Good in parts
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Make no mistake, this book has some good elements and the data that is there on particular schools is very good. However I bought this book on the basis that I wanted to find the schools in my particular area. The schools are alphabetically listed which is fine but it does mean you have to look in the reference section at the back to establish which school is where. There is no separation between state and private schools other than by checking the preamble in the description of each school. So you have to go through the reference sections at the back to find the area and then cross reference each to find if they are state or private. If you only want a state school then this is not helpful. From our Education Psychologist we got a list of the schools he recommended - many of those are not in this book. Therefore I cannot recommend this as an exhaustive list of SEN schools.
Finally it lists schools from Roedean to Rugby which are tremendous schools but not ones I would instantly think of as special needs schools - unless you are considering your children as particularly gifted and thus classing (no pun intended) "special needs" on the basis of their ability.
I wanted a reference book to help me make a quick analysis of the schools relevant to my circumstances in the immediate geographic area. I would have liked complete coverage of schools offering specific help for Statemented childen. I would have liked to know instantly whether I was going to have to pay for that school. This book has some excellent analysis on some - but only some - of those schools but it does not make finding them easy and it is by no means a complete guide.
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A Special Guide
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This third edition of the guide will be of enormous help to parents of children with special needs as they seek to negotiate the best educational route for their child. It kicks off with a full introduction covering the range of problems which may need special provision, the current debate over where provision should be offered and the Law relating to Special Needs but gives great emphasis to parents' stories too. There's further help at the end via a Glossary of terms, and Index and Abbreviations to make experts of us all! It's full of down to earth comment about what was seen, heard and witnessed and includes quotes from the users- the children. Maps will show you a good spread across most areas and it's good to see more State schools included.
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The SEN BIBLE
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My niece and I have spent two depressing years trying to find a school that will help her cope with her fairly unusual SEN. If we'd found this at the beginning of our hunt, we would not have wasted so much time and heart-ache. The reviews of the schools are amazingly honest - warts and all - so it really gave us an idea of which schools were a starter for us. It talks about regular schools that are good with special education needs and also 'special schools'. Also, the bumf about SEN in general was pretty interesting - some of it was quite funny. Having read literally EVERYTHING out there on SEN, I can say that this is the best I've come across.
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