Inclusion policies are not working

[somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull]

I am an experienced teacher. And every year budgets are being cut and more and more children are being chucked into mainstream. Non-verbal, extremely sensitive to noisy kids being put into an overcrowded open plan mainstream school. Some have a little speech but couldn't hold a conversation. Many not toilet trained. Many cannot control their emotions and anger. Some where English isn't a first language. Many with social work involvement and living through ongoing trauma at home.
Meanwhile support staff numbers are being cut, year on year.
I had been managing just about. Spinning many plates. Constantly juggling. But then they enrol another two kids with complex needs into my class on 28 individuals. I just can't do it any more. This week I've been bitten, scratched, hit so hard I thought they had cracked a rib. Violent incident forms all filled in but reality means not much will change as I can't get more that 2 20 minute slots of teaching assistant time each week.
I love my job. I love the kids. I love those lightbulb moments. But at the moment I can't do my job of teaching children. I can barely keep them and myself safe in my class. I try. I'm exhausted. I'm worn out working day and night so that I'm super organised so everything can go smoothly but it never does. If it was just one child having a meltdown I probably coolyld cope. I just do t know which firework will go off when. I don't know what is setting them off and once they go, others follow.
I cry most days at how hopeless it feels. I have some really bright and eager children too. They are also being let down by this system. I'm not sure who the current education policies help. It doesn't seem to help anyone except desensitising children to daily bouts of violence and the language.
I'm very broken tonight. I'm so sleepy but won't help x

It's interesting, and disturbing, how much emphasis you place on your son's intelligence. You've mentioned it numerous times now. And specifically you focus on how much cleverer he is than most of the children that you place at risk of violence from him on a daily basis.

Yes that's what is so appalling about it

Friend's son was waiting for an EHCP when he went from primary to secondary. He absolutely couldn't hack secondary, was having meltdowns, self harming, tried to jump out of the car on the way to school and all sorts, so she stopped sending him.

The school off-rolled him, friend was then told that he couldn't have an EHCP because he wasn't registered at a school.

Indeed his high Iq won’t matter much when his violent to the wrong person as a teen or adult and either gets himself arrested or beaten to a pulp. But hey ho his smart.

I think the phone addiction may have quite a lot to answer for.
I live on a major dog walking route. The people who walk along talking to and interacting with their dogs seem to have well behaved, calm and friendly dogs. The owners who are glued to their phones while the dog either drags at the lead or plants behind them , whose interaction on the walk consists of shouting when the dog misbehaves or even just has the temerity to interrupt their scrolling, have barkers and snarlers.

The trouces them in more ways that that.

This.

That's so true now you say it! What are we going to do about phones. I wonder if the culture around them will be very different in 20 years, maybe we're going through a very difficult phase of them being relatively novel.

The Tories are in charge in England and I'm not proposing that you ship governments over from Europe to replace them (what an argument). I'm not even saying a Left government should be voted in.

What I am saying is they are in charge, they are demonstrably doing a bad job on a lot of fronts (look at the environment, NHS, child poverty). How many fronts do they have to fail at before a political "diatribe" becomes accountability.
They should be held accountable or governments (of any colour) will never respond to these issues as they don't affect voting.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Absolutely!
I’ve mentioned parents not interacting with very young children because of phones in the past on MN.

Eyes down on phone rather than interacting.

Met a trainer of dogs on a walk today and her dog was beautifully behaved.

She mentioned the owners who walk with head buried in phones, not making eye contact with dogs they are walking.

Dogs do check in with their owner visually.
If owner is head down in a phone, that dog won’t be doing the checking in.

Also - I have noticed if children are over the top and frantic- the dog will be, too.

It's interesting, and disturbing, how much emphasis you place on your son's intelligence. You've mentioned it numerous times now

Because he loves to learn, and would go to school at weekends if he could. Because his intelligence will (inshallah) allow him to develop insight into his differences and overcome them to live a normal, happy, productive, independent life. Which any parent wants for their child. DS reads an encyclopedia while other kids play on their Nintendo’s - not a brag, I was the total opposite as a child and an academic slob. It’s part of his autism.

