My God this story about the class photograph is appalling!

[Needsomebloodyperspective]

Link here.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce5epgp2zdno

Parents given the option to have disabled children removed from their photograph.

Who on Gods green earth thought that was a good idea?!

I was at the centre of a literacy Ofsted in 2009 and we completely reshaped the day so I could be observed teaching key Year 9 classes and undertake a literacy learning walk with the Inspectors. It’s been a thing for a while.

I thought the same. I was not surprised at all. Disappointed but not surprised. Exclusion happens in many and a variety of ways for those of us with disabled kids. Some big mostly just a daily drip drip drip.

I think my last one was around 2017/18. And we didn't have to reshape anything. But we were a big special school, so I think it was easy for them to get the information for the targeted subject because there would always be someone (or more than one teacher) teaching it.

But yes, I need to remember that time has gone by, when I'm tempted to opine about what happens in schools!

Jesus christ! What?!? What dis you do and say to that?

The way I read it, the company had already taken a class photo before the group of pupils with complex needs were brought in, so ended up having to take 2 sets of photos. They then offered parents a choice of which of the 2 sets they wanted. Still inappropriate, but perhaps a little less damning than other interpretations.

Nope. They took a photo with all of them first

Omg ive just read that the child who uses the wheelchair who was erased from the picture has a twin sister in the class who was devestated by it

A colleague who recently got married invited her friend's daughter with Down's Syndrome to be one of the bridesmaids. She made sure that the girl was right in the centre of the photos and she absolutely loved it. When one of the bride's social media 'friends' saw the photos and commented that it was a pity that not all the bridesmaids looked perfect, the bride said "Oh yes but they did."

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/education/schools/6416188/aboyne-mum-shock-asn-child-removed-from-class-photo/

link to article with comments by the parents, appears to be no excuse

Not the school but classmates told me off for showing my gappy teeth!! At the age when you have teeth missing! Didn't give a shit but of course it is nothing like you are all talking about. Bloody horrible.

I have been out . Apologies, I sent her in. I said I wasn’t taking a day of annual leave just to make the school look better.

But this is also a school who ignored all my attempts to get help for her, we were on free school meals at the time and only when I pointed out she had funding would they help me. When it looked like she was going to fail her sats (which she did) they pulled me in to tell me to tell her to take it seriously.

i won’t print my reply.

I think that’s fairly common actually. It used to come up on the snboards fairly regularly. So many small hurts. It is a difficult part of it all.

yes it's all the small hurts. I call it endless 'micro griefs'. The micro grief when you see that your child can't do what others do. When you are at soft play and the other children have shoes with shoelaces that they can tie and yours can't. When you go to sports day and your child can't even figure out how to hold the discus never mind throw it. When 6 boys are invited to a 14th birthday party and the mother says that yours can't come because they are going to Hollywood bowl and your child will freak out at the lights. When your child is getting rave reviews from his teachers - but still ends up in Set 5 for every single class because they are so much behind. When you post a pic of your child from when he was aged 4 with his favourite Elsa doll because it came up on facebook memories and someone comments with 'How could you not have twigged he was autistic even then??' with a laughing emoji. When your Year 6 child's teacher tells you the fact they can't swim isn't due to dyspraxia but due to lazy parenting. When you sit with your child watching Mrs Doubtfire and although they are 14 they can't actually follow the plot. *

The micro griefs. When they are excluded. Belittled. Disregarded. Made to feel like a burden. Made to feel like a joke. Made to feel like their lives don't matter.

*And when he did throw the discus and it landed about a foot away his whole class cheered and clapped him on the back making me cry because it was so lovely

**All real life examples and only the tip of it.

I cant figure how i bolded a whole bit of that and can't seem to edit it out!

It's these "*"

Death by a thousand paper cuts. Many small and huge joys too, but the small hurts can be overwhelming. Nobody needs to be editing us out of photos, we can all say “no” to that.

Also, the whole school staff are on edge when Ofsted come a knocking so kids pick up on that too. Can be unnerving for them.

I thought it was because one photo was taken before the SEN children arrived, they then took the second photo but parents had the option of both.
At my school we have SEN children who get upset about class photos, they don’t like the standing still and posing. They have run out of the group before the photo was taken and refused to go back. Not being sure if the child would tolerate standing still for the photo, the photographer has taken photos without the child in. Sometimes we were later able to get a photo with them in, sometimes not. I wonder if this was the situation here and the photographer offered both for some reason eg blurred photo of child unable to stay still and pose or child

That's equally as bad if not worse.
Nobody gets to decide whether a classmate is worthy of being part of their class photo.

The world is full of cunts.

When we had inspectors (Scottish not OFSTED) all the SEN pupils were taken out of their usual classes and put together in a faraway room with a teacher and a couple of PSAs for the duration of the visit.

In my opinion only one option should be sent, the one that has every available and willing child in the photo.
It makes me sick to think parents have a choice to buy a photo without SEND children on it despite them being part of the class.

Tempest are the principal, though, so they should be checking what is sent to parents. When I have bought class photos from Tempest, there has been just one photo offered, not a choice.