My son is going to receive a Statement of Special Educational Needs.  I need this 'document' to get a place in an Enhanced Resource School.  I am still waiting to hear from the Local Education Authority if they have a place available in this school.  It is now the end of May and that leaves only 7 weeks for the professionals to work on 'school transition' with my son.  This is just unbelieveable.  I want amendments to the Statement and have got to have a meeting witht he LEA about this.  But there is no reason why that should hold up the placement.  The Autism Advice Teacher and the Educational Psychologist have both said 'off the record', that he needs a place at this school in the autism centre.  But I feel the LEA are trying to push me into a mainstream place, which is not what I want.  I feel they are pushing their own agenda.  I have now sent a letter to my local Member of Parliament about it.  I cannot just keep on waiting, only to be told that all the places are now full.

I was so elated last week when I found out that my son will be getting a Statement of Educational Needs.  This document will list all his needs and what provision he will receive in school to meet those needs.  A Statement is also needed to get a place at an enhanced school or special school.  So, it took me 18 months to get a diagnosis, then another year on top of that to get sufficient evidence together to ask for a Statement, then a further 25 weeks on top of that for them to put together the statement.
I am expecting to receive the Draft Statement next week.  I have asked that my son is placed in an enhanced resource school that has extra funding/staff for those on the spectrum.  Bearing in mind that it is now May and therefore we have around two months to sort out his schooling.  I have now been told that there are no places available.  I suppose I should be used to fighting to gain every single inch, but I feel like I am being kept busy with red tape whilst all the professionals know that I am never going to get what I am aiming for, but in the meantime please continue to fill out the forms.

Someone sent me this article, which explains it better than I could. www.ani.autistics.org/dont_mourn.html

I took the kids swimming today, and my son amazed me!  Usually he wears armbands and simply floats around.  He won't put his head in the water etc.  Today I decided to buy them both goggles, and what a transformation.  As soon as he saw that he would actually open his eyes under water and see what was going on, he wanted to swim underwater.  I told him 'you can't do that with your armbands', so he took them off!  He was trying to swim underwater whilst holding his nose with one hand.  So I thought 'we're on a roll here'.  So I got out of the baths and bought him a nose clip.  He put it on and started swimming, diving etc.  It is like he learnt to swim in a one hour session, incredible!!