To think something has gone wrong in schools? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz0m2x30p4eo

I think they are probably under funded. Teachers are demoralised and stressed. The curriculum is too rigid both for teachers and some children. Schools are too big and noisy for some kids with ASD. SEN kids struggle with the rigidity and teachers don't have enough resources to cope with them. Parents either can't or won't support teachers and unsettled home life (financial or housing difficulties, mental health problems or drink/drug/domestic violence) means children don't feel safe and supported.

We had a waiting list for the youth club I went to in the 80s, so that’s not a universally true comment.

I didn’t say it wasn’t. I said it was a more inspiring teacher film than School of Rock.

We had very aggressive child who seemed to pick on a particular group of girls. Nothing was done about it - HT had done everything within her power, LA wouldn't support exclusion.
Only when a parent threatened to go to the police and the press was the issue dealt with satisfactorily.

It shouldn't have to come to this.

I agree with some of your sentiments OP however I don’t think the ones being excluded are the ones who just need some support and adaptations.
I’m a teacher too and we have some children who are attacking pupils and staff, harming themselves and are unsafe. They are dysregulated and their mental health is affected by the distress.
Even these children who are not coping are not excluded until every possible option has been tried.
I think it’s wrong to make people think exclusion is quick, easy and schools do it willy nilly.
And if you haven’t experienced what I’ve mentioned above then you’re very, very lucky.

Parents can't control their kid getting access to porn unless their kid has no friends/ peers they interact with.

Unfortunately while you may be vigilant and knowledgeable enough to ensure your kid doesn't use their own/household device(s) to look at pornographic content especially violent content, you can't ensure their friends/peers have similar parents or even relatives.

Also while parents think taking their kids phone away from them so they don't have 24/7 access to SM and other harmful content is enough it really isn't.

Most parents aren't knowledgeable enough to stop their kid doing stuff on the internet if their kid really wants to do it. Otherwise there wouldn't be stories of teenage cyber criminals

I've been told some interesting stories of what 8/9 year olds have got up to and they weren't hiding away in their bedroom at that age. The problems have always escalated as their parents think they have been behaving appropriately online for a year or more, and so when the kid has got older they have been given their own devices. This is where the bigger problem of grooming - whether it is in a sexual, religious/political or criminal context - has appeared.

In regards to youth clubs and foster care that's down to money. The interesting thing is that everyone mentions youth clubs but very few people used them as teens. What people did have was more services that were free/ heavily subsidized they used, or (in my case) just simply more space and less restrictions on where you could hang out.

Too much trying to make square pegs fit in round holes.
Worked in a special school, smacked me in the face how many were summer birthdays.

I always say to people looking at schools (especially for SEN/ND kids) ask to look at both the isolation room and the SEN support room . Which one is bigger and better equipped will tell you their focus.

I'm glad you posted this. My son was 2 terms in unofficial internal isolation at a "zero tolerance" school (to avoid an official exclusion) before we gave up and moved to a different school where he thrived. The effect on his mental health and our family are still with us 8 years later. I'm still furious at the ignorance and lying of the SLT.

Meh, it's one thing to get one class standing on a desk saying 'Captain, my Captain' as disappear out the door, it's another entirely to keep showing up for them day after day, year after year.

I actually work for my local IAS service. We see children suspended because of having brown soles on their black shoes.

The bit that really really scares me isn't the suspensions and exclusions. It is the use of unregulated and often secretive internal isolation. The practices there are absolutely diabolical. I had one child in July who hadn't been allowed to step foot out of isolation since February 2nd. This is the scandal waiting to happen.

Dead Poets Society was even more inspiring.

I love Freedom writers for various reasons. The books are so inspiring and raw as well. Absolutely brilliant.

I agree with this too and highlighted this in a formal complaint to the Local Authority. My child has someone to fight for her (me). And much as the LA has made our lives absolute hell, I won't stop doing that so she will get what she needs eventually.

It has cost me a 5 figure sum of money so far. It has meant I had to homeschool her during the day and do my full time job at night and survive on 3 hours of sleep per day for months on end while they made it impossible for her to attend (not excluded or due to any bad behaviour, rather because they refused to meet her needs as agreed and this made her suicidal at the age of 5 so I had to keep her at home to safeguard her). They threatened to prosecute me for not sending her back and are continuing to obstruct her EHCP. They've done immense damage to her that will take years to repair if we can at all.

However, I will not be bullied out of protecting her and am doing what I can to repair the damage. And she is fortunate to have a parent who can also afford the large costs involved in fighting ensuring her basic legal right to access education is met. Many children do not have someone who can or will do this on their behalf and one of the most disgusting things about this behaviour from LAs is that those children who do not even have security at home will be the ones who have no way to access school properly either. And that this is a deliberate design feature of the LA's approach: they are well aware that this is the case, but continue to behave in this manner anyway.

I raised this issue specifically in my complaint. What happens to the children with nobody to speak up on their behalf?

Once upon a time I was such a child myself and this makes me unspeakably angry. I do not know how these people sleep at night.

Two of the most inspirational films I watched about teaching were Sister Act 2 and School of Rock.

