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

@Bekind2all Thank you!

Fingers crossed 🤞

I agree that no males would put up with these unsafe and appalling working environments.

When did violence become a “ Disability?”
in which case, let’s excuse all violence, the poor person can’t help themselves, they have no agency or choice in the matter..

Very few workplaces would put up with this kind of disruptive , potentially harmful behaviour.

There has to be a reason for the massive uptick in behavioural issues in children.

When the TA I knew was seriously injured by a violent pupil I don’t think she sued- she is no longer alive though.

Expecting people without protection against bites, spit, and blows while working with violent children is wrong.

But this is what female staff are expected to do.

Few men would agree to such dire working conditions.

This is absolutely my experience as the parent of an older child with SEN and from my network of SEN parent friends

But many SEND children are more than capable of following a normal curriculum or parts of it with specific interests.

They could even have a job in the future, or be highly specialised in a niche industry.

What they struggle with is noisy classrooms, busy playgrounds and social cues.
So with the current system, we will never find out.

School nursery Leader here. We have so many complex needs children, that all of the three members of staff end up simply trying to keep these children safe from harm (climbing, escaping over gates, biting, hitting, eating non edible objects etc). This leaves the rest of the class to their own devices. We aren't helping the children with SEN as we are just crowd controlling. We certainly aren't teaching the rest of the class either, many of whom are already disadvantaged. Ofsted due any day. I am ashamed of what they will see but simply have no power to do anything else. 20 years early years experience and I feel the whole system is broken. Oh, and while one adult is changing 10 nappies in a row, that leaves just two adults to crowd control 😭.

From the Guardian Article linked to on P2
In June 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) signed a £19.5m contract with consultancy firm Newton Europe to design and develop the DBV programme.

Can you imagine the impact that £19.5million could have on the support for dc across a Local Authority (or even shared between several) ?

Firstly I'm not just talking about SEN children. But secondly, helping them with noisy, busy classrooms (and worlds) and social cues requires skilled and trained adults in low care ratios over an extended period of time. Of course the cost varies hugely depending on the individual child. I'm talking about the rate of increase in the proportion of children who need extra care and the overall impact of that.

@womanone Yes to all of that.

The people who are claiming that this entire problem is about money are wrong. There's a deeply twisted ideology behind this.

But many SEND children are more than capable of following a normal curriculum

Yes they can but they are highly affected the bad behaviour of others. The flare ups, lack of respect, the noise, TAs time taken up by fights breaking out, children not listening.

If they had specialist provision for children with behaviour problems - then mainstream would work better for everyone there.

Nobody is saying children shouldn’t be considered for mainstream, the issue is there is no space for specialist schools that would help all children. Quiet schools for ASD would be so much better, as an example.

I do worry that those worh SEN children think mainstream is a good thing for them, maybe it’s brainwashing …. Who knows … not the state school system is awful for teaching staff, awful for most bright children, awful for SEN who’s needs can’t be met and worse for those in the middle who her nothing.

What's your theory on why it's become so much worse?

@sofia31 That sounds dreadful.

There has to be a reason for such a deterioration in young children’s behaviour- Not to mention lack of basic toilet training in such high numbers… and non verbal as well.

Something fundamental is happening ( or not happening) to be causing such a significant and concerning change in basic behaviours.

We're going backwards. Privately educated DC will do just fine in work thanks. It's everyone else's who will be fucked.

You do realize that not all dc with SEN are aggressive, violent, in nappies, PEG fed or in wheelchairs?
Of course we do, but this thread is about those who do have those needs.

And you really can't see why inclusion helps anyone? God forbid your dc might be exposed to a child with Downs syndrome or dyslexia 😵

Those aren't the dc we are talking about. We are talking about the children whose behaviour is so challenging - in many cases due to the fact they can't cope with being in close proximity with 29 other dc, so their anxiety is through the roof.

I'm personally shocked by the OP. I have one dc who is severely disabled and another with ASD and I have been in parent support groups for many years. I have never, ever heard of children with such significant needs not having a full time 1:1.

Well I am delighted for you - genuinely - to hear that is your experience. However, that is not the experience of families in my LA. It is incredibly rare for a dc to get 1:1 support. There are also many dc we deal with that need more than 1:1 support.

Even then, that is just to 'manage' them, and keep them (and other children) safe. They aren't learning anything in a classroom with 29 other children that the poor teacher is trying to also support and educate.
Frequently we will have one child who constantly cries out - mixture of a high pitched hum and then regular squeals and screams. But the school staff are - at the same time - trying to support a different child who is completely unable to cope with loud noises. Or furniture being thrown at them. It isn't just a case of getting a body to be alongside them 1:1.

I wish I knew. The sheer quantity of needs means typically developing children are also in the minority. We get so excited when a 2 year arrives and can talk and play! Very disadvantaged area. We are teaching the very basics such as how to build a tower with a few blocks. Many children will do anything but build the blocks eg throw them, put them in the bin, bash someone over the head with them or eat them. Children do not know how to use toys and everything gets broken. Dummies are plugged in as soon as they leave the door. Screens also feature highly.

