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 so depressing. I feel for you OP, for all the teachers and all the children being so badly let down by the government.
I home educate, partly for this reason. You don't send your precious, sweet child to school and expect them to be subjected to swearing, violence and aggression on a daily basis. Then further down the line, to be at ground zero of such a shocking mental health crisis amongst teenagers. It's all so unacceptable to me. The whole system needs a complete overhaul and massive investment. It's not going to happen anytime soon.
I hope things get better for you somehow.

I would say this is spot on in education too.
There is always the implication if you are hurt by a child that it is somehow your fault. You didn't follow their triggers, you didn't manage to de escalate their feelings, you didn't manage to keep yourself or others safe.

Today:
Scissors thrown into our area from another class. We have partitions not actual floor to ceiling walls. He then shouted at me telling me to Fuck off. This is a primary aged child.
Child A in my class attempted to stab me with a pencil.
Child B got so distressed by all of the above that she screamed continuously for about 25 minutes.
Child C started snapping any ruler or pencil he could reach.
Child D very annoyed that Child E was getting to use an iPad - to translate as English isn't their first language. Child D grabbed the iPad and smacked Child E across the face with it.
Child F got a nose bleed.
No adults were available to assist me with any of this. They were dealing with even worse behaviour in another part of the school.
Bless the rest of my class tried to continue to do their jobs but it got to the point that one table had no pencils because of child C and nobody could hear themselves think.

I think there's a reason this is disproportionately happening to nurses, carers and teachers. Massively female dominated. Also professions that attract disproportionately highly agreeable and conscientious people of either gender. Great traits to have in such jobs, but the flip side is the easiest people on earth to manipulate through compassion, guilt, blame, rules that must be followed etc. I don't know what the answer to that is though.

okay @somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull so what are you going to do? have you documented all the above to your head of whatever? have you filed any incident reports and have you followed up with your version of occupational health?
document the children who were violent (children a and d) and refuse them entry into your class tomorrow, they can sit in the office with the management till management sorts the issue.
don't be a wet lettuce.

@somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull Why not just stay home tomorrow? You could either get yourself signed off on stress leave, as it sounds like it's affecting your mental health, or just quit. Report the violent ones first, for sure.

Stayed at school until being kicked out by the cleaners locking up at 7pm. Filled in violent incident forms. Phoned parents. Filled in the individual pupils' records.
I have kept a log since the start of term with screen grabs of all my requests for assistance...and them not being answered.
I've spoken to the union rep to see what they suggest.
I spoke to my line manager saying again how worried I was. I followed that up with an email as it is better to put it in writing too.
Also put in a request to buy more ear defenders for the pupils so they can concentrate despite noise.
Spoke to teacher from next class to put up an even higher divider between our classes.
I've tried to reorganise my seating plan but that is an absolute nightmare.
That is all I can do today. I've worked a 12hr day, didn't take much of a lunch break to try and sort out some of the chaos and speak to kids. I did at least manage to go to the loo though!
Tomorrow is another day.

Can't just quit. I have bills to pay. Not sure getting signed off would help long term. I would just come back to an even bigger mess.

It's extremely easy to find work of some kind or another at the moment, and getting signed off would help right now, which is more than sufficient. There's no reason why you'd go back to this particular school ever anyway, however big the mess gets without you.

Would you want the children in your class (ok let's say the ones who are trying) to grow up to tolerate a working environment like this? You'd never teach them to do that would you? So treat yourself with the same respect. It's not good for them to watch adults being walked all over by children either, that's their role model for normality. You can stay in teaching if you like, apparently there are schools where these problems are at least much rarer and better dealt with. You just have to find them and get in.

Sometimes when you're stuck in an unsafe/abusive/bullying job it can feel like you're trapped, I know, I've been there. The stress itself is paralyzing. But you're not.

Can't just quit. I have bills to pay. Not sure getting signed off would help long term. I would just come back to an even bigger mess.

