that there was nowhere on the form I could put down that my son even had a disability, let alone specify the school. I believe this occurred because he was diagnosed after his primary school application so there was no way to amend his details. In addition the school we wanted did not admit on medical grounds and as the primary school had managed so well we had no need of an EHCP.
I contacted the local authority and they assured me I could attach the letter from the consultant to the application and that as we lived so close, statistically we were more than likely to get in. These were words that would come back to haunt me. That year the school had 141 siblings and only 88 places in the geographical area. We can see the houses where the children got a place, but my son did not. I have not slept properly since March 1st last year. We knew we had to appeal...
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