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

"This is true, but being more likely to diagnose won't, on its own, have changed things in schools. If these kids still existed 30 years ago, but undiagnosed (I was one of them!), why is it causing issues in the classroom now we know why they're struggling?" @ThoughtfulSchooldays

I have a small class of 22. In that class I have two highly dyslexic who must use a laptop to write or I can't read their writing. I have two EAL (of which one I suspect is autistic but undiagnosed). I have three with life threatening conditions where they could need an ambulance and be blue lighted to hospital, so their health needs have to be met. They obviously have gaps in their knowledge due to absence related to their conditions. I have a GRT child who also has significant gaps. I have three with diagnosed with ADHD, one is medicated, but meds in short supply so not consistent. I have one child with C&L needs.

I ensure I adapt my classroom as much as possible (task management board, wobble cushions, brain breaks, dyslexia font for displays, coloured paper, seating plan, Zones of emotion...I could keep going!). I buy biscuits for those that need a snack but don't have one. I buy cups for those that don't have drinks bottles.

Two thirds of my class are currently working behind age related expectations. I've had this class since Sept. I feel the pressure from Govt and Ofsted who want more children to leave primary at expected level. I cannot work miracles, I can only try my best, but the pressure on teachers to get children to these levels on a curriculum that isn't suited to all is tough even on the good days. And the bad days, well that's when stuff happens outside of my control where a child is in distress over things at home, or friendships and can become verbally and physically abusive. And that's another day that can set back learning not just for that child but also the class that witness the abuse and need time to settle after.

I'm sorry but this is missing the point spectacularly and looking at past schooling with rose tinted glasses. When's the last time you taught?

It's easy to differentiate for one child with additional needs in a class of 24. It's far from easy in a class of 34 when there's 10 children with additional needs.

benefitstaxcredithelp

Children today are digital natives and to them it is kind of pointless to learn facts to regurgitate for an exam to then be able to look it up again in a split second. I’m not saying all learning is pointless in school today but certainly the way we measure it has to be modernised. I’d go as far to say this information accessibility is partly what is disengaging young people.

A lot children don't progress "digitally" beyond search engines and games.
Most will just give you the first thing that they find, just a swift copy, paste and done with no critique or thought behind it.
With AI its even worse as the just type in the question and hand in what they get back.

Yes, odd, isn't it?

This is true, but being more likely to diagnose won't, on it's own, have changed things in schools. If these kids still existed 30 years ago, but undiagnosed (I was one of them!), why is it causing issues in the classroom now we know why they're struggling?

And yet 30 years ago there were 12k perm ex children compared to the numbers today. You don't seem to grasp the concept that your experience isn't universally valid or backed by actual numbers or statistics.

Your initial premise is wrong. I actually bothered to research and post the numbers on here and you've ignored that post and keep banging on about the good old days.

You're in a crappy school. Move jobs and you'll probably find what you need.

My comment stands

Also this. Local Authorities deliberately break the law and deny children their legal right to education in order to save money. They are losing 98% of tribunals for EHCPs so it's quite clear that they are denying them to children that they know should have one: that is far above the level that could possibly result from genuine error

And this is because councils are going bankrupt over the costs. It's not just to 'save money', it's because they don't have it.

In the meantime everyone else is paying shedloads of council tax and wondering where it is all going because public services like libraries are closing down, potholes aren't being filled and bin collections are being reduced.

Something drastic needs to happen about SEN funding because the current system is failing everyone.

Her ego was more important than the child’s well being.

This has been exactly my experience as a parent with a SENCO and Headteacher. The class teachers and TAs are fantastic but the SENCO and Head are toxic and incompetent and not fit to have children in their care.

And things are also utterly toxic at Local Authority level where the rhetoric seems to be to apply incredible financial burdens on schools, fail to meet their duties both to schools and to children, and then blame the parents.

Also this. Local Authorities deliberately break the law and deny children their legal right to education in order to save money. They are losing 98% of tribunals for EHCPs so it's quite clear that they are denying them to children that they know should have one: that is far above the level that could possibly result from genuine error. It is a deliberate policy to save money knowing the catastrophic harm this causes both to the children with SEN and to the other children whose learning is disrupted. And then they try to blame the child or the parent for the entirely predictable outcome of their behaviour.

It is a complete shitshow and education funding needs to be doubled, class sizes halved. This would pay for itself given the long-term costs that will be incurred as a direct result of the shambles that pretends to be an education system.

@wellington77 I didn't ask you to justify yourself, or specific details on that incident.

I was replying to this comment of yours.

Exactly! My parents were the same! I wouldn’t even think the teacher would have marked it wrong. They are the expert not the kid

No discipline either. The kids know this and have the 'You can't touch me mindset.'Spills over into adult life and creates adults who think they can do as they like without cconsequences.

She wrote 5 lines for the whole test. I scored it 0. I am her teacher and I always polite thankyou. Can’t even believe I’m having to justify myself!

The most unmanageable kids at my school are the ones who get hit at home.

Schools and parenting need to go back to basics. Chalk and talk, and the 3 Rs at school, and sending kids out to play, and giving them the slipper at home.

Lack of discipline yes but I have never used physical punishment on my kids and they always behaved very well. I was smacked as a child. I think it was very damaging to me emotionally. Good behaviour can be achieved without resorting to physical punishment. Most important is having sanctions you follow through imo.

Lack of discipline, the removal of physical discipline especially. A very predictable result of a failed social experiment to remove it. France where physical discipline is still very much a thing don't have this problem and the behavioural difference (children sitting quietly at the table in restaurants etc, silent, no speaking back or tantrums in public) is a complete 180. Clutch your pearls at this all you want, I am not arguing for or against, just saying the facts are there, and it is what it is.

It's nuts. I work in a secondary school (there's pretty much a zero exclusion policy here in Scotland). There's a minority of kids who don't attend class but wander about the school, sometimes causing havoc. Nothing we can do.
We have swung SO far the other way in our treatment of children and will live to regret it.

I usually answer ‘brain development!’

Works for most subject areas including stuff that a lot of teens see as a waste of time (eg Algebra or musical instrument practice or PE or a MFL from a country they have no interest in ever visiting).

When I was a kid I knew maybe 10 or 15 different phone numbers off by heart so I could use a telephone kiosk or a friend’s parent’s landline. I’d get 6 books from the library on Saturday morning (while my mum shopped in Prestos) and read them all by Sunday, I’d listen to 5 -6 whole tracks on a record or cassette before turning it over and listening to the 5-6 more on the B side. We used to watch an episode of a live show at the scheduled time and be able to discuss it with our class mates next day.

I observe kids and teens now and they listen to three quarters of a Spotify track before skipping to the next random track, no one remembers more than 2 or 3 phone numbers and reading a whole book chapter by chapter has been replaced by doomscrolling snippets of opinion. The Netflix algorithm (and many others) serves up what it anticipatee you will like and it may well be right but it’s likely completely different to what it’s serving up to your sister and your best friend.

It must be changing the way kids brains develop - how could it not? Best keep learning the Algebra and memorising French vocab lest our brains become incapable of simple adulting tasks, like making a phone call or walking to a friend’s house without Siri telling us when to take a left turn.