To think they may as well say "don't send children with additional needs back in September"

[drspouse]

The current plan is:
All in bubbles of 30
All in the classroom together
All facing the front (WTF has that got to do with virus protection)
No use of shared spaces except at your rota time and after it's been bleached.
Teachers at the front, 2m away
AND focus on behaviour.

My DS has an EHCP and needs a space to escape to when the classroom gets too much. He's often been using a work space outside the classroom. We just looked round a lovely mainstream primary that has a behaviour base and a nurture base. Oh and a library and an ICT suite that children can access at lunchtime.
His previous school had very little space and the corridor was the library etc.

So how are schools supposed to cater for children who need time out of the classroom to prevent meltdown?
This includes children who are having a hard time at home, can't cope with playground noise etc. Not just those who have a diagnosis of SEN.

And children like my DD who have small group teaching outside the classroom most days - you can't do that with 2m separation and all facing the front even if you can disinfect the break out area.

So I'm guessing nobody really wants a child like my DS in their child's classroom if he's not allowed to go out to his calm down area when he needs to?

Well, I guess I knew the government didn't really want to deal with inconvenient children who don't fit their mould, but this confirms it.

I really feel for teachers, yet another impossible task.

Education should be for all children, accessible to all children, children with additional needs should not be put at a disadvantage in the name of getting schools open.

@BankofNook

Education should be for all children, accessible to all children, children with additional needs should not be put at a disadvantage in the name of getting schools open.

Exactly. It should be as simple as that.

It shouldn’t be leaving the most vulnerable pupils without an education just because it takes a bit more planning to ensure they are safe and catered for.

@JaniceWebster how about balancing it by having the correct provision for all in a safe environment.

Given that the government was able to set up the Nightingale hospitals so quickly and has invested billions into the economy due to covid, it isn't such a stretch that they could support education.

You seem to be taking the "I'm alright Jack" attitude but are missing the bigger picture. Provision could be made to meet all childrens needs but some are just not deemed to be worth the investment. I know my son will likely be ok because my family has the resources and are capable of ensuring he is. Many families aren't.

Where do you think the erosion of rights ends and who will intend with? If you're really secure in thinking you and yours are above all this, you're incredibly lucky. I truly hope you're never proven wrong.

It can’t be as simple as that if the things needed to keep everyone safe cannot be done because of a child’s needs.

the big picture is that most of the year groups are denied an education, a social life and are being severely damaged mentally. They have no right whatsoever, but that doesn't matter?

They have the same right to an education as every other individual child.

The view of some posters seem to be that unless their own child can not be given a full support system, then the whole year group should not be accepted back at school

Literally no one has expressed this view.

Are you missing the fact that NONE of the year group will be given the full support they should get after missing out so many months? It would be better to start with something, than nothing at all

Non-disabled, NT children who do not have SEN do not require the level or type of support required by children who are disabled or who do have SEN.

In an ideal world, obviously all provisions should be met...but is it right to deny everything until that happened? Kids will suffer a lot more if we do that

Making necessary provision to enable children with disabilities and/or SEN to access the education that is theirs by right should not be the stuff of an "ideal world". It should be this world. My children, and others like them, being disadvantaged is not a fair price for education resuming. Their wellbeing should not be sacrificed.

Delaying school openings until all children can get all the advantages they should is NOT acceptable - you end up hurting every single child. That cannot be right.

Support provision for children with disabilities and/or SEN is not an "advantage", it is the removal of disadvantages in order for the child to access education without detriment.

But there could easily be other things done to keep everyone safe: like the government paying for other buildings to be opened up and made safe. Without making teachers work over the summer.

..Delaying school openings until all children can get all the advantages they should..

I don't want ds to have any 'advantages'...his provisions aren't 'advantages' - he and many of his school peers with complex needs will not be able to return to school full stop.

Schools need to re open and education needs to be provided, but it needs to be done safely and all children need to be considered.

Having proper support in school doesn’t give any advantage, it simply helps to give that child the same opportunities as their peers.

You are coming across now like the parent who complained at school that their child didn’t get 1-1 when mine did!

My sons at a special school but I've a feeling because he doesn't understand the new rules they won't allow him back either 😩.
It's been a long three months already so I'm praying he's back in September !
And don't get me started on the ehcp not being follow ( I understand it's got to be relaxed but his may as well be none existent he's basically been forgotten about).

