what the feck are we to do about he lack of specialist schools?

[mercurymaze]

in the news this week so many kids without places and mainstream school can't cope.

any suggestions apart from the bleeding obvious?

Some more special free schools have just been approved, but nowhere near enough to solve the problem.

Labour shouldn’t have closed them down in the first place.

Mainstream schools should have enough specialist staff and the facilities to actually include more children. Training and staffing etc all costs money though.

I tell you what they do send them to mainstream school pretending all is ok. Nobody willing to admit the sn or issues schools are told to just do it child then has to fail and pretty badly before even support for mainstream is considered never mind a special needs school all the while blaming the parents.

What does that 'include more children' look like though? If certain kids need specialist provision, and can't be in mainstream classes or cope in social settings etc, you just get separate, segregated "inclusion units" in the grounds of a mainstream school. How is that different from a separate special school?

Even before the funding cuts inclusion was not working. More specialist school in behaviour and more schools for children academically able but unable to cope socially in mainstream and not units attached to school that makes children feel like they are in a fish bowl.

I wish my son had a specialist school. He gets bruised and hurt at the crap fake Grammar school he's at.

kendal. That's appalling.

The current policy of inclusion is just educational austerity in emperor’s clothing.

It’s nothing to do with actual inclusion.

The reason why the problem is so bad currently is definitely in part to do with the severe funding cuts for mainstream schools. Enough TAs and specialist staff can make a huge difference to the ability of children with SEN to cope.

It is a huge problem though, 4,000 kids waiting for a place - not including the numbers of children whose parents end up giving up and home schooling.

Another major problem that isn’t being dealt with and waiting until crisis point. Along with increase in elderly, increase in people with mental health and so on.
The people holding the purse strings need to sort this out instead of just saying “cutbacks”.
Parents with children with SN have a terrible time of it, all the respite services have been cut, specialist schools have been cut, funding to mainstream for specialist staff have been cut, break time provisions have been cut, school transport has been cut, local healthcare units have been cut. The list is endless.
I’m a specialist TA, there are literally no jobs out there. I have one in the private school sector (gov funded), with SN parents turning up on the doorstep daily desperate for a placement it’s awful.

The idea of presumption of mainstreaming was flawed from the beginning. It assumed that all children could attend and would do well within a mainstream environment. It failed to look at, let alone address the specialist skills needed to work, teach and support many of our children. Adapted curriculums and environments are only the surface. Worst of all however it failed to think about the social and emotional impact on the children, the most important people all this. Specialist departments in mainstream are perfect for some children as are nurture centres or learning support bases. But many children need specialist provision in small schools to meet their needs and to allow for life skills to be developed alongside academic learning. We need to review the place of special schools across the UK and recognise their importance within and to communities. Stop closing and start finding properly. Presumption of mainstreaming just allowed for budget cuts and undermining of the service.

I know and he's no idea what is going on the whole flippin day. I begged for a specialist place and they gave me no choice at all.

He's now got a serious nervous tic of playing with his hands 5 times then 7. I'm worried he may be suicidal. His HOY is horrible. He doesn't talk to anyone all day

One day kids in his class took and hid his shoes. He got them back.

Another day kids put his backpack in the bin because they wrongly thought he'd done it to another lass. Patrick retrieved it.

He fell badly in PE and was left screaming in pain for an day. School didn't call me He has a high threshold so to feel pain was unusual. He couldn't get himself dressed. Patrick helped him to get dressed.

Patrick is a 12 year old lad and he's kinder than the sodding useless staff. Sorry. I'm fed up and that's not your fault.

[MNHQ have Edited names out of this post to protect OP's privacy]

It makes me very angry - we are failing children and their families. Getting the right support in ats early as possible is the best way to help these children. The support can be in a mainstream school or it can be in a specialist school but I see so few specialist schools where I live.. Mainstream schools often aren’t able to provide the support - they don’t have the funding, the training, the staff or often the facilities. The buildings or site just aren’t safe enough.

