There’s also a group on Facebook called Lavender specifically for parents of girls with ASD, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses. It’s S/SW London based and most of the families have experience of mainstream.

Hi there - I'm a teacher and now educational consultant so I see a lot of schools. Good advice from Bramble54 above. I second that. The challenge for your daughter sounds like balancing academic challenge to help her develop intellectually with the emotional care and acceptance of her individual needs. You might want to look at St James Girls' School: it's a bit further than some of those mentioned, but is quite small and nurturing but still has good academic standards. Similarly The Laurels School - currently on the Chelsea Embankment but moving to Gypsy Hill. The key person to talk to is the SENCO at these schools: a good senior school should let you talk to them about the exact scope of support and their experience with other girls with similar challenges. Good luck.

Hi - have you joined the Parenting High Potential group on Facebook? Really helpful body of parents with so much experience of schooling/educational issues for HLP/ASD/DME kids. Might be worth posting question there.

Hello, I am looking for some advice on local secondary schools that have excellent pastoral care. My daughter is 10 and has high functioning autism. She is bright and does well in school so originally we had been thinking of London day schools like Alleys,, Streatham and Clapham, Wimbledon High and Surbiton. However her anxiety and panic attacks have become a lot more intense and we now think a smaller, more relaxed school with a focus on pastoral care is probably much better for her. Every school we've looked at has support for ASD and they say they have excellent pastoral care, and I am sure that is true, but I guess we are looking for opinions or advice from parents who have experience of great mainstream secondary schools for girls with ASD. Many thanks in advance