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

Oh you know what @Pollyputhekettleon I think you’ve convinced me. ‘Children with problems’ don’t need privacy or protection. Let’s just put it all out in the open. Let’s have a witch hunt. Expose the terrible children and their terrible parents. Maybe we could bring back burning or drowning too?

Or maybe we could have compassion for very small children who are being utterly let down by society, and for their parents who are being equally let down. Maybe we could stop blaming them and remember that it is nothing but luck that separates those with disabilities from those without.

There has been a shift too in culture, that being nd means you can behave however and not modify in any way. Like calling everything ableism or bad, various therapies that try to help people who are nd meet societies norms halfway are considered abusive now.

Only for kids mind, once an adult you should magically fit in to society or be punished. Like the woman with a cane who was nearly knocked over by the cyclist and vilified.

Thousands of children with SEN thrive in mainstream and are well supported. Thousands more may have diagnoses but don't require further support as they are managing just fine.

I think some posters don't appear to realise that SEN covers a huge range. Many SEN children are highly intelligent and special schools with their restricted curriculum and access to GCSEs etc.simply aren't suitable. Why should these kids lose out and not be able to fulfil their potential?

💯 both of you are absolutely correct. They rely on women to “be kind” and tolerate this. The teachers need to not stand for it. My CV was on indeed many years ago when I’d relocated back to the UK and desperately needed work.

I’d included that I had worked with kids in PRUs and Looked After children. Some recruiter got the wrong idea because they rang me asking if I wanted a job supervising kids. When I asked more questions it appeared the (teenage) kids “might hit you”.

It was said very flippantly as well and it clearly wasn’t a case of “might “ they definitely would have. As desperate as I was for a job I just said no and I’m glad I maintained that stance as I believe it would have left lasting trauma.

That's the root cause of the problem.

Keeping violent children's privacy- I was told not to share the cause of DS's injury with other parents at school.

They obviously wanted to protect the violent child & their family more than all the other children in the classroom.

And while we protect these children and deal with it one incident at the time, nothing gets done.

Because child X hurts child A today and children B & C tomorrow. On paper you can say it's 3 separate incidents. You can take it even further and say child A was the instigator, then cild B, ....

@womanone I hear you loud and clearly!

I mean, clearly mistakes were made when witch burning ended. They spoiled all our fun!!! 🤣. I won't be responding to you further.

I haven't read every post, I don't think my blood pressure could take it.

I'd like to ask the school staff and ex school staff if they openly say in annual reviews or in reports that x child has communication needs and requires slt input or more slt training for staff to support child (same for ot or pt) admit maybe in writing that they can't meet their academic needs, point out that they don't have a peer group etc. Wrote the provision that x child needs with detail, specificity and quantified.

If more teachers did this and supported parents to get the provision their child needs in a legally enforceable way, it would be significantly easier for parents and schools to access higher levels of funding or move their child from mainstream to special.

I suspect many mainstream teachers don't understand either how the ehcp process works or that the la not the school is responsible for the provision. I also suspect there may be pressure to not do this from LA's but that being the case your making the rod for your own back.

My ds has severe needs and thrived in ms where he was fully supported with additional budgets for inde therapy, aid, laptops, ipads, software, 1:1 and 2:1 support. He is now in an expensive inde secondary school, won via appeal to tribunal.

I think some posters don't appear to realise that SEN covers a huge range. Many SEN children are highly intelligent and special schools with their restricted curriculum and access to GCSEs etc.simply aren't suitable. Why should these kids lose out and not be able to fulfil their potential?

But that's the issue isn't it. Some SEN pupils can and should be in mainstream but there are many that shouldn't.

She was reacting to a poster who was careless in her wording but whose meaning should have been clear from the context.

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.

My SIL was a primary teacher, and she liked working in deprived areas. She said children came to school, unable to put a sentence together, because the only time their parents talked to them, was to give commands. They couldn’t use cutlery, because they’d only ever been given food, like pizza and chips, which they could eat with their fingers. Nobody had ever read a story to them.

Iirc, 20% of children will have SEN at some time in their education; it’s reckoned 5% have inborn SEN like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, speech and language disorders, visual impairment, etc. The other 15% will be as a result of multiple deprivations.

