When were Special Schools closed?

[IdaBWells]

I have lived outside the UK for 25 years. My mother was at a teacher at an inner-city primary in the 1970s/80s. Lots of her friends were teachers and her best friend’s DH was an art teacher at a special school in the borough. I am clearly very out of touch but when were all the special schools closed and by who? What were the reasons? Did anything replace them? What happened to the staff and students at the schools?

I work at one...
It's such a diverse school, lots of medical needs as well as learning difficulties.
My eldest has a diagnosis of autism but goes to mainstream. His difficulties are not great enough to be even considered for a special needs school, alot of the children where I work have profound and multiple difficulties.

Presumably some are open - or where has my son been going in a taxi for the last 7 years!

@anniehm Another significant reason for the number of SEN children increasing will be medical advances.

Many premature babies that would once have died are now living, but have lifelong disabilities. Many children with conditions that mean they need special education would simply have died in the past (Down syndrome and associated heart conditions spring to mind).

Anecdotally I can tell you they’re still facing massive funding challenges and units are being closed or downgraded.

My twins were in a SALT unit for infant school, this was full time. They didn’t have any disabilities apart from the speech delay, but there was others in the unit who did.

They haven’t closed it but there is now no funding available for full time places. So children will be part time in one school and part time in another. So it saves money because I guess they can service twice the amount of kids per week - who cares if it’s not in the best interest of the kids eh?

my dd went to an sn school. out of area and very expensive. but brilliant.
they were the last one in our town to get funding. now children like her are limited to the local sn schools that do not specialise. very sad for the children.
inclusion only works if the support is there. otherwise its just exclusion by another name.

I think in the past, special schools were seen as a "hide anyone who isn't totally NT and just teach them how to live, don't bother with qualifications".
Obviously there were children for whom teaching them "how to function in the world" was best. And there were children who were bright, even very bright, who were let down by this system, but weren't given the choice.

In the 90s parents began to fight for the right to choose. I knew a few in various contexts who all won the right for their child to be educated in a mainstream education. For some it was the best thing, for some it was a disaster-but parents, having fought hard, often didn't want to admit this.

Now special schools are rarer and much harder to get into. My observation is that they've now become very much for the children of the parents who have the time, energy and knowledge to fight for them to get in. Parents who don't have that, often end up having a child sink in mainstream until they have no option but intervention or pulling them out.

Also because there aren't the spaces, there is a group of children for whom a special school would benefit, but there's no way they'll get in because there are always going to be worse children than them.

Another issue, which I was astounded to hear from a friend who has a child at a special school, is that children are continuously assessed. If they are deemed to have improved enough for mainstream they can be asked to leave.
Now, if you have a child waiting for a space, that may be great for your child. But just imagine you have one of these vulnerable children. You've fought for their place at the school which is suiting them. It's small and nurturing and they're learning skills at their level. They've friends and know their teachers.
Suddenly they're told that they're being moved to mainstream. They're (probably) going to be thrown into a big comprehensive, where most of the other children have been there at least a year, knowing no one, suddenly finding they're expected to do GCSE.
And, what's more, if they totally flop and clearly need the special school, there won't be a space to come back to.

I am just coming to the end of a fight with the LA to get ds proper 1-1 support (started in April at annual review) with that he will probably just about cope in mainstream for primary as his school is amazing.

For secondary he will need specialist, everyone in his care agrees that. However he also needs the chance to do some GCSEs because at this point we can’t say he won’t be able to and I think he should be capable of humanities at least. Locally none of the special schools offer that though so I either have to fight for expensive (in area) independent specialist or he will have to travel daily to another area where it is offered.

Teacher here and completely agree with Samcro regarding inclusion only works if the support is there otherwise its just exclusion by another name.

My dd is in special school. With a very high level of support she can cope in mainstream, but I don't want her being the class pet, so she is being taught properly, by qualified teachers in specialist provision.
annie we are obviously in different areas, but where I am DS is on the rise amongst younger couples. The main reason here for additional needs is consanguinity, which is a bit of an elephant in the room, so rarely discussed.

My son goes to a special school in my town there are two special primary schools and two special senior schools and one independent will through special school!

David Blunkett closed a bunch when he was Education Secretary. Being blind meant he had personal experience of being excluded from mainstream education simply because of a physical disability and he thought schools should do better than that.

Obviously he was quite right in terms of things like improving wheelchair access and other straightforward adjustments but it has meant that students who cannot cope in mainstream can find it very difficult to get a special school place.

The latest round of free school approvals includes about 30 special schools, so they will be opening more in the next few years.

There are still special schools.
But some have been closed or have less funding and the children who would benefit from being educated in a special school are now lobbed into mainstream schools, whether they're able for it or not.
its all part of a wider cost saving exercise where govt has passed the responsibility of inclusion to mainstream schools, but without the required funding and training given to teachers and other staff.
Inclusion is not working in a significant number of cases and children and families are losing out.
there are a number of children who would be much better off in special schools rather than struggling for years in mainstream schools, where they learn nothing because they cannot cope.
that Baroness Warnock has a lot to answer for.

Oh and there is another special school for children with profound hearing problems and several schools with autism hubs, but I can see why children with physical disabilities absolutely should be taught in a mainstream environment .

There's one in my town. And its thriving. They are self sufficient in some ways, have thier own second hand furniture place and a small animal care unit which links to local mainstream colleges and schools. Its the only one i know of locally though

To summarise the thread....

They didn't. HTH

There are 5 in 5 miles of my home (3 within half a mile!) and plans to open two more.

We have a fantastic one near us. It's rated as outstanding and I believe it's is being used as a case study. Kids come from out of the area to attend it, but it can be really hard to get a place there sadly. There are lots of RP classrooms in mainstream schools as well, the RP class is like a 'base' but the children are intergrated where possible.

Op I'm really intrigued to hear why you thought they had all gone. I can think if at least 6 special schools and three mainstream schools with specialist units within half an hour of my house.

Should say the two new schools will be for those with Social and Emotional Needs who up until now have been educated together with those who have physical disabilities. Having worked in specialist environments, including Special Schools, it’s really frustrating constantly trying to protect children who are paralysed or blind from children who, as part of their diagnosis, are extremely violent and whose needs are mainly social and behavioural. The new schools are much needed. It’s not fair on anyone, students and teachers alike, to lump any child who is “different” in together and expect all their needs can be met.

Also, I agree that whether or not an SEN child copes in mainstreams is down to the school. There are some absolutely fantastic mainstream schools who go out of their way to include SEN children, and some completley shit ones who treat them like a nuisance and then wonder why they aren't coping.

Where did you read this OP?

To summarise the thread....They didn't.HTH

Well, no-lots did close in the late 90s.

There are still special schools around though, hence all the posts of people saying, ‘well, there’s one up the road’.

They are much much harder to get into now than previously though as there are fewer spaces available.

Around here, the main need for alternative provision is for behaviour (which doesn’t actually exist anymore in the 2015 SEN Code of Practice-it’s SEMH) usually high level violent stuff-seriously harming staff and other children-and there are nowhere near enough places.

Very true manic

Ds is often found sitting in the office or with the headteacher when things get too much and he needs some time. He is he official shredder because they know that feeding paper into the shredder calms him! But all done in an inclusive not a patronising way.

In 2010, there were 194 special schools in Scotland with a pupil population of 7680.

As of Dec 2018, that had gone down to 133 schools with 6800 pupils.

It’s dreadful.

I work in one but it's tiny (can only take up to 15 children). We are an independent school.