Educating child with special needs

[Turners]

Way back I posted regarding education for my son age 13 who has Downs Syndrome, after reading the replies, I was not put off and continued my plight for Kurt to have a better quality of life in France.

After many months visiting social workers, educational pyschologists etc, Kurt my son is now happy and being educated in a small class for special needs in a mainstream college in Poitiers.  Yes I know, the language is very hard for him, but he seems to be doing well, his teacher speaks a little English, but obviously Kurt is encouraged to speak French.  He goes swimming on a Friday with the other mainstream pupils, he went to a carnival on Tuesday, so far I can not complain.  He is picked up by taxi at 7.30am and gets home at 5.00pm, fortunately he has every Wednesday off, which gives him time to recharge his batteries.  Whether in England or France, our main concern is for Kurt to maintain his excellent social skills and to socialise with the other children, and most of all be happy. The first thing he tells us when he gets out of the taxi, is what he has had for his dinner, he is well impressed with the three courses. 

Hopefully Kurt will continue to enjoy his French schooling (as much as any other teenager!) and when Kurt leaves school, he will be an important member of our gite business, which will give him his independence, but also the security of us not being too far away. So you see, there is hope

Michelle

 

[cary]

How nice it is to read a positive story.  How long has Kurt been in school for?  My children don't have special needs but i wasn't put off by the postings regarding french education and hopefully our children will still be ok in future years.  Good luck with everything and i hope Kurt continues to do well.

[Battypuss]

This is the best news I've had all week!

My daughter is at College and comes home telling me about the 'different' kids, who are integrated as best as possible. She has two really good friends, one a girl with Downs Syndrome and one in a wheelchair, who suffers from cerebral palsy. She never stops talking about them, how they are HER friends, takes no notice that they are not quite the same as an able bodied, bilingual English brat.

I have tried my best to instil the idea we all have a place on this earth, and it seems to be working. I really, really hope this continues with your son too.

I wish you and Kurt the absolute best and all three daughters join me.

[Iceni]

This is fantastic. I am so glad that things are turning out OK for your son.

I can only say that I had nothing but grief with my daughter in the UK.  She has spinabifida and I got her into a school 20 miles away in the next county, a school with a superb record and I was very lucky to get her in. Essex refused to send her as they were in 'dispute' with Suffolk and sent her to a boarding school in Sussex - so far away I could not even get to her at weekends as I had other children and the school branded me as uncaring. She and I hated every day and she never became an 'integrated member of our family' after this - she was away for 10 years, all because of an intercounty argument. The school she went to specialised in the deaf - she has no hearing problems.

I fought her placement with every legal method I could but as Essex would not send a child to Suffolk, I lost as they said there was no other school. She could have gone to Eton (if they had taken girls) and still have had money in the bank for the cost of her placement. We also had to get her to the school most of the time, money we could ill afford and again which impacted badly on the family.

I love it when I hear of things like this - gives me hope for others in our situation.

[Patf]

This is really good news, and thankyou for letting us know. I remember your earlier posting and I think you had quite negative replies. In fact it was difficult to find info about special education.  But it shows that it pays to have positive expectations.Pat.

[Turners]

Many thanks for your replies.

  Kurt started school in January, and so far I have not had one morning when he has not wanted to go to school. When Kurt started mainstream secondary school in England, he got quite anxious in the first few weeks, but we have not had any problems so far...we are very proud of him.

 

Michelle

[Mistral]

Thanks for posting. This is such good news that you and Kurt feel comfortable with the French system. You say he is in a small class, is it a specific type of class (with a technical name) or just a small standard class? (this is out of professional interest)

 

[Turners]

The class is called the U.P.I. I am not sure what it stands for, but it is a class for special needs.  I believe it is the first one in the Vienne (though don't quote me).  At the moment there are four in the class including Kurt, with a maximum of 6 to start in September. When we had the meetings with the headmaster and social worker etc etc, I asked a number of questions including whether the mainstream children accept the other kids with special needs, his reply was that they and the teachers are all fine and happy with the children in the U.P.I and that they are not treated any differently, and so far I have not seen anything to doubt this. 

 As far as we are concerned, as long as Kurt is happy, we are happy, and if this changes then we will review.  We did not expect him to settle this quickly and he has...fingers crossed for the next two years. 

Here at home, Kurt can walk the dog safely on his own, enjoy all of the wildlife, swim in the summer, help his Mum and Dad with the renovations (which he has been an assett) and in his words 'chill' and 'eat lots of lovely food' (healthy food that is!)

All of the credit goes to Kurt who is kind, gentle, compassionate, funny and very mature for his age.

Kind regards

Michelle

[Linnorton]

I just wanted to ask if there are any provisions for adult Downs Syndrome sufferers in France, perhaps daycare or something similar?

[SaligoBay]

I'm sure it'll depend very much on your area, Linnorton, and what the municipalité/conseil régional deem to be of sufficient importance.

Near us there is a cool place where those who find themselves unable to mingle in society at large (in French they say "handicapé", but that might not be the current PC-acceptable term in English, so I'm trying not to use it!) can learn skills to give them confidence and experience.   There's a restaurant there, where they do the waitering and waitressing and other things like that, and the able-bodied (or whatever you call them these days) do the more complex things like cooking, admin, and driving.   The lads/men are often out and about working on little projects in the community, landscaping work and things like that.

They go out to social events in a big white minibus.  They're not all trisomique, but there are certainly some among them.

In fact, it sounds like a scaled-down version of this:

http://www.mousquetaires.com/trad_anglais/fondation/index_fondation.htm