While there ought to be more special schools for those in the 5%, who can’t cope in mainstream classrooms; imo, society needs to be doing more about the 15% - and closing the Sure Start centres, underfunding the HV system and free hours in nurseries was very short sighted.

How many posters voted Tory for lower taxes?

@Quisquam Early years educators on this thread and another one have posted their experience of Sure Start. They said that it was overwhelmingly used by parents who didn't need it. The parents who did need it were sometimes court-ordered to attend but they didn't participate. That's a problem with all interventions.

I agree cutting funding for early intervention and social work is disastrous. However, the rise in behavioural problems in schools and in SEN is throughout western countries, as far as I'm aware. I posted lots of links earlier demonstrating this. None of them have Tories, so anything Tory-related is not the cause of the increase.

We fight the LA to get it right for every child. They came to see things, acknowledged it was difficult, then placed even more children in our school whilst not increasing staff numbers.
We are extremely honest in review meeting involving multiple agencies. Usually we then just get patronised by an Ed psych who suggests something we have either already tried or something that wouldn't work because of the other needs of other high tariff children in the class.
Written reports for all pupils in our school emphasis the things children CAN do and the next steps would be what we hope to go onto next. I as a class teacher would never be allowed by the LA to present it in another way. This is an authority wide policy.

Early years educators on this thread and another one have posted their experience of Sure Start. They said that it was overwhelmingly used by parents who didn't need it. The parents who did need it were sometimes court-ordered to attend but they didn't participate. That's a problem with all interventions.

Surely there is a way to shut out the middle classes from Sure Start; and give more carrots for those, who need to go? No intervention is going to reach everybody, but that doesn’t mean giving up altogether?

Imo, it’s wrong to put infants in a class of thirty full stop! I’d look at kindergartens for children aged 5 - 7, like in Europe. We start on reading and writing too young - why not start at seven?

I’d put child development and parenting classes into the compulsory curriculum - I don’t know why we are not taught this, when it’s one of the most important jobs, we have? We all have to pass a driving test; but are let loose on babies, without a clue?

I’d go for the German system of three types of secondary schools, including for those not academically inclined at 14 - we need to look at more technical training to be tradesmen like plumbers, construction workers, etc instead of looking to import them already qualified.

@Quisquam while the German education system is overall fairly good, one of the criticisms is actually that students can be split off into school categories too early, with no way back.

@somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull

'Written reports for all pupils in our school emphasis the things children CAN do and the next steps would be what we hope to go onto next. I as a class teacher would never be allowed by the LA to present it in another way. This is an authority wide policy.'

That's appalling. What would the LA do if you wrote down the truth? What would they do if all teachers wrote the truth and management defended them?

@somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull I suspected the LA would put pressure on teachers in this way. Reports and written evidence is vital for parents to challenge the LA so that EHCP's can be legally enforced and parents can get a school that can meet needs. By not providing the evidence many parents hands are tied because the can't afford the independent reports needed to secure the section f provision.

Wording reports in a positive way is just fanning the flames. I understand why but at the same time can you not see that by doing this you're holding some children back from getting the support they need and increasing your own work load. I know nhs professionals fo this also as well as many schools.

My ds's mainstream school had similar issues so we worked with the senco to get what we needed in a way that they didn't break policy. Candid meeting minutes where the school would do as you do and if the LA Ed psych did something similar they did bat it back saying that x, y and z hadn't worked or making comments such as "ds clear communication needs/ sensory needs/ physical needs aren't able to be met by...." we could then submit the minutes which they couldn't refute. Also any positive reports that were framed in what he can do also detailed what the main body of the class were doing with any alterations stated so that it could be seen that he was working at a much different level etc.

School reports not actively saying child x has such and such needs which we need additional agency input for really holds things back and keeps the child in a position where they're not getting the education they need and other children are being impacted. Some parents will read the positive reports and think everything is OK or put their head further in the sand.

@Quisquam

A court order is a pretty strong stick! You can make them go with either carrot or stick but you can't force them to either participate or actually change their behaviour. Those behaviours have deep roots.

Europe has the same problems with increasing behavioural problems, and SEN, in schools, so it's not caused by starting formal school too young. Also, England always started formal education at 4/5, yet it didn't always have anything resembling the rate of problems in children that it does now so that's not causing it.