We try and do toilet training but they are often put back in nappies at home. 15 hours a week isn't enough to close the gap unfortunately. We sit down to play and model sharing, language and whatever learning opportunity arises, but seconds later have to jump up to rescue a child in danger. Meanwhile the child we were trying to teach wanders off, back into the chaos and the moment is lost. Never have we felt so inadequate. This is despite numerous successful ofsteds in previous settings. We know how to teach but simply don't have the man power to reach every child. And the government think we can throw extra 2 year year olds into this dreadful state of education by raising the ratios. (I will quit rather than take on more 2 year olds we can't keep safe.) Great way to reduce the desperately low number of EY staff!!

SLT just tell us there is no money, which is true, but if they could just invest in EY, we would address so many problems early on, rather than trying to fix them later. We have lovely advisors coming in for more complex needs. They give a really useful plan that makes a lot of sense. But we simply can't carry put the actions in place as we are too busy fire fighting.

There is no functioning service to access toileting support for parents. The only people who have ever actually offered us help with DS have been the Eric charity. As a parent I needed to research to find out they existed. Every GP/HV/school nurse just looked baffled nothing from their textbooks worked (and God forbid a suggestion of further investigation..).

With non-verbal kids, they've always been around. With my SEN job hat on, we are having a real issue with specialist places for the younger years here. There is very few nurseries who will take SEN toddlers. There is also a big bulge of kids in the year 3-6 age groups at specialists. This has knocked on to no places for the current year Rs and 1s. We have children who should be in year 1 who have still not been given a specialist school place. It was agreed before they were due to start year R they needed specialist. These parents didn't start them in a mainstream as they had no idea that 16 months later there is still no sign of a place. We've just warned one family that we are hearing There are no places in the pipeline for Sept 2024 yet. Parents can keep them home for 2 years with zero support and respite or they can send them to mainstream. Even being babysat and cared for at least provides some respite.

@sofia31 Well that's horrifying! If this continues I think a lot of parents of normally developing children are going to end up having to homeschool if they can at all.

Unfortunately most parents have no idea what happens all day, they think we are all having a lovely time! We can't explain about the needs in the class, so plaster on a smile each morning and hope that no one gets too badly hurt today.

Really angry that my post describing how my ds being violently assaulted at school by violent pupils was ignored and not taken seriously by the school has been deleted - bad enough that the school did sweet FA to keep him and the other kids in his year safe (and he was traumatised by this for years, don't think he will ever fully 'recover') - but now MN deleting it feels like I'm not even allowed to talk about it now, years after the event.

Why? Why aren't I allowed to say that violence in society, especially when directed against children, is wrong and unacceptable??

As I said in my post, this is not about criticising children with disabilities - my ds himself is almost certainly not NT and I am also disabled. This is about saying that there needs to be zero tolerance in schools for violence.

I cannot believe that this is a radical position.

Why can't you explain? Protecting the privacy of the children with problems I suppose? Well, parents will find out eventually as this cohort grows up and the kids are old enough to report home what's going on.

I'm fighting to get a 1-1 for my autistic son who has a little speech and follows instructions and schedules. Because he doesn't lash out his needs aren't seen high enough to get more help so is left behind. It's terribly frustrating.

In his case, it was made worse by the fact that the teachers victim-blamed and lied about what happened.

In most cases, though, as in the OP, the teachers are as much the victims of this kind of violence as the children are.

And equally have a right to safety at work, which they are not getting.

Tolerance of this kind of violence helps almost no-one. 😡

Can you email them and ask why they deleted it? I don't remember seeing anything in it that breached their ridiculous standards?

Thanks for showing what is going on.

This HAS to be on large part down to poor or lazy parenting.

Dummies as plugs, screens and nappies.

Lack of knowing how to play constructively- fundamental lack of adult interaction by parents.

It sounds so deeply depressing.

Why do people have children if they aren’t going to invest time and effort into them?

Children aren’t compulsory.

Reading with them, actual books from the library- or bought cheaply - some homes have no books in them at all.

How are children meant to learn to speak if no one speaks with them?

Children learn dexterity by handling bricks , and a simple tower is not a difficult concept
Large bricks at the base, smaller at the top- or those posting toys where diff et shapes fit into correspondingly shaped holes.

Babies and toddlers love those- but they need an adult to show them and to encourage and praise.

Having children isn’t something one should do if the resulting children are just basically ignored.

Plug dummy in mouth, screen in hands, nappy on.

It must be so frustrating to witness such lack of engagement with children.

Well done for what you are trying to do, to make these children’s lives a little better.

Glad it wasn't just me who thought this.

I can't see any email from MN explaining why it was deleted. Maybe because I stated the violent bullies were autistic, in this case? But that is just the truth in this particular case - ds himself may well be autistic too (pretty much all his friends are) and nowhere did I suggest all autistic kids are violent or anything that is negative about disabled kids in general (as I said, I am disabled myself).

But no child, whether they have autism/disabilities etc or whether they don't, should be allowed to get away with assaulting other pupils.

We don't let adults get away with assaulting people because they have disabilities, and we shouldn't let children do it either. Children who attack other children should be removed from that space. Other children have a right to be safe at school.