I received a letter this morning from our local Education authority about Joel. He is due to start at Middle School in September 2003. They named the school where they plan to send him, and i'm not very happy with it. Joel has a Statement of Special Education Needs, and the school the EA have mentioned has a specialist unit similar to the one he currently attends at his primary school. It utilises the therapy that he's currently undergoing now.

I rang the EA office and they told me that his current school is the feeder school for this middle school, hence why they plan to send him there. So i logged on to the trusty old internet and had a look at the Ofsted report. It was written in October 1998. A lot of the paragraphs begin " "The National Curriculum tests..... the percentage of pupils reaching the expected level and above was well below the national average." (English, Maths and Science) and the same seems to apply for art and languages etc.

This report as i said, was written in October 1998, and i was wondering how often these reports are written?.

From what i'm reading, the school seems to have been failing, but now seems to be slowly recovering with the help of a "new, forward thinking headmaster"..

I plan to see Joel's current headteacher to find out her opinions on this school, as well as having a look at the middle school and see what they're about. Joel will be going into their Special Unit but all of this has got me into a bit of a tizz. I want Joel to go somewhere that suits his special educational needs, will make him happy and where he'll get a good/better standard of education, and my first impressions are that this school doesn't fit that. I'm planning to look at another school, but i've been told that if the school doesn't suit Joel's needs and we're determined to send him there, then we have to pay for his transport ourselves instead of the Education Department.

Am i worrying too much, too soon, or what?.. Please, any advice gratefully accepted

Thanks for listening to my ramblings