The idea that education about child development will solve the problem I'm afraid is something that's been tried for about 60 years now in countries around the world, and it doesn't work. It helps parents who are well meaning but genuinely just a bit clueless, sure, but they're not the ones causing the majority of the problems.

To take examples people have given, no one needs to be taught that a 4 year old is supposed to be toilet trained starting school. But reception teachers will be told by parents of 4 year olds who have no special needs, that it's not their job, it's the teacher's job. That's nothing to do with lack of education. Those parents don't care that their child swears, hits, throws furniture and calls their teacher a fat whore. No one needs to be taught that it's not ok to feed your child pizza and chips their entire life so they don't know what cutlery is until they get to preschool. You can't make people care about things they don't care about.

Here's the reality of Germany on special needs:

How Germany is failing special-needs students – DW – 03/11/2019

There are so many variables that arguing and blaming one particular group or mindset is irrational and a waste of time. Not all schools follow statutory guidance and act in good faith when it comes to inclusion, not all parents of children with and without disabilities enforce (or support the schools to enforce) behaviour boundaries that are appropriate to their child’s capabilities, not all parents of disabled children are in a position to effectively advocate for their children whilst others are experienced negotiators and powerful advocates.

I feel like this is all a distraction that is causing infighting and alienation from the real issue, which is a lack of adequate funding. Until we get organised and join forces in a truly collaborative and solution-focused way, the situation is going to deteriorate further. More children (with and without disabilities) are going to be failed academically and socially, pupil and staffs’ physical and mental health is going to be put at further risk, our ability to raise future innovators and leaders is going to be lost altogether, more women are going to feel forced to give up their jobs to support the education of their children and even more education professionals are going to down tools and walk away.

We need to stop this infighting and really work together to force government policy towards meaningful, long term change.

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.

It's the same in care. Due to cuts in services and other issues carers/support workers are having to deal with increasingly extreme behaviour including literally being throttled and hit with everything within range. This is in a regular household too, not even a specialist unit(not that it's acceptable for staff to be assaulted there either) Other tenants who also have additional needs are being terrorised in their own homes because an individual with a long history of violence has been placed with them even though they may not be mobile and are unable to get away. It isn't much use to the person needing such an intense level of support either. No one wins. It's utterly disgusting the way that people are expected to put up with such violence. I know of an incident where members of the public were attacked including an elderly lady and nothing was done to improve the situation.

A family friend's daughter, in Australia, not here, was a carer and she was repeatedly stabbed in her sleep by a violent individual she was caring for. She only survived because she was so close to the hospital and even then she was very lucky as she suffered stab wounds to major organs.

No one should have to live in fear in their homes or schools or at their workplaces like this. The pitiful amount carers and TAs are paid is another issue but no amount of money makes the state of care as they are, acceptable or tolerable.

Parents are fined and charged and convicted for not sending children to school. So it isn’t an option to keep SEND children off school. The blame is with the system and disabled children shouldn’t take the blame.

part of the Not Fine in School group, and many, many parents (nearly all women) are charged and taken to court for children’s absence. As well as being fined. Given the extra costs of raising a disabled child, this is an extra burden.

@PixiePirate I don't agree that it's as simple as 'lack of adequate funding is the issue'. Behavioural problems in school and SEN rates have been increasing for a long time, and the rate of increase seems to have hugely speeded up in the past 5 years, even pre Covid. We're now looking at entire classes in reception where normally developing children are a minority. And this isn't limited to England, although I don't know how widespread it is globally.

The idea that societies naturally produce cohorts like that in the absence of some amount of government spending is really kind of wild you know. If that were possible, then the human race couldn't have survived before states, let alone welfare states, existed. Because that's literally not sustainable.

Nobody is blaming disabled children. But you knew that.

Point taken on board - I’m over-simplifying the issue in my most recent post. Funding is clearly inadequate and school budgets are currently being decimated in largely failed attempts at half-measures. On reflection though I do agree that the root causes for the explosion in SEN need to be identified and addressed, alongside increased resourcing and a difficult conversation held around what inclusion will look like moving forwards.

We’re in (actually beyond) firefighting mode in schools and nobody is thriving under the current arrangements.