The tone of some posts on here implies that it doesn’t matter whether or not SEN children are educated because they are all violent thugs. This is bullshit.

DS can be violent when dysregulated. This is why he has 1:1 in the classroom. I have repeatedly explained why I have to send him to MS school despite this. I won’t apologise for it, and it won’t change. I would be delighted if the LA changed its position but I don’t accept the blame for its failures.

Unless you have such a child, you can't possibly know what you would do. I had all sorts of ideas about my hypothetical children. My actual disabled children are a complete contrast to everything I previously thought.

Until he seriously injures someone and ends up in court

I imagine a young offender unit won't care how intelligent he is

But obviously ,you're the good* parent 🙄

Good grief, parents have to send their kids to school unless they home educate them, and few parents have the necessary skills to home educate a child without additional needs, let alone a child who requires additional support.

And those who give up work to do that would probably be lambasted for the fact that they weren't providing for their families but relying on the state to do that for them.

The crux of the problem is the appalling lack of provision for children with additional needs.

I think many people confuse send and semh

Not that many send kids are violent ime but semh kids can be incredibly violent and destructive. The huge rise is in kids with semh issues, not send imo

And - at least where I live - a lot of that is not helped by shitty, negligent parenting

I don't know the answer op, but know I'm pretty much despairing too

I imagine a young offender unit won't care how intelligent he is

He’s in Y2. I think I have a few years before I start worrying about borstal. 🙄

But aren't you worried that someone might hit him back, harder?

So he is going to magically get less violent overnight is he? Not going to get bigger and stronger and more dangerous to others no? No encyclopedia is going to help with that but sure fuck it...he is super intelligent, doesn't matter if he is handy with his fists towards others.

Ds lashed out a few times in early years at school, it was in hindsight a sign of unmet needs at the time. Since we have had the right support in place there hasn’t been a single lash out incident in the last 6 years of mainstream education.

if a child feels safe and supported with needs being met then they are a lot less likely to lash out. The problem is we have a system which doesn’t step in to help support children before issues become massive and much harder to resolve.

Wow, just wow on some of the comments on here.

As a parent to a 4 year old diagnosed with ASD and on the pathway for ADHD diagnosis, I 100% agreed that many children with additional needs are not suited to a mainstream school.

My child attended a mainstream pre-school with 1:1, this is because we were VERY lucky and he was put forward for diagnosis and IDP (EHCP equivalent in Wales) by pre-school when he was 2.

When he started pre-school, the local authority REFUSED any extra funding for him, as they believed the school could meet his needs, they could not, and funded a 1:1 from the school budget.

We then applied for a Specialist Provision for starting reception, which was DECLINED as his needs could be met in MS. Myself and the school appealed this decision and won! BUT if we hadn’t, we would have had to enrol him in mainstream whilst we went to tribunal!

This is not an issue caused by the parents, the child, the teachers or the other children, this is an issue caused by lack of funding, where children are set up to fail to prove that they need a specialist placement! This is unfair on everyone involved.

I will say that parents of the SEN children are fighting for a change all the time, just look at the protests and petitions taking place, and if you want anything to change I would strongly recommend that ALL parents and teachers sign these petitions and show support these causes so that change is made!

I run an education centre for kids with trauma who can't sustain school. This is why they end up coming to us with no qualifications. It's so unfair because I've never met a young person yet who I couldn't work with. But that requires staff, flexibility and smaller numbers in a room. The education authorities and tories need to stop prioritising money over actual children and young people.

Both seem to be increasing to be fair. By some measures ASD is now around 1 in 50 and it's not getting better.

There's more than one problem here.

You completely misunderstand - I was calling @Vinvertebrate patronising for telling @toomuchforonewoman to 'step away from the internet' and for trying to minimise someone else's experiences!

I also don't think it's acceptable to a child to continually assault others. When my son was at school there were a couple of SEN and/or violent kids in his class, and it was unacceptable that they were allowed to hit others and throw chairs around, while the rest of the class (and staff) were supposed to not get upset about it at all.

By some measures ASD is now around 1 in 50 and it's not getting better

All the autistic people out there achieving incredible things might object to your use of “better” here, but I think you know that and are just goady.