How do we choose a school?

I’ve joined a group of mums to answer a Monday quesion. This week’s is:

“When deciding on school, day care or a carer for your child with special needs, what type of things do you take into account?”

For us, it’s about the feeling we get and about listening to our instinct.

Are they warm? Will they be interested in Coraline and really care about her? Will they love seeing her? When we go and look around do they get down on Coraline’s level and interact with her?

A neighbour recommended Coraline’s preschool to us. She said, “when we went to visit, they got down to my son’s level and really welcomed him”. That vision stayed in my head, and when we went to look around, we felt the same thing. The parent volunteers at the open day were all beaming too.

Of course we have a look at the Ofsted rating and speak to the Headteacher and the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Coordinator. We also think about proximity to our house. And with my background working on eTwinning at the British Council, in future I’ll see if the school does any international partnership work! We will think, “will this suit Coraline, and will she blossom?”

Our neighbours when they look after Coraline: it is pure love.

We have one childminder who Coraline sometimes sees and we can feel her love for Coraline.

The short answer: we follow our intuition.