SEN & lack of training for teachers / prospective teachers etc - Should they consider volunteering as a means to access support and training?

[LifeIsFreeStyle]

Hi, It really is my first ever AIBU, so please go easy on me. Not intending the thread as inflammatory - just a genuine question.

There has been lots of debate recently about attitudes and capabilities of schools / school staff towards SEN kids and statements. One aspect of this seems to be a frustration from both parents and teachers at the lack of teacher training available on SEN and disabilities, ASC in particular.

So my question is really, AIBU to suggest that a period of voluntary work with disability organisations might provide the insight and training that will help everyone in the long-run? And by everyone, yes, I do mean everyone including classmates and support staff.

Betsy thanks, I've emailed that to my desk top to read when I'm awake.

Folkgirl that's my experience as well, lots of NQTs with no experience.

I did my PGCE in 1995/6.

Very very very little mention of SEN as it was known then.

DS2 has autism (severe, low functioning). He was born 7 yrs after I trained.

Not fir one second did I contemplate mainstream for him. That wiuld have been utterly ludicrous (and unsafe for him i believe).

I've seriously learnt massively more to help me in working with children with special needs on MN than on my PGCE course. CupOfTea's thread for one was an inspiration, and I even had the honour to meet her at last year's meet-up. A life lived with love is a life worth living - she gave such power and life to those words

I'm on a PGCE which includes 8 days in a 'SEN setting'. To be fair it's a good course and we also do 8 days in EYFS and some days with children with EAL. Still, you can barely scratch the surface in 8 days. I did a degree previously with an entire module on SEN but that only did about 4 in any depth, with a lot of outside reading required.

Also for the record I was certainly not a TA with SEN children before this, neither were most of the people on the course. Don't know where you got that info from.

As a teacher I knew the SN provision at the mainstream school DS2 would get into (as his brother was there) was pityful. It probably defined SEN as not passing the 11plus. I know from my own experience in teaching jn mainstream it is generally very poorly and tokenistically handled.

Nope DS2 was definitely going to a SS.

But with the continued rise in autism diagnosis, it must now be very close to being the most commonly diagnosed disability. A spectrum condition, so not one size fits all, but still possibly the most commonly encountered SEN. So surely, training in this condition should be sought or provided by the professionals involved. If this training isn't offered then do we take the view that the teacher must consider themselves only part-trained? (Again, not intended as inflammatory but with full sympathy for the teaching staff and for the families involved).

It's a frustration in the impotence felt all round which seems to be caused by a lack of formal support. So my original post asks the question: If formal training isn't offered by the employer, then would/should teachers seek their own sources of training, support, experience... And should this be done on a regular basis throughout their career in order to keep abreast of current thought and information?

No because it is too important to be left to individuals to seek out. We've all had times in our careers when we're energised and able to seek out extra inputs in our own time. We've all equally had times when we're not. It's too important for our children to be left to chance. You can't force anyone to do stuff on their own time/initiative.

SEN training should be funded, supported and mandatory. That's what INSET days are for.

but still possibly the most commonly encountered SEN

I don't think so. I can think of a handful of pupils I've taught who have been formally diagnosed with ASD, a few more who exhibit traits, but not really that many over all. Dyslexia seems more common, poor literacy even more so.

Actually I don't think INSET days are enough either.

I'd like to see good practice regularly modelled by trained experts coming in to in the classroom.

The training should be ongoing and child-specific.

Yes tethers that too. But inset days could be used to deliver more generalist training which would cover the entire teaching population.

I'd rather save the INSET days for keeping up with the latest barking government initiatives

I suppose it's the only fun teachers get. I imagine insets as a sort of Monty Pythonesque Ministry of Silly Gove session

IME, it's a lot of:

"You remember the way you used to do things? They way we told you stop doing because it was detrimental to children's learning? Well, you need to do that now. Because it isn't any more. Turns out that stuff we told you to do last September, that was detrimental to children's learning. Here's a four hour PowerPoint presentation to show you how to do the stuff you were doing before. Don't worry, I'll read out every slide."

Oh tethers, how very true.
I often feel that a Men in Black mindwipe at the beginning of every year would be a positive advantage.

I spent 12 years working in SN schools. I looked at applying for teacher training and was advised to get experience in 'an educational setting rather than a Special school' they may have meant NC experience or similar but it made me cross that they didn't class Special school as education.
The course was supposed to have a SN bias hence me looking at it.
After listening to the tutors attitude I left and didn't apply.

Tethers - I'm laughing at your post but actually it must make you rage!

That is why I am always very careful on these threads because whilst the SENCo at my sons school did let him down, apart from her I'm not sure what else the teachers should have done. Other than invent a cure to find missing bits of chromosomes !

Tethers so friggin true!!

Have never used powerpoint in my lessons. Awful awful awful!

There was a political party in Switzerland seeking a ban on PowerPoint. I can feel my life force draining away when I see it used in so many meetings.

DS school suggests powerpoint as a tool for DCs to give presentations on their project work. Over my dead body. He's got the rest of his life to want to stick rusty pins in his eyes.

Reading this thread makes me remember why I don't feel "inclusion" really works. It was never really planned out properly, little money given towards it and the speed at which Ruth Kelly closed supportive special schools was alarming (especially as she was able to educate her own SN son privately, whilst closing down the state funded school she lived near in
Wapping!). It is definitely true that this needs to be dealt with differently at primary than in secondary (seeing a specific child all day ever day or seeing them for 1 hour a fortnight needs considering) as training needs are different. However, I fear that a blanket training will be just as damaging as it will just be another "box to tick off" and the next initiative brought in. Money needs to be there as and when it is needed and should be child specific. That is why it will probably never happen truly efficiently, as there is simply 'just too much to do and too many children' to really make a meaningful difference.

You see I think the expertise should be in or accessible to schools already, so that when a child joins with a particular set of needs, the strategies are available and ready to go.

I don't think that operating reactively is best practice- training should not be in response to need, because all too often the child is left to flounder whilst (sub-standard) training is acquired. Instead, schools should contain experts who have studied a range of conditions in depth, are aware of research and strategies and fine-tune these in accordance with the needs the child presents with.

Many parents of children with SN have become used to explaining to schools how to help their child learn. This is not how it should be. Yes, a discourse should be opened, but parents should not have to take responsibility for this. Besides, not every parent can; some may even welcome guidance from school in effective strategies to use at home with their child.

Ah, but I can hear the 'powers that be' argue tethersend, that to spend money on resources where you cannot guarantee you will even have a child with those needs, is not justifiable. I agree with you, I have just heard too many management meetings go this way. That and the fact Academies work independently, makes this even harder.

I haven't had time to read all of this thread but I have a 6 year old son with ASD. He has just moved to SS after two years in MS. The difference to our home life is huge and we are only 4 weeks in. I have very strong views about how things should be in ms but I also had to come to terms with how things are hence the move.