To ask, if you’re a teacher

I’m also a massive statistics geek, and populations statistics are just that. 30% in a number of schools is meaningless to population statistics. Even lots of replies on here is a small sample. There are approx 29,000 mainstream schools in England and Wales.

Not a teacher but a parent of 3 primary aged children, two of whom are diagnosed. In terms of children I know about (them and their friends) that's 3 or 4 per class at least. And obviously there are lots of kids I don't know so it must be higher than that.

Well first because you started with 1% which isn’t the correct statistic. It’s at least 5%.

I was a teacher too. And I’m a ND parents to ND children. A

The education system has changed phenomenally. I managed at school and even liked it. There was no constant exam pressure, assessments, SATs, I never even got all my spelling checked 😂

Nowadays schools are forced to be these hot houses of children trained to pass exams, less music and drama and art, more rote learning and teaching to the exam. Tha will make a huge difference to whether SEND would be diagnosed. I wasn’t diagnosed as I masked well and my school experience was relatively pleasant. I was allowed to follow my interested. I wouldn’t have survived in the current eduction system.

But then that is exactly the same. And will explain why some schools with have more ginger kids than others.

Why are you asking this? Usually it’s someone who wants to feed the idea of overdiagnosis.

As to lack of special schools, my autistic daughter was out of school for 18 months due to ack of provision.

When I was at school many SENd children simply didn’t come to school and no one chased it up. Or were permanently excluded.

You know cancer is more commonly diagnosed nowadays too? But that doesn’t make good daily Mail headlines.

Our school is up to 27% with SEN.

This isn't my experience at all. The level of need in mainstream is increasing massively and I don't think that is all down to a lack of special schools. I've also never had a class where it's been closed to as low as 1 in 30 and I've taught across the primary age range in a number of settings. It's interesting how different people's experiences are.

I’m SEND coordinator in Further Education and expect about 40% of the total yearly cohort to either arrive with a diagnosis, receive a diagnosis during their time as a student or present with support needs. Not just autism and ADHD but speech and language needs, social emotional and behavioural needs and complex mental health needs. Comorbidity is the norm, we are catastrophically under resourced and teacher training is not preparing teachers for this reality. It’s difficult and frustrating.

I teach a core subject so get the whole spectrum of students. And definitely in the lower streams / sets / classes there will be a huge amount of children who have not had their SEN needs met and therefore are not achieving well.

Although also in the top set. Very, very quiet children. Doing really well academically, but possibly also with some social communication difficulties.

I would be really surprised if half the population is autistic (particularly formally diagnosed with autism). I don't think we will ever get to that point.

Special schools are interesting. In generic (learning disability) state special schools I have experience of, about 60% tend to have an autism diagnosis. Obviously autism specific special schools have 100% autism diagnosis. SEMH special schools I've seen around 30-40% diagnosed autism (although this was a while ago) and high ADHD diagnosis. PRUs (in my experience) tend to have slightly higher autism / ADHD diagnosis but a LOT of suspected autism / ADHD (sometimes ending up in a PRU can mean neurodivergence is identified and child us then put on assessment pathway).

The 1% figure (for autism) is old and now known to be wrong. I think the figure for ADHD used to be estimated at 5% but likely to be an underestimate as well.

Ah thanks! I should know really being a ginge myself!

Much higher than 1% but my context isn’t necessarily typical. It’s a non-selective state school in an area of deprivation where they still have grammars. Doesn’t mean we have a higher % of autistic children, but it probably does vary from setting to setting. Also the 1% is probably for the whole population, not just people born since the 90s which is when more people started to get diagnosed because of a better understanding. There must be loads of autistic 60-100 year olds who were never diagnosed.

Secondary teacher - on average 10 in a year group. My son has an EHCP and in his cohort (Yr 7), he’s one of 26.

UK stats for red hair is 4.6%, but good analogy - I just used the same one in another thread

I think the 1% is worldwide or something - red hair genes are more prevalent in celtic ancestry.

1% of population is thought to have red hair. In my dc class at primary there were 5 children with red hair. That doesn’t mean red hair is over diagnosed or that the statistic is wrong.

It is thought to be 5%. But you can’t take individual class percentages, it is 5% across the population, so across all types of schools and cohorts. Some schools have higher levels of SEND, sometimes down to the fact that they are deemed better for those children. Many independent schools have much lower instances, due to culture, admission criteria etc.

Adhd is thought to have a familial link and many previous generations led to high levels of excision and low attainment. Therefore the parents may not earn enough for private school, or may have negative attitudes to school.

Not all of course. I’m adhd and active very well at school, became a teacher and then burned out.

You are a parent not the teacher. You have no clue!!

In my sons class there are 4 diagnosed that I am aware of. The parents have all discussed this openly. 3 of the 4 were diagnosed privately against school senco advice. However of the 4, only 1 (with the nhs diagnosis, coincidentally) would possibly have been diagnosed when i was at school in the 90s. The others would not have met the diagnostic criteria of the 90s, they would have been considered introverted, or naughty, or difficult but not to a point of warranting diagnosis. They are all verbal, no learning disabilities, have friends, manage clubs outside of school etc.

Separately there's one child who has dyslexia that i know of and a different child with a very obvious speech & language disorder.

My daughters class seems to have less behavioural needs.

Can I add a question - do you feel your school is accurately recording SEN on the register and as part of their census return or do you feel that the thresholds to being on the register are rising so its under reported / or the reverse quicker to add to the register as better at recognising need?