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Lancashire, L39 4TW
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Based on 2 ratings:
2 by Parent
Reviews
| By Parent - reviewed on 2nd Jan 2008 |
My son started Pontville in May 2007 having being permanently excluded from mainstream school. All throughout his time at mainstream i vocalised how his needs were not being met but the education authority's focus was that my son had behavioural problems and nothing more. Having researched widely about what my son needed, the next struggle was getting the LEA to agree for him to go to pontville.
However the battle to get my son a place at pontville was worth it, since my son has started Pontville i have gradually started to notice improvements. It has also been fantastic for our family life as being a residential border means that we have a good balance of being together and away from each other. This gives me time to recharge my batteries and do the 'normal' stuff with my other children.
When my son first started he ran away from school twice in the first week, making his way to the Motorway. When he came home the first weekend i thought he would never go back again. He has had some awful experiences at mainstream. However despite all the negativities, i persisted and sent him back. 7 months later and i know that this is the best decision that could have happened to him. He is being supported on a 1:1 basis with his communication difficulties and has also been diagnosed with semantic/pragmatic disorder.
Mr Sim is a strong leader who has an exceptional insight into children's individual needs. With his passion, he has guided his team of staff and care workers. On the whole all the staff have been really good. They have been exceptionally good at managing any challenges and problem solving. This is such a contrast to the regular telephone calls i would get daily from mainstream sometimes more than once - always telling me about the bad things that my son had done! Now i hear a balance and it is so good to hear from the staff at pontville talk about my son positively and balanced!
If you are a parent looking for a specialist communication school, i would definitely recommend that you visit Pontville!
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| By Parent - reviewed on 8th Oct 2007 |
Pontville school has been the best thing that has happened to my family. Previously to attending, my son had no future to speak of and our family was in crisis due to the knock on effects of the stresses involved with trying to educate a child with ASD in a mainstream environment wholly inappropriate to his needs. When he started at Pontville he could barely write, had an extremely low opinion of himself and believed himself to be stupid. He was, and still is to an extent, distrustful of teachers and other people in education due to some very bad experiences in mainstream education where he was treated with appalling disrespect and insensitivity.
The headteacher at this school, Mr Sim, runs a team of staff who ave, on the whole, treated my son with compassion and offered him the dignity and respect needed to build self esteem and a positive outlook for the future. I The sense that the staff members, my son and myself are on 'one team' is very tangible.
My son has tested the staff at Pontville to the absolute limit and their approach to managing his educational and behavioural needs has not only built trust in my son towards adults who work in education but the pro-child approach has built my sons self esteem massively. I believe that all children, not just those with SEN, should be able to access a teaching environment such as has been built up at Pontville by Mr Sim and his staff.
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