To say my DS cant keep missing school because the school “cant cope”??

I have. So far, they do seem good but of course, very early days.

It's the open evening next week so I'll bring my son along. He wants to stay in primary school forever so hopefully this will start to help with the adjustment too.

Speaking as a parent who's child has been kicked punched and had chairs thrown at them and actually had to go to hospital due to being hit jn the head....and bejng told by the school that they cant do anything about it!!!! My head is actually blown at the entitlement and arrogance of parents who think this behaviour is ok in a school and thjnk other children anc teachers should be at risk daily. Schools do have a duty to provide every child a education so I would definitely try and ensure that the school is supporting you with this. Teachers cant provide an education to other children if all their time is taken up during lessons on x1 child.

Professional experience, over a number of authorities.

I was explaining the bigger picture, that the structure of education and budgets make decisions really difficult for everyone. There are no easy decisions. The system is increasingly under pressure, more children requiring support, tighter and tighter budgets, a spiral of ‘not enough LA provision’ (as explained), leading to huge, costly placements and/or court fees.

My LA had to save in excess of £5million year on year, under the Conservative government. Senior leaders with budgets cut in their departments, savings to meet, money to save. This had to come from somewhere, with the pot shared between many, many children with SEND.

They can do something about it @Poppybob. Hopefully they are. They can't discuss confidential stuff about other children with you though. I hope your daughter is OK.

I don't see one person on this thread who thinks the behaviour is ok. Just that OP's son clearly needs extra support and making sure that it is in place as his EHCP is a legal document.

It isn't entitlement to expect that your child is supported by their legal document which is supposed to help them cope in mainstream.

I do hope that your daughter is ok. The teachers won't be allowed to discuss another child with you. Ask about how your daughter will be safeguarded and they should be able to tell you how they are going to keep her safe going forward.

Your LA should have a team of SEN advisory teachers whose job it is to go in and observe classroom teachers where behaviour management is becoming a challenge. (I am one in my county). They will advise how to meet the EHCP requirements as the only way things will change is for the adults to do something differently. There needs to be a connective approach taken to improve things between teacher (who sounds awful) and your son. They can also carry out modelling interventions for the teacher to see what he/she should be doing differently - I had an awkward conversation yesterday with a Y2 teacher who was freaking out that the two boys in her class that I was in to work with had done more pages of the workbooks than they were supposed to (two boys with huge additional needs who will both likely end up in special provision units once they get their EHCPs and who are both working at EYFS levels - I was just happy they were engaged in mark making, there is no way they understood her very barked rapid multiple instructions, they just liked tracing the lines so I encouraged them to keep going, given they don’t seem to be able to produce work other than with support they don’t get from their teacher). So keep at the school, they need to meet the EHCP and you need SENDIASS involved if this continues.

I think one can appreciate the wider political situation without losing sight of the suffering of the children and their parents when needs are not met.

I personally find it difficult to feel sorry for my LA when I consider how they treated us at a time of difficulty.

Especially when LA's tend to talk about saving money yet seem to have no problems insisting so many parents go to tribunal etc and costing them more money in the long run.

It is really difficult.

Maybe taxes should rise, increased money ring - fenced to support vulnerable children and those with SEND.
Perhaps that would provide much better specialist provision, support and train parents and teachers, provide higher staffing levels in mainstream, provide specialist SEND teachers (my LA ‘restructured’ under budget cuts and removed this team).

Maybe the government can reverse the academy system and allow LA’s to open new schools, even if this were limited to specialist provision. Less cost, less time.

None of it a vote winner though.

I did ask how my child would be safeguarded....school had said they got an extra teacher in the class but increasing the staffing didnt change the behaviours as behaviours were unpredictable. They actually had to take another child out of class as the the anger issue child was attacking the child.

It will take a serious incident like another child or teacher gettjng killed before the education system actually does anything. And am not bejng dramatic either as just need to look at the news of teachers being stabbed

Have you seen the proposed SEND reforms? The government want more SEND children in mainstream.

If it goes ahead, things are going to get much more worse.

Not sure what your point is?
That all the parents of SEN kids you meet are lazy? And therefore SEN kids behave badly? Or that parents in general are lazy? Or that we have an epidemic of badly behaved SEN kids? I haven't seen any empirical evidence for this, but maybe you have seen it with your own eyes.

Perhaps, like many of us, you have more general concerns, or maybe don't like the way society is heading, as portrayed by the media?

I'm not sure which parents you hang out with, but most of the ones I meet are also concerned about too much screen time, kids not reading books, and generally how to love their kids and bring them up well in this digital age... Isn't that what most parents care about?

I know for a fact that anyone who beats parents with the stick of "too much relying on screen time" has never worked closely with the kind of SEN kids and families I know, where screens provide incredible regulation because they isolate the brain and nervous system from all the triggers around them, like noise, social environment, interactions... That doesn't mean leave them on screens all day, but if you can't articulate the nuance of appropriate screen use vs. lazy parenting, then you're already on the judgmental side and probably don't realise just how different (and difficult) it is to parent some SEN children.