And yet Delores would have been out on her arse over student safety, and seemed to have no curriculum to teach. There was base respect there from the kids (and every kid in that class seemed to be able to sing). Try the nails on blackboard or the no-shit-taking attitude with kids nowadays and see whether they really do fall quiet.

And Jack Black's kids would have failed their state-mandated tests, he would have failed every book look, every observation, and it's completely unrealistic that none of the kids in the classroom rebelled and/ or blabbed about their secret project.

They are great films that show how talented kids are, how teachers can inspire passion if left to their own devices, but the reality is that it never happens in UK schools because everything is micromanaged.

Oh ffs. If only life was a movie eh?
Or maybe not, as the dad dies at the end...

Half the class sizes, split them by ability. Howls of horror about this always but it works. Then double the number of TAs so teachers can focus on teaching and the TAs can ensure the needs of children within each class are met. Ensure schools have sufficient sensory and breakout rooms.

I.e. fund education properly. Miraculously lots of the problems would be vastly reduced because the children would be engaged, feel they were supported and given the help they need to learn, and far less anxious because the environment wouldn't be so loud and overwhelming and chaotic.

None of it is rocket science. If the UK economy and fiscal decisions had been managed competently and then services would not all be failing.

Children in mainstream still in pull ups need an adult to change them. The class teacher can't do that and teach maths at the same time.

The children I work with are amazing. That doesn't mean we can meet their needs in their mainstream classrooms. One eats everything in sight. One bites his peers and staff. One loves throwing objects around the classroom. One has physical difficulties that require the use of hoists and two adults to support changing. One has no concept of how to compromise with other children. One has no concept that other children exist. One is in nappies. One was toilet trained but is regressing. One is jumping on tables and throwing chairs. One is blind. One is deaf, with a cochlear implant, but has significant language delay. One is struggling to come in to school in the morning without hurting his caregiver. One is not coming in at all. One is working at least 5 years behind his peers in academic subjects. Many have no language to tell adults when something is wrong. They are all amazing. We care about each and every one of them dearly. They are making progress. But their competing needs and the lack of suitable break-out spaces in our mainstream school means that their needs cannot all be met in our mainstream school at the same time. No amount of wishful thinking would allow us to meet the needs of all of these children in the space available, with the staff available, with the funding available. We won't be excluding any of them, unless there are valid grounds. But we absolutely will be encouraging their parents to consider if we are a suitable setting for their child.

*Note that those "Ones" were mostly representative of a lot more than one child...

This is a Year 1/2 class. I’m not suggesting any sort of push to exclude children with additional needs, but mainstream classes need appropriate funding to enable additional adults in the class. One teacher cannot do this alone.

All children are amazing. I'm glad your son is doing well. You've given examples of two children who with the right TA support can thrive in mainstream. Inclusion works in this set up. Many children would thrive in a specialist set up. I've supported many families move to specialist and they have thrived there.

Try looking outside your own experiences and reading some of the very honest posts from teachers on here.

To challenge assumptions made about children, to stop constraining them by stereotypes

Given your later example of poor and weak, do you mean that we should assume that every child is able to access the content every lesson? If so, you're a bit late to the party, "teach to the top" has been around for ages (and can, in many cases, be harmful when I need to address complex vector calculations with student who still struggle with recognising vectors over scalars in the first place).

to encourage positivity

Again, a bit late to the party. "Building relationships" is the new get out of jail free card for useless SLT as it, once again, pushes blame for any issues a child has in a class onto the teacher. For some, positivity absolutely works, but those children really need a whole lot of nurturing that just doesn't happen when you barely have an hour to teach several abstract scientific concepts, but Johnny decides to spend the first 25mins of the lesson walking around the room asking every single student whether they had chewing gum, singing songs with swear words in them at the top of his voice, while ignoring my presence altogether (yes, this has happened, repeatedly, in the last year. I was told to build positive relationships with the child - oh, and that results for everyone needed to stay good). We do our utmost to be positive, we really do, but some children need a dose of realism before they enter the world of work and see that the real world doesn't give them a hot chocolate for not kicking the door in on their way out.

self reflection

I don't actually think a teacher would deny that this happens. From self-assessment with next steps, to PSHE lessons with literal self-reflective content, to sodding restorative conversations, schools are all about self-reflection.

fun, love

Is all very well and good, but with a huge curriculum to get through in a tight time frame, the fun part has been well and truly removed. When I frequently have to seriously think about whether I have time to do this practical, which will take 2 lessons to do properly, or just show a video and do the data analysis the kids actually need from this in the space of 1 lesson (meaning I can actually cover the content before the next assessment is through) then the fun has been taken out of learning, especially with all the new fads being required (mini-whiteboards and their associated time-consuming issues are the bane of my life).

I love my job, I really do, but even with a can-do mindset, great work ethic and high organisational skills I am now at breaking point due to the constant demands of me as one person in a classroom and school full of people with no time to actually do the job well.

That's exactly my experience in primary too.
Two P7 boys running wild and climbing on the canteen roof so the rest of the school couldn't get in to have their lunches.
This standoff ensued for over an hour.

Ridiculous.