There needs to be more special schools built by local authorities. DS is autistic and goes to a special autism school run by a private company, out of borough - he needs the consistency of the waking day curriculum so he has to go to a residential school. I had a real legal battle getting him the right school because my council wanted to send him to an EBD school, which would have been totally inappropriate. But many of the other pupils go to his school because it's the nearest suitable autism-specific school, although they don't specifically need a residential placement, they get it because the journey is too long (70 miles away - some pupils live even further, e.g. a 5 hour drive) for daily attendance. It costs over £140k a year for a single pupil to attend, so local authorities could be saving huge amounts of money if they opened more specialist day schools that were close enough for pupils to attend on a daily basis.

DS would never have been able to attend mainstream school. He had/has very challenging behaviour and was turned down by all the mainstream schools in our county as it was so extreme. They just don't have the expertise or the environment to cope with complex and severe needs. Luckily thanks to all the specialist input at his current school, he's very calm these days and rarely shows any signs of challenging behaviours or any of the severe MH symptoms he exhibited in mainstream.

What does that 'include more children' look like though? If certain kids need specialist provision, and can't be in mainstream classes or cope in social settings etc, you just get separate, segregated "inclusion units" in the grounds of a mainstream school. How is that different from a separate special school?

One difference is that it's cheaper than a separate special school. Only one teacher (to run the unit) because the class teachers are in charge of the pupils' learning, even if they aren't accessing it. TAs aren't specialists, so are paid ordinary TA rates. SALT once a week, if you're lucky, OT once term. Unit isn't funded like special school.

Another difference is that it's not purpose-built, so the space used may not be fit for purpose.

I know an autistic, noise-intolerant child who fears people coming up behind him - his safe space, study space and breakout 'room' is a corner in a wide internal corridor outside his classroom. He spends virtually his entire day in this area, with his unqualified TA 1-1s (job-share), who do their best to support him and teach him.

In the meantime, children who almost cope in mainstream are left to struggle and fall behind because they aren't getting the support they need, whereas children who could do well in a special school aren't getting anywhere in mainstream because it's totally unsuitable for them.

KendalMintCakey your posts are heart breaking

Sorry gothic my post was unclear. I fully agree with you - an inclusion unit isn't nearly as good as a specialist school. I meant more something like "how is that inclusion?". As in, people advocate for inclusion but in reality the kids are still segregated - so it's not achieving inclusion and it's not benefiting the pupils who need highly specialised provision. It does benefit the budget though, hooray!

I'm entirely unconvinced by the inclusion ethos. I think it's a flawed idea that is adhered to primarily for monetary reasons. Often ineffectual, often downright cruel.

You find thebschool demographic a huge challenge and only those needing 'the most' support take up the TAs time if the teacher is lucky enough to get it.

Those children who are none violent, but struggle in class for a number of reasons - get nothing.

Even if they are entitled to it

We need more parents shouting loudly for there kids and not be worried about being that parent

I have seen parents sit in the HT office and shout loudest to get the suppprt their child should have already - without question

I know parent shave it hard, but schools hands are also tied.

My son has self-segregated for three years now. He is a lucky one though and has a place secured in specialist provision from September.

It’s shambolic all over the country, but so few people outside the community care.

my now adult child is severely disabled.
we were "lucky" as we were the last family that got a sn school place out of area.
now due to cuts, no one gets into that school, its deemed too expensive.

sn schools in the area have closed.
thease days my dc would either be in MS (fuck that) or a not appropriate
sn school. cheers to the goverment.

From a personal perspective, so called experts need to stop assuming that Deaf children are better off in mainstream education despite the fact they cannot access it. One size does not fit all and Deaf children fail because they get an implant and shoved into an unaccomodating system.

ooh and adult dc is now in a "home" that is run by a charity as there is nothing run by anyone else.

Local deaf girl here get 1 hour twice a week in the morning. Her TA skips between schools for other children

It's not great is it?