I'll kick off with Andrew, who'll turn three just 2 weeks before the September term starts. We had considered asking to delaying his schooling for a year starting from Pre-School point, but now feel that being with other children would be good for his development. So we're going to start his education at 3 with his peer-group but perhaps consider delaying at 5 if necessary.
Note. From Bliss website. "Defer" is to start school late but with same peer-group. "Delay" is to start school one year after peer-group, child is older than rest of class.
As a result of his development meeting last July, Andrew's s.332 letter was issued. This notified the LEA that he will potentially have special needs during education, in his case they were described as "medical and complex needs". We presume the "medical" is his hearing; the "complex" is his development. The Pre-Schools Advisor suggested at that meeting that we get Andrew's name on the list for the Pre-Schools in our area. I think the referral to the Edu Psychologist was also meant to come off the back of the s.332 letter but there is a huge waiting list for those appointments round here.
The same Pre-Schools Advisor visited this week to discuss schooling with us, I specifically requested the meeting because he is now on the list for 4 local Pre-Schools and I wanted to know what support he would get. She told us that, given his development (or rather, lack of it) over the last six months, she was recommending that he instead attend a Special Needs Pre-School. TBH this actually came as a relief to us, because of his hearing issues we know that he has difficulties (not to mention feeding problems, communication problems etc) so it is reassuring to think that he would be going somewhere that has a higher staff ratio with experience and patience when handling these issues. There is nothing to stop Andrew transferring from SN pre & primary education over to mainstream later on, but I understand it is much harder to switch into SN if he starts mainstream.
You'd think being a city we'd have variety, but there's surprisingly little provision, only a couple of SN Pre-Schools. One is about 5 miles away and, although I haven't checked their Ofsted, I know from friends that it has a good reputation. More handily though, that school have started providing OutReach Nursery services in local SureStart Centres for children who don't need all the physical disability equipment held in the school - so if we can get a place, Andrew could be going somewhere only a mile away in a familiar setting.
Anybody know where you can get school uniform in size 12-18m?
I don't think she will cope 
Forget group activities, he's still at the point of doing what he wants when he wants (and we encourage such independence!)
Andrew decides his own bedtime. He knows that 6:30pm is "bedroom time" but takes himself to his bed (i.e. stops playing with toys) anywhere between then and 8:30pm. He only shouts for our attention if he hurts himself!!
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xx
Unfortunately the next nearest SN schools are nearly an hour away based on non rush hour traffic so could be quite a trek if he ends up there!