I've had family members in almost your exact position. I wonder what the long term impact of not quitting or being signed off will be for your wellbeing and whether it might create to a bigger future mess. (My family members carried on until the decision was effectively taken out of their hands by a breakdown in health that compelled them to stop.)

okay sounds like all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed. will the violent little ones be back in your class or sitting out with management?

I have a child who isn't send but however struggles very much with anxiety, focussing and social skills at school. So while she may not have support or anything she does still struggle with school s lot and the current system adds to this

She's very bright but struggles to focus due to disruptive and often violent pupils in her y4 class. The teachers sit the most disruptive children with her in the hope she'll calm them down. I'm not allowed to object because the children are send. I was once shsnef for mentioning it even though I had no idea the child hitting mine was send.

I feel so bad for the send children, their parents who have to fight so hard for help, the overworked staff.

It's all broken.

I guess I just wanted to speak up for how it affects other kids too. My daughter is scared of school and distracted from her education.

I in no way think my lot is harder or even the same.

Just filling in my side of the picture. Not all non send kids are happy go lucky or have it easy. They can struggle too and have parents who repeatedly advocate for them to be supported rather than told to be resilient for the millionth time. The current system fails all kids

but as mentioned before @Petimrose why are you not taking it further for the education and safety of your child?
you've been made to feel guilty for protecting and advocating for your dd.
you are not doing her any favors nor the broken system by allowing it all to simply continue.

True. I guess I needed to hear that. I've been made to feel like that mum who complains too much too many times. Concerns get minimalised... life distracts you and you hope the school problem will improve as it should. Work gets busy. I get v ill. Family member gets a terminal cancer diagnosis. Life is crap enough as it is and we all.(parents of all kids) shouldn't have to work so hard for a decent education in a safe environment for our kids

But next incident or next parents evening I am raising this. Thank you

This is a stressful thread to read! It just seems so endemic across the country now it's hard to hope for the future. My wife is a teacher of early years and i just find it mad that they have to do restraint training that most recently has added in 'safe' places to strike a child in order to subdue them, only to be used when you need to defend others in the class and are unable to restrain, but still!

There's so many parents pushing their children's sen plans and rightly frustrated that they're just not followed, having spent so much time and effort getting the diagnosis/plan in the first place. There's just absolutely no resources to implement them and such as disparity in ability across the class they are being left behind completely and managed by distraction. Class sizes are massive, such little space in the room. Rarely a TA to assist as they're shared between classes as no money to hire sufficiently. They cope by having an 'inclusion' table which is at the back of the class surrounded by partitions/notice board things that make a temporary wall. Its sold as reducing stimulation encouraging focus but really just trying to minimise disruption caused. Theyre not allowed to give an honest picture to the parents of those children that there is little hope or expectation of providing them an education because amongst other things how do you tell a parent that who probably doesn't have another alternative.

@Petimrose as a mom you can never advocate for your child too much. on some level it's not just about your child but all children including those who need more appropriate support.
and when your daughter is 25 at least she won't be saying that you never stood up for her.

My 2 dds are at a local primary and we had a letter six months ago telling us that the school is part of project safety valve.

We are in the North East but I hear its happening everywhere. Our school is being extended fir SEND resource on site to help place children who need specialist schools with no room. The children will be part of the class but one to one's will help.

This seems the way the government is dealing with the crisis

@Petimrose

'The teachers sit the most disruptive children with her in the hope she'll calm them down. I'm not allowed to object because the children are send. I was once shsnef for mentioning it even though I had no idea the child hitting mine was send.

I feel so bad for the send children, their parents who have to fight so hard for help, the overworked staff.'

This is child abuse. If it happened anywhere other than a classroom you'd recognize it as such. It's not ok for a school to not only allow but facilitate another child to hit your daughter, whether she has anxiety or not. Giving you grief for complaining about it is gaslighting.

