It was called Sudbury Academy for Performing Arts, where they studied things like stage work, acting, lighting, sound, prop design etc but also had to study for English & Maths GCSE The other core subjects, such as languages, sciences etc were able to be dropped as all students had an interest in the Arts, be it painting, sculpting, acting etc. So it was classed as mainstream as the majority of students, (they weren't called pupils), were from mainstream schools but chose this 'educational/career path.
Sue had to fight tooth and nail to get the support of SENCO's in place and even training for some of the tutors who had no idea how to deal with autistic issues such as meltdowns in class or, in his case, allowing him to have his lunch at the same time every day and in the same place. My wife and the tutors worked out a traffic light signalling system which basically consisted of him having a red, orange and green card. If he was coping then he placed the green card on show, clearly visible to everyone. If he was getting mildly stressed he would change it to the orange one and if he could feel a meltdown coming on he placed the red one on view and left the room with the SENCO and went to a designated 'safe' place. This was then carried on into the college when he left the academy and things got so good he could sometimes go weeks with just the green card on show.
Ys we are both lucky to have her in our lives and never a day goes by without me showing her how much she means to me.
Yes, he probably would have been placed in a SEN establishment where he would have been dragged down to the level of the lowest in there, simply because they do not have the facilities for one to one attention/teaching.
