As a teacher to be surprised at how many in my class have SEN?

[Floatingcactus]

I teach a reception class of 26. 4 of them have an EHCP plan, 6 are waiting assessment and at least another 4 are showing possible signs of SEN including speech delay.

I’ve been teaching for 10 years and I personally believe there is an increase.
I don’t know if lockdown plays a part or whether it’s down to other factors.

Yes I understand this but this thread is about a rise in numbers so that’s irrelevant isn’t it? If you see what I mean. Not ‘why are children with SEN more severe’ or ‘why are children with SEN not doing as well’

No, if anything, LAs are trying to get fewer kids have EHCP as it's expensive.

Children starting school so early isn’t helping.

How could i I have forgotten cost saving measures by shutting down specialist provisions?!!!! Absolutely that as well.

Compared to when? Children have been starting school at age 4 for decades.

Can we all recognise that the arbitrary moving down of curriculum content by two years (with no research behind it other than Gove’s vague memory of his private education days) has had a massive impact on children as they can’t access it unless they are actually really able.

When I started teaching, most of my year 3s were able to grasp the concept of an exclamation mark and question mark and when they should be used. It is now in the year 1 curriculum and the majority of children can barely draw a question mark let alone use one correctly.

Those children then need support. SLT want a reason and that is usually given as a special educational need. I say this as a parent of 2 SEN children and as a teacher of 15 years of all age groups.

It honestly may be just that particular class though- my son was in a class where 4 had allergies, and my everyone was saying what a few are saying above about sn -‘nowadays anything is an allergy’. No other allergies in the rest of the school for a few years

I didn’t mention diagnosis, you don’t need a diagnosis to be classed as having SEN.

Many parents are fighting their LA because their LA are acting unlawfully. There’s also the factor not all with SEN require an EHCP. Reading the legal definition of SEN and the case law surrounding that is how SENDIST decide whether a pupil has SEN.

But as with OP’s class, most kids with SEN don’t have one. So number of EHCPs isn’t really indicative of anything

Well yes that’s exactly my point. “Classing someone as SEN” is not as simple as just reading a definition and then deciding definitely who does and doesn’t have it. That’s not how it works in practice.

Well, legally, anyone who meets the definition does have SEN. LAs and some schools act unlawfully, but that doesn’t change whether a pupil has SEN or not. And it certainly doesn’t mean the bar for what is considered SEN has been lowered, which is what the pp claimed.

@Moonicorn.. Are you talking from any sort of experience? Parent? Teachers? Ta?

How many cases are assessed by SENDIST? The vast majority aren’t.

And even then I’m sure there’s an element of subjectivity given that the assessment is done by human beings. And I know loads of kids whose parents think they have SEN but the school doesn’t, or vice versa. And parents who have had differing views from different medical professionals.

It’s not like you can take a blood test and get a yes/no answer.

@thegreenlight

I've not heard of this.

During lock down I was astonished by the boring grammar dd 7 had to do!

Frontal adverbials!.. So is that what happened?
Literally she was doing work usually given in two years??

It's a very sensitive subject, therefore not talked about much for fear of being thought racist. Speaking only for the area my school is located in, we have had a big increase in Asian families moving into the area and choosing our school because it gets good results. But also a big increase in SEN pupils, 2/3 of whom are Asian and several of whom are from the same extended families.

I think cultural factors such as marrying withint the same family is one reason for the marked increase along with many others such as better recognition of SEN etc.

The fact that schools routinely gatekeep pupils' access to the toilet is what's really shocking. Imagine doing that to adults.

I think teachers also seem to label difficult kids with Sen too.
My second child is very bright (not a brag) and got bored very easily in nursery - year 1 as he already knew most of it. They'd be doing subtraction & adding, and he was already doing 3 times tables at home.
So as a result he would mess about out of pure boredom, the school insisted he had autism like his brother and really forced it onto us to have an assessment.

Qeue starting year 2 and having more harder things to learn, his boredom stopped and he chilled out and the new teacher was baffled why the senco had insisted he had autism as he doesn't show any signs.

So part of it is also lack of understanding from sencos & teachers.

I have to disagree here. SENCO of 12 years + experience . Children with high complex needs are getting turned down for EHCPs now. I’m talking about children who are eg. Non verbal , in nappies and unable to cope in mainstream school classrooms. This is a national scandal. Teachers , TAs and parents are all on their knees trying to get help for their children. But local authorities are starved of money and as always the most vulnerable in society get shafted.
urrrgh that’s put my blood pressure back up for the day!

Much more awareness and diagnosis now, though I know from some fellow parents how difficult the process is and that it does not always lead to adequate support. Looking back on my old school there were only a few with assistance who very clearly had issues. Many others went through primary school with no support, or minimal intervention that was sometimes dismissed by parents who seemed to see any diagnosis as a stigma.