They've manipulated you into feeling bad for everyone else while not protecting your daughter, the one your primary responsibility is to. Do you see how insane that is? You most certainly are allowed to object, you're just being bullied into not doing so. Either start objecting a lot louder or move your daughter until they stop using your daughter as a diversionary punching bag, or move her to another school.

@SleepyRich

'They're not allowed to give an honest picture to the parents of those children that there is little hope or expectation of providing them an education because amongst other things how do you tell a parent that who probably doesn't have another alternative.'

There's an awful lot of 'not allowed' going on when it comes to this issue. A huge amount of lying, delusion and silencing. Those parents have a right to be told the truth. The way you tell parents a harsh truth is you tell them it, end of.

This nonsense of everyone involved toeing the line and obeying every ridiculous rule they're told to follow is one of the roots of the problem. It's how government and LAs are getting away with not funding the resources that are needed, and school management are largely trying to keep the problem quiet for their own reasons it seems. They're hushing up the problem and manipulating everyone and people are sitting back and taking it. Teachers need to get together, so they can't be bullied one by one, and channel their far-too-deeply-buried inner selfish contrary cunt. They could take a leaf out of the books of some of their sweary non-SEN delights if they need some inspiration.

I find in meeting saying "its my job to advocate for my child' as a bit of a broken record stops a bit of the attempts at guilt tripping.

Many sen parents, like myself, also have children without SEN and will still love and look out for them too.

This sounds beyond horrendous.
Higher screening to keep the disruption at bay - and ear defenders for children to shut out the noise of screeching?

It sounds like Hell.

Get out , @somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull - There will be “Nice” schools to teach at.
A Family friend taught at an inner London school years ago and said it was frightening at times- She left and worked at a private school with small classes and “ Delightful “ children- zero violence, just serene classes.

Life is too short.

Don’t sacrifice yourself and be a martyr.

Imagine the tranquility of small classes and peaceful children who want to learn, with just the sound of birdsong drifting in from
sun dappled lawns.

Do it for your emotional and mental well-being.

Good teachers can get work anywhere. Oh

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is not sane. How does waiting for the next assault, or the next parents evening, protect your daughter today? Get her out. Her mental health is being damaged every day. Then sue them for the damage they've done to your daughter.

@somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull as a parent of a 4 year old child with ASD, I wanted to say my experience with his teachers have been amazing!
They went above and beyond to support us in getting the right support, they all wrote supporting documents for my appeal to gain a specialist placement, and without their support it is likely we would not have won the appeal.
I am so thankful to you and the other teachers working in this broken system, and doing their best day in and day out.

There's an awful lot of 'not allowed' going on when it comes to this issue. A huge amount of lying, delusion and silencing. Those parents have a right to be told the truth. The way you tell parents a harsh truth is you tell them it, end of.

ITA. Ime, parents are playing a game of SEN poker with the LA, where nobody has told them the rules (aka the law), and their hands are tied behind their backs, because schools and the LA’s professionals, like NHS speech therapists also lie to them for years. Schools deny and obscure the extent of the child’s SEN. See the thread on the SN board about the 9 year old girl, who can’t read. Then, the best advice to any parents at the start of the SEN road, is to put in the request for the ECHPNA themselves - countless parents have been told by schools, that they have to go through plan, do, review; £6,000 pa has to be spent on their child first; and the school has put the request in - all turn out to be untrue! Parents wait weeks or months to find out the school hasn’t sent a request in at all.

I have only come across one SENCO and one head, who called parents into their office and dictated the letters, parents needed to write to get an assessment and statement (predecessor to the EHCP), the child needed.

Even when ultimately the parents appealed to the SEN Tribunal for specified provisions and possibly a specialist placement, the teacher/SENCO/head was often a witness for the LA, promising the mainstream school could walk on water, delivering what the child needed. Parents could not rely on the school for support at all - more usually the school stabbed them in the back. NHS speech therapists were just as bad, in toeing the LