The government is banking on parents not caring about children or education

[noblegiraffe]

There have been requests on other threads that posters email their MP if they are concerned about what is going on in education and someone asked if there were some links to statistics or stories that posters could use.

I have, over the next few posts, tried to break down the main issues so that parents can pick out bits that they are affected by/concerned about so that they can email their MP in a personal way.

The issues I've written a bit about and put links for are:
Funding
SEN
Mental Health
Poverty
School buildings
Teacher recruitment
Teacher strikes

So you could write a bit about how your kid hasn't had a maths teacher all year and awful recruitment statistics, or how strikes are affecting your child's education and how the DfE are being disingenuous about funding. Or about how you are concerned that school funding at state schools in relation to private schools will put them at a disadvantage. Or how your child's SEN support has been eroded as the school cannot afford teaching assistants.

Or just write your own thing.

The government is relying on education being a low priority for voters, but our children deserve better than this.

If you email your MP, the easiest way to do this is use http://writetothem.com
Ask your MP that your email be forwarded to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education. This means that you will get a response from the DfE.

Thank you for this, it's really helpful.

.

What a fantastic post. Thank you for putting it all in one place.

Another ex Primary Teacher here. Thank you for continuing to spread the message OP. I'm now in Early Years and the situation there is just as dire.

For me everything boils down to proper sen provision because understanding it, will help in every part of school.

We must get proper training for teachers on what sen is, how it presents. So they can can alert properly educated Senco and parents can be armed with real knowledge.
Then the funding comes in.

That's a bit rose-tinted @Makesense12 . Politicians see SEN issues as an irritation, necessary but to be minimised. As any economist would, because students with special educational needs cost so much more than any others, and the majority don't actually, even earning, cover their cost of living. So the responsibilitity goes back to the family, and society can't realistically expect a family to stump up the whole adult cost of life, if they are expected to pay for senior care too. We pay for our children's start in life, via tax. There is a reluctance to fund open ended care needs. TBH, I think that reluctance is sensible. It is too easy to insist that everything needs to be available to everyone regardless of how much, or how little, they have contributed via tax.

There comes a point at which a person has to acknowledge that in reality, the government can't fix everything all the time. Sometimes, it all depends on what the individual can do.

@EffortlessDesmond

Overall the cost to society of people with undiagnosed sen which can be minor to major is enormous.

Remeber the very high levels of illiterate prisoners.

Too many dc leave schools, primary school without being able to read. That cost is enormous. If you look into it you will see low self esteem issues leading to huge costs to society through drug use, violence, crime, mental health and so.

And I didn't mention tax.

I just expect everything possible to be done to make sure children leave primary school with the basics.

Great informative post, thank you

emailing MP

Society doesn't need schools to educate their offspring, it's only due to modern society that we need schools.

It's much more than that unfortunately.

I can 'alert' my senco again and again but the funding doesn't actually appear and when it does it's not enough.

That's if parents want to acknowledge the difficulties their children have - and not all do.

There are so few special school places in our area. There are children in my school who cannot cope with mainstream school. There is months to wait for an EHCP which will more than likely get turned down even though I have spent hours in meetings, filling out forms, completing IEPs and one page profiles and targets, gathering evidence, etc.

It is about SEN you're right but it always comes back ultimately to funding.
Just like the falling down buildings - funding.
Lack of teachers / TAs - funding.

Our children deserve so much more.

I was about to comment on prison education, and then that bombshell falls in. It's only due to modern society that we need schools: which planet did you fall in off @Hawkins003 ? The UK has had schools since the early middle ages. Every generation wants to pass on what it knows. Science stands on the shoulders of giants, etc.

@twinkletoesimnot

I'm amazed if you are a teacher who is aware of how sen presents. In may experience at our school they don't.
Not blaming them BTW!
They don't know.

Sen is a huge range and what's deeply concerning is so many dc just need very mimir adjustments and even they can't be recognised or for filled.

And not all adjustment need funding.

What teachers? We don't have enough teachers, and it's hard to spot SEN and alert a SENCO if the class doesn't have a teacher. That's where we're at.

They may have had them since then. But now with the internet, library's, private tutors, and most could be homeschooled.

Some of the great minds were self taught or family taught, Franklin, Lincoln, etc

🤦‍♀️

Do you remember what happened in lockdown?

I also like the suggestion of hiring private tutors for individual students being a better system than having schools.

Absolutely.

I've had conversations with teachers who are genuinely shocked when I say the behaviour they are seeing is autistic behaviour and part of common difficulties students face.

Which is down to lack of CPD/original training which is down to lack of funding or possibly being too fucking knackered to take in new info.

We live in a modern society.
What’s your point?

I'm assuming Hawkins is entirely self taught, using the family library of course, not having sponged off the state for an education like some commoner.

Our state primary is basically falling apart.

30% staff on long term sick, including head.

Disruptive behaviour in all classes, not helped by a roundabout of supply teachers.

SEN funding for 2 kids in the school; at least 10 more can't cope with the classroom.

No clubs or lunchtime fun.

PTA cash needed for basics not enrichment.

This is a semi affluent area and so lots of parents complaining all the time - the remaining teachers must be so down hearted

Thanks for doing this for us OP

I do agree but it's far wider than this - something is happening to our young people which is causing the mental health problems and exponential rise in sen - yes obviously there's always been some children, I looked up the figures for where I was brought up, in my area there were 2 smallish sen schools, plus residential options for blind, deaf listed, everyone else attended mainstream school and whilst a few definitely had what we now would call adhd, in my school of 150 per year there was no evidence of widespread mental health issues or undiagnosed autism. That's - total population of 300,000 and less than 700 children with Sen (amazing what you can find on the internet) - so why so many more now? It's not just better (over?) diagnosis, what are we doing to our children?

I have an autistic dd, I have another that may well meet the criteria for adhd but it's not something that she needs to explore as she's got her own coping mechanisms, both are also dyslexic. I'm not denying the rise in sen kids I'm asking why! The amount we as a population put into education cannot fund so much specialist education, budget isn't there. My friend who is a head teacher has too theories (a) older parents- combination of more neural pathway disorders which are more common in older parents, and more paranoid parenting as they have waited for this moment and throw everything at it (2) more divorced parents, more parents both working full time. Who knows but the reality is clear more sen kids means education costs more money.