Coming out of lockdown I am surprised by the lack of basic maths and reading skills. They seem to be very strong for some and minimal for others, with less in the middle. I wonder how much some of the online programmes that teach the alphabet as a rhyme, basic maths by rote rather than methodology, are a factor. Thinking of CoComelon versus Fast Phonics. A child may learn the alphabet quickly from CoComelon, but have no idea how the phonics work.

Whether they are assessed by at a school level, the LA or SENDIST the definition is still the same and doesn’t mean the threshold has been lowered as per the pp. And ultimately for all cases it can be decided by SENDIST.

I know loads of kids whose parents think they have SEN but the school doesn’t, or vice versa.

Of course, but that doesn’t change what is classed as SEN or mean the threshold has been lowered. Many parents have LAs &/or schools claiming their DC doesn’t have SEN &/or doesn’t need an EHCP but the parents go on to successfully apply themselves.

I don’t think covid had a massive impact.

Yes it would have had less people diagnosed in that time but a lot of behaviours like anxiety that were due to covid, aren’t SEN.

I work in a secondary SEND school and the amount of parents who try and get their child in to our unit because they think they have SEN is crazy.

They think because their child doesn’t want to go to school and would rather stay at home and play on their PlayStation all day - must mean they have SEN.

What’s worse is there is obviously a lot of SEN in mainstream who for some reason cannot get an EHCP and a place.

We have a boy come to us for an hour a week who has Tourette’s. He really struggles in a mainstream setting and he disrupts the class and the teacher. He absolutely should not be in mainstream.
We also have a few students who could easily be in mainstream and cope well.

We are over subscribed as well as every other unit in our county.
2 new units are being built and the waiting list is already full.

I think we need to save the SEND units for those who really need it and have much smaller classes in mainstream and more TAs so the students individual needs can be met.

It’s not just the U.K.

Here in Italy, a stone’s throw from Codogno, DS (a coach) asked me to come and observe a couple of his practices with his two teams of teeny tinies because he felt something was very off considering how late into the season it is. I came along and he’s not wrong. About 1/3 appear very delayed in on all levels. Another 1/3 somewhat delayed.

They didn’t get the same sort of exposure to unmasked, non-distanced people of all kinds, including their peers, as well as being penned up at home, for a lot of their little lives. They simply can’t do what their age group can typically do in that sport. Which is very basic obviously, because they are so little. As a group they are going to need a couple of extra coach-aides or he’ll be herding cats (well… kittens) for the rest of this season at the very least.

No one gets an EHCP naming a SS or including an ARP if it isn’t necessary.

This. It is harder than ever.
lockdown - massive affects partly parents having to work whilst young children in the house means they didn’t get the same level of child in child interaction. Interaction with other adults etc children learn from all sorts of activities eg cubs and rainbows - they stopped meeting and that has a huge impact.

lack of children in nurseries due to costs, children, Covid, family illness etc

some parents have little or no time or resources to ‘teach’ their children never mind skill sets

my children were very very lucky- both SEN. One had hyper mobility and actually no PE helped her ironically as she could just focus on her physio during PE slots. I had brought all her gcse revision guides, texts, flash cards when she was in year 8 so she got on with them when she had no on line lessons (6months). She’s very bright and academic and working alone or with my support played to her strengths. I asked a languages teacher we were friends with to tutor her online in French and Spanish.

son was at a special speech and language school and it just closed. No work set. No SALT online just nothing - it shut for 6 months. I got hold of the teacher and she provided me with his speech programme and I literally taught myself how to do it. He was year 1, and he did CGP books and salt with me etc 1-2-1 for 4 hours a day 7 days a week. By the time they went back to a school 6 months later instead of being 2 years behind he was 2 months behind. Now he is on track.

many parents didn’t have that luxury that I did of being able to do my work on line, no zoom calls. The kids worked from 7 am until 2 pm with break for lunch etc and then they went out whatever the weather and played in the garden and I did my work online for the next day. We did it same on same every day.

I think as a society we feel we need labels for everything.

In the past few years things like ‘asexual’ and ‘non-binary’ have increased.

The facts are that most asexual people (especially teens) just aren’t interested in dating yet and the non-binary people just don’t fit a gender stereotype which is the same for most of us.

When my DD was little the school classed her as potential SEND and recognised that she may need a bit of help in some areas (like most kids do).
They didn’t push to get a diagnosis or use it as an excuse.

There is no such thing as ‘normal’ and if you did a SEN test you would more than likely have a few of the things that they look for.
But so many people feel like they need a label.

It seems the ones that need it the most don’t get the help and the ones who don’t need as much additional help get it all.