It's this pic. Some kids need the big box to have a chance to match those who need no box or the little box.

Of course if the fence was simply removed in the first place then no one would need any boxes at all.

Now that is ideal world thinking, in case anyone was looking for a definition.

It is perfectly reasonable to expect children with SEN to be catered for in the September planning. It will take resourcefulness by the school and perhaps a different solution to pre-COVID but we all know that schools need time and resources to plan so the government need to do a better job than the "1st June planning" and start now.

This virus has widened the gulf between children. I hope that plans can be put into place for September so the kids at the end needing help can try to catch up.

@JaniceWebster you do realise special needs and disability provision is not an advantage? Would you rather your child was in a wheelchair to have the "advantage" of not having to walk? How about them using an aac device as an "advantage" so they don't have to talk or sing? Maybe a ta to help with personal hygiene or dressing because that has to be an "advantage" to a child at school?! I don't believe you would if so I know many who would change places if it was doable.

You say you want the majority to return, why not all? There are things that could be done so all can return safely, it just requires investment.

I think all parents need to stick together. I have no experience of SEN and schools, but every time the standard of provision is lowered by the govt it is bad for all the kids - because bit by bit it undermines the universal right to a decent education.

All of them should be back, safely - and if the current plan doesn't allow that it is not good enough.

@BankofNook thank you

@Rhubarbpink what things that can't be done are you talking about?

There are things that could be done so all can return safely, it just requires investment.

Yes. Funny how the magic money tree that allowed for an increase in UC rates, furlough pay, Nightingale hospitals, purchase of PPE, testing, vaccine research, etc (and rightly so) has suddenly shrivelled up when it comes to children and education.

All of them should be back, safely - and if the current plan doesn't allow that it is not good enough.

This.

That's not what I'm planning for and not what I've been advised to plan for...I'm an early years teacher...

HTH

As a parent of an SEN child, it isn't that we aren't just getting the educational support, we haven't had appointments at neuro disability, therapy, physio, psychology clinics. Frankly it feels like we have been dumped, we fought to get the right provision & support for our children & now have had the rug pulled from under us & are back at square one. The government have been looking for an excuse to withdraw/reduce SEN support & this is it. We all know how hard it is to actually get an EHCP, let alone find an available place & funding for the right setting, where the EHCP for example says that a child needs a TA & 20 hours of 1:1 time, you are lucky if they get half of that. Yes parents of NT children may find it difficult to get their children used to school as it is now, but for SEN children, it isn't only different, but the things that enable them to learn have been taken away, things that may have taken years of battles to get, just swept away.

You say you want the majority to return, why not all? There are things that could be done so all can return safely, it just requires investment.

No, I said I want ALL to return BUT if it is not possible, MOST returning would be better than NONE.

to the other poster: Non-disabled, NT children who do not have SEN do not require the level or type of support required by children who are disabled or who do have SEN.
No one said they did, but they won't even get the level of support they should have. It might be a lower level needed, but it still is very much needed!

OBVIOUSLY the current plan is not good enough as most of the year groups are completely excluded! Who said that it could be remotely acceptable?

But accepting that things might not be at the top level of expectations to allow everybody to restart should be the reasoning.

You are coming across now like the parent who complained at school that their child didn’t get 1-1 when mine did!

Why, wouldn't you?

That's exactly what the thread is about! You demand what you think/know is best for your own child.

Would you really complain about a child having a 1-1 assistant JaniceWebster?

Education should be for all children, accessible to all children, children with additional needs should not be put at a disadvantage in the name of getting schools open.

Exactly this.

@JaniceWebster education for children is a human right, it is inalienable and not negated by there being budget cuts or a pandemic. SEN kids are as entitled to an education as everyone else. In some ways I envy you that you’ve never had to have the fights and battles that many SEN parents have to access the education to which is their children’s right. My child and the children of others on this thread is no less entered to an education because there need to be measures beyond mainstream provision put in place to access it. It’s not giving SEN children an advantage, it’s simply attempting to mitigate their disadvantage to enable them to access the provision that non SEN kids take for granted.

@JaniceWebster

You are coming across now like the parent who complained at school that their child didn’t get 1-1 when mine did!

Why, wouldn't you?

That's exactly what the thread is about! You demand what you think/know is best for your own child.

Tbf that rather depends in your child. Does your child have sen but you feel school are failing them by refusing a 121 or like I suspect pp means, you just want one cos someone else has one