Working and SEN children

[Merryoldgoat]

I’m now rounding on week 3 of illness in my house and owing to kids’ SEN getting into work is near impossible. I fear goodwill is running out.

So a quick poll

YABU - I work full time or near enough with SEN children

YANBU - working with children with SEN is not possible for me

Fragile is exactly what it is. I often feel like I’m walking on a tightrope… one foot wrong and everything goes wrong but when everything is balanced and working it’s ok. You just never know when the next slip is coming and chaos ensues.

Thinks also my situation exactly. I have two send children.

I am a single parent and can’t work full time due to SEN teenager (she’s only in college 4 days a week), no help from ex. I am self employed and cover peoples holidays doing care work so I can kind of pick and chose when I work. At the moment I’m working one day a week. I would love to be able to work more but it’s just impossible when dd needs 24 hours care when at home and is only in college from 9-3pm 4 days a week with longer school holidays 😬.

the pressure some of you are under is just awful. I actually feel really lucky as mine are very happy at school. They’re just I’ll so much.

Thank god for my manager who basically told me to do what I needed as he doesn’t want to lose me. It won’t work forever but until it does it’s an amazing thing to have.

Mine is currently happy at school but I fear that both the happiness and the school itself are not sustainable long term. It's a 10-16 SEMH school and he's both way more academic and way less worldly wise than the other children. This means he's in with teenagers who swear, harass him and the other children (especially the girls and the female teachers) and don't understand things he easily grasps. He's currently being pushed towards lowest common denominator work (e.g. Maths he did in Y3 when he's in Y6) and I fear that when the few young-at-heart children like him grow older, he won't be happy wtih them any more either.