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

If you work in education and are a woman I hope that you understand you are regarded as a laughing stock by Parliament who refuse to properly fund your work. I say this as a woman who left education work at the end of the academic year July this year. I absolutely loved helping children and supporting their needs whatever they were. But the work we were expected ro do was unsafe and I was not going to be responsible for the inevitable incidents there will be. Never, ever, ever again.

I thin many autistic people would want things to get 'better' - more recognition of their needs, more support, more chance to participate, not to feel they are taking attention away from the rest of the class and so on.

Yes of course @Allofthisisasimulation but complaining about the rate of ASC is just ableism.

Yes, I think at the forefront of every disabled person’s mind- and especially the primary-aged children amongst them- is the desire not to ‘take’ anything from the people who have everything. 🙄

In practice, no, you don't have to send a violent child to a school that can't manage them. Absolutely no one would lambast a parent who put other children's safety first.

We're not talking about children with additional needs here. We're talking specifically about children prone to violence for whatever reason. Because the reasons are irrelevant to the children on the receiving end.

If you’re talking about inclusion you’re taking about disability. If you want to talk about violence start a thread about violence.

I don't blame the children (or their parents for that matter!). I don't agree at all with the idea that parents should keep their children at home if the child is violent or disruptive.

What I would like to see is schools (whether mainstream or specialist) being given the resources to help and support the children in their care. These children deserve so much more than they're currently getting. Sadly I can't see things changing for the better anytime soon.

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.

But it's not the poster placing others at risk of violence form her ds.

It's the LA and crappy government underfunding placing children in unsuitable education placements that cause them to have a crisis and become violent.

No one for one minute suggests teacher and staff or other pupils should put up with it.

I work in special education and even my boss doesn't accept it and will fight for more suitable placements for our pupils.

But often it's the environment that causes the behaviour and not the child's personality. Children don't just wake up and decide that today they will go into school and punch Jonny and bite Mrs Smith.

Until the system works for these children what should they and their parents do when they have an ehcp that states that's the school they have to attend and by law the parents have to send them?

Did you deliberately ignore all the other reasons I gave for things getting 'better' and choose the one you thought would make a good sarcastic reply? Also, I am not really sure what you mean by 'people who have everything' tbh. Nice try.

SEN and violence exist as separate issues, but it would be naive to say that there isn't an overlap.

This needs a major media expose because I suspect unless you work in schools you won’t realise how bad and critical the situation is and is getting worse every year.

Political leaders and captains of industry don’t know because they opt out of it all by sending their kids to private schools. They think cutting budgets and throwing more and more high needs children into overcrowded crumbing schools is perfectly sound ‘for other people’s children’.

No, it isn't.

I responded to the comment I take issue with. I see no reason to include the idea of ‘not taking’ amongst the other very reasonable suggestions unless you also subscribe to the ridiculous viewpoint on this thread that some mysterious cabal of disabled people is somehow running the country for their own nefarious benefit, to the detriment of the poor maligned physically capable, averagely intelligent people.

Well that really added to the chat, moving on.....

Actually most young people with additional support needs that lead to violence do get much less violent as they grow. Just like any other 5 or 6 year olds they learn to better regulate emotions and to express their needs. Perhaps in a different way or a bit slower but in most cases it happens.

I do a lot of statistics on the incidents reported in school and around 60 of incidents are in Y1 and Y2, dropping off after that.

This needs a major media expose because I suspect unless you work in schools you won’t realise how bad and critical the situation is and is getting worse every year

^This 100%.

I'll even go further and say that ALL parents should work together- especially if there are issues wher SEND meeds are not met and as a result in disruption in the classroom.

But that's a long way off.
While people think it's them versus us, nobody has to act.

The LA can get away with doing f* all on an individual basis...
However if a whole community and media would unite...

Sure, but then acknowledge the overlap and apply some critical thinking about the reasons.

Didn’t any of you ever have a toddler who lashed out or bit or squashed something or pinched in a fit a frustration? What did you do? Throw him in the bin and start ttc again? Or try to understand his frustrations, try to teach boundaries, try to resolve the issue? What if your efforts hadn’t worked in a week, or a month? Does he go in the bin then or do you keep trying with him? What about after a year? Is the problem at that stage with the toddler or with your methods? Probably a bit of both. If it’s solved by school age, relief, you’re apparently a good parent. If developmental issues mean it’s going to take a lot longer to solve- what then?

But the non SEN children don’t “ Have everything “
It can’t be a good environment for them to be around aggressive and violent children who are frightening to be around.

There used to be a young pupil with Down’s syndrome in DS’s school-
She was non disruptive and completely gentle.

She caused no one any upset at all, and was accepted by her classmates.

Very different to an aggressive child who hits, spits, hurls chairs, destroys stuff.

Add several with the more behaviour related issues, and it impacts horribly on the others.

Young children ought to be safe in schools, as do the staff.

I left primary teaching because of..

• too much assessment
• too many different needs that cannot be met by one teacher
• too much pressure put on children eg exams
• parents who think they know better

@itsgettingweird

No it is the parents sending their child into the classroom to attack others who are directly placing the others at risk of violence. I agree that the government is also at fault. It's not an either/or.

I'm also not saying it's the child's personality that causes the behaviour. Of course it's a combination of factors including a classroom that's completely unsuitable for them. No one's denying that.

Technically the law says that. But as I keep asking people, has anyone ever been prosecuted for keeping a violent child at home rather than allowing them to hurt other children and teachers? I doubt it. And fear of that is not the only reason why people keep sending a child with violence issues into an unsuitable school. That's been explained.

@Ylvamoon
https://www.change.org/p/reform-the-send-education-in-the-uk

It is being worked on, there are 85,000
signatures here. The more people who sign and raise awareness, the bigger the media coverage will become.

I cannot agree with this more. Violence is where the line should be drawn.

https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245494?fbclid=IwAR2eML0hYgD5f4_j_SAmEiWMgXt0JTMqxi7SJTDUfxzEnwzhm5BrRbLTEi8_aem_AU4RaKVIu8o_ABEHJfuwtk-EOGt3L0nioTgNFiE7Cv83DKdT8_Xgl8uMHGp8mCJ-_Gk

and the Welsh one! I don’t have the Scottish or Irish one unfortunately!

This is the truth unfortunately.