So, I'm not sure why you've mixed up "kids getting addicted to screens" with "SEN parents are lazy" and "as soon as a child gets a medical diagnosis, parents shift the responsibility" and "there's an epidemic of badly behaved SEN kids"... Because most of that seems like regurgitated opinion pieces from Jeremy Clarkson, Boris Johnson and other ill-informed, lazy commentators who want to colour the opinions of society.

Personally my conscience is clear having a) saved them a bunch of money privately educating my DC at primary; b) DH and I paid for nearly all assessments, therapies etc privately because there was nothing; c) I spent two years doing tribunals to secure her a place in a suitable secondary in a different LA; d) I work in a state school as a teacher. I think I'm probably a net contributor! And more professional than them grrrrr.

Yes, of course I have. I was part of the consultation.

There is a place for mainstream, as well as a range of other provision. Some schools, mine included offer(ed) excellent support and inclusive practice.
Some schools really struggle to do this.

Unless more money, through taxes, is put into the system, with increasing numbers of children requiring support, there are always going to be compromises, unfortunately.

I'm a student welfare (medical officer) in a secondary school and the lack of funding and support in the face of a massive increase in in students with complex mental health needs and SEN is the reason I have just resigned.

It's heartbreaking as I really thought when I started in the role I'd be able to make a difference.

The government need to wake up and realise that banning mobile phones in school and restricting access to social media is just a drop in the ocean in terms of the support our young people need and actually start investing in infrastructure, support service and meaningful changes to the education system if they don't want at least one lost generation on their hands.

They don't seem interested in providing more/better specialist provision.

They know it now

Do they? Are you sure? Because the SEND reforms are about increasing the number in mainstream schools.

leading to huge, costly…court fees.

I disagree. None of what you list means LAs have to spend reprehensible amounts of money defending indefensible cases they know they are going to lose often against unrepresented parents. None of it is a defence to acting unlawfully. It absolutely doesn’t have to lead to huge, costly court fees.

While the percentage with EHCPs has increased, there hasn’t been such a big increase in the percentage of DC with SEN as some like to suggest. The most recent statistics released this year show 20.8% of pupils have SEN. In 2010, it was 20.9% or 21.1% (depending on which statistics you look at - I think it is a rounding issue adding up SA, SA+ and SSEN). In 2005, it was 18%. Going back several decades to the Warnock report in 1978, “some 20% appeared to need some form of special educational help. This may even be an underestimate…”

One of the (many) things that has really disturbed me about the current government proposals is that they have actually cancelled a number of special schools that were ready to be built.

We have such odd people in charge. They actually think providing a breakout room and providing a minimal amount of extra staff training replaces specialist schools for those who need them. Those types of schools are centres of expertise and a world away from "a harried OT or speech therapist comes to a school an hour a month and does their best in a room not designed for that purpose" which is what we get.

@cityliving99 while as my posts on here no doubt show, I have a low opinion of LA SEND teams, the problem you describe sounds like the NHS letting schools down.

Like every teacher in the country, I have just done allergy and epipen training. The reason everyone did it is because of the hard activist work of Benedict's parents (he died when his school didn't take his dairy allergy seriously) not because the NHS said "oh there are rising rates of serious allergies, better train teachers."

Repeat with diabetes, asthma, epilepsy etc. Schools used to have nurses. Why don't they?

46 free schools scrapped and 59 special schools in limbo https://share.google/ZUl1gWJ3NTMVsLmWb

Because they can't or won't spend the money.

My pro rate salary as a f/t student welfare officer running the medical room for 1600 secondary school kids is £23,600pa.

Far more important that they spend the cash on business, finance and HR bods to run the academy side of things...🙄😡

Yep.

My son has a central line in his chest which his teachers need to be trained for. His line doesn't need to be used during the school day but they need to be trained to know what to do if it is accidently pulled out or it gets a hole in it etc and ''trained'' pretty much means showing them the emergency kit, showing how to stop/slow any bleeding if it is pulled or temporarily repair the hole if it is damaged. It's actually terrifying.

But again, it all comes down to costs unfortunately.

I don't think it's solely costs but that old chestnut of different budgets.

No-one as far as I know is comparing lack of primary health care in schools with extra costs incurred by secondary health care (we had a girl in one school having major seizures every week, bashing her head on furniture inadvertently etc). I'm sure a good school nurse could prevent hospital admissions, as well as do staff training on common and less common conditions, but it's hard to prove the benefit of prevention because it's proving a negative.

The private school I worked in did employ a nurse of course.

That’s a distorted interpretation of legal entitlements and how they play out when children behave in unsafe ways. It means there is always a period of instability during which it takes time to reach a conclusion about whether the school can meet the child’s needs or whether alternative provision is needed. Schools are never required to keep children who are throwing furniture around at the expense of the safety and education of the other children.