On the positive side..

..we've had a good Summer. CY seems to have re-made friends with M from down the road so now has two people he spends time with. He was good on holiday (only one meltdown to speak of), good at grandparents in Whitby (again only one upset and mostly due to being let down by his brother not wanting to go bodyboarding with him). He has asked to join Scouts (!) and goes to Games Workshop once a week to play Warhammer which is very independent of him (we drop him at the top of the street then stay in the shopping centre in case we get a phone call). He goes to the shop with his friend, buys himself a drink, goes to Games Workshop for 1 and half hours and then goes to McDonalds for 20 minutes. Seems independent, and is progress, although still very structured routine.

What about the start of term?

I rang the EWO today to see if CY has a place in the borough vulnerable pupil unit only to be told he hasn't even been referred yet because the woman who does it is on annual leave! I said it would be nice to know what he is doing at the start of term as it is only 2 weeks away and she said he should still be going to his mainstream High School (mmm the one he's been refusing to go to for most of the year??!) Apparently the referral wasn't even going to happen until well into September. CY seems really positive about going to this unit (only 4 kids per class, specialist teachers etc) and I don't want to give him time to go off the idea. EWO reckons it could be 6 weeks after the start of term before he gets his place. Will ring again tomorrow to see if there's anyway to hurry it up. Will also need to request an assessment as EWO says the idea of the VPU is to re-integrate them into mainstream which CY will not tolerate in the near future - far too many sensory issues and the way the curriculum is delivered is just not suitable for him. He needs strong visual images, no chance to get bored and little writing. I asked her if she read the Ed.Psych report and she has, but still doesn't seem to get the extent of CY's needs. She doesn't even know whether the kids wear uniform at the VPU despite sending several kids there. These kids are on a conveyor belt and once she's passed them on from her section she probably heaves a big sigh of relief. What a joke.