Ms Cara Steinmetz:

I will start with the question about the transition to school, because it was directed specifically to me. The short answer is "No". We have not been able to engage with a SENO in respect of the decision-making along the school journey. One of the main challenges for parents on our journey relates to managing transitions. Parents start with early intervention and explore our options for primary school, and we try to navigate what kinds of questions we should ask, what we should expect from our child's primary school and so on.

In our journey, Noah attended our local primary school, which his older sister had attended, so I knew the principal, and that school was supportive and helpful in setting up a plan for Noah that supports what he needs at school. We have been working together on that for years and we have worked with the principal and all the resource groups within Noah's primary school. He is doing well at his own pace, he is happy and it has been successful.

The challenge now, as we look towards secondary school, is that replicating that experience in secondary education is difficult to pin down. I contacted the SENO about issues such as technology support for Noah within school to help with communication, which is of great benefit for him. As for exploring the school journey, however, there is no clear path of communication for parents to get information. To be honest, it has involved me calling or turning up at schools and asking principals the questions I think are relevant. I thought all secondary schools provide the level 2 curriculum for children with a disability but that is not the case. The feedback from most schools is that they do not provide it or, if they are willing to do so, they have no experience in it. Many secondary schools do not want to meet us until sixth class, so they can see where Noah is at that point in his journey, but that is obviously too late for us to make a decision because we could end up with no place. The diagnosis from the assessment of Noah that I had carried out recommends special education and we have a fantastic special education secondary school in our community. In fact, we could walk to it from our home, so Noah would still be educated in his own community with the children with whom he has grown up in our neighbourhood, albeit in a different school, but the transition from mainstream to special education secondary is difficult because we do not fall into the priority list for places. We are trying to figure that out.