For two years, I had the dilemma of whether my daughter, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and moderate learning difficulties, should attend a special or a mainstream school.

She was adamant she should attend a mainstream one and although I had significant reservations about bullying, isolation and her inability to relate to the curriculum, I agreed.

She is now in Year 9 at Blatchington Mill School, where she has had the benefit of excellent teachers, who were willing to differentiate the curriculum for her, as well as a wonderful teaching assistant and excellent ASD support.

As far as I am aware, she has never been bullied which, I must stress, can unfortunately happen to any child.

However, I feel confident, should this ever occur, Blatchington would quickly nip it in the bud.

She has made some good progress and, above all, is happy.

I can't praise Blatchington Mill enough. It, and other schools like it, deserves more funding for children such as my daughter.

Merging Hillside with Downs Park will hopefully encourage more parents of children with moderate learning difficulties to integrate them into mainstream schools.

These children have to go out into the big, wide world eventually and it's better to begin doing so at a young age and in a controlled environment.

The older they get, the more difficult integration will be and the more likely it will be for them to be bullied and isolated through ignorance in the workplace.

-Lorraine Jones, Name and address supplied