Grace's Further Education Adventures

We've always thought we'd home-educate our children until about age 16 and then investigate Colleges of Further Education for them to take whatever exams they want.

In the UK, education is compulsory during these years:
Primary 5-11
Secondary 11-16
Then, kids can either stay on at school to continue until age 18 or transfer to Colleges of Further Education for the Tertially stage of their education and the sitting of public examinations. In this county most schools do not have post-16 options, so most go on to college for at least 2 years after school. After that, many do choose to go on to traditional universities for degree courses.

As we've slowly recognised the nature of Grace's academic challenges as well as her ASD, we've realised that these traditional educational routes are not going to be suitable for her. This has been the source of much heartache and hand wringing, prayers and investigations. We've worried and wondered what do next for her. In January, we had a positive meeting with a Connexions (education/careers) advisor, specialising in special needs and heard about a college which has its own specialist unit for students with ASD.

We went to visit it this morning, nervous about whether it would be the right placement for Grace. If a lot of the students had classic autism or challenging behaviours it might not be good for her to be in that environment. She has made such progress in the last few years it wouldn't be helpful for her to be with other students who were much worse than her. But on the other hand, she would definitely not cope in the hurley-burley of an ordinary educational environment or with the more challenging academic courses which would be available there.

We spent an hour there talking to the director, looking round and chatting with the other students. What a fantastic place!!!!!!! It's a small, self-contained, purpose-built unit within the campus of the larger college. There are more staff members than there are students. They totally plan the timetable around the needs of the individual kids. They do everything from life-skills (shopping, cooking, handling money, personal care), though to A level Maths (equivalent to 1st year college Maths in the US) depending on the student's abilities and preferences!

This college unit is pretty much unique in this country and I'm starting to understand now why God brought us to Oxfordshire. {g} He knew what Grace would need before we did!

They are carefully supervised, which is not common for post-16 education in this country, and all of the staff are specialists in ASD. The director and Grace got on very well. Grace presented herself very well. For the first time in her LIFE she introduced herself to someone, one of the students who was in the kitchen having a cup of tea. He wouldn't look at her, but told her she had a beautiful name and then proceeded to sing a song to her! She handled it very well!{g}

Grace was able to explain the things she has difficulty with, which is a huge step forward, as she has never wanted to admit to people up to now that she is anything other than 'normal'. She told us in the car later that she thinks this college is her idea of heaven, because no one will be expecting her to be able to do all the things other kids can do and will know that she has ASD and understand her! Bless her. She is so excited. We are too.

Our only problem is transport. She should be entitled to a free taxi service from a special school transport company but the normal route for accessing that is a Statement of Special Needs via a school. We need to investigate whether that is a problem we can overcome. Otherwise I will be spending more than 3 hours a day in the car driving her back and forth and I am still supposed to be teaching Jack!

She wants to go for a half day a week next term, then one day a week at the start of September, gradually building as she would like to and can cope with. When the students feel ready, they start to spend more time in the larger college taking other courses, but they can take as long as they need to, transferring gradually as they're able.

I am so excited. This is pretty much perfect for Grace and an answer to our prayers. For the first time since the diagnosis last summer, we are starting to feel hope that Grace's future won't be as bleak as we'd thought. We just need to solve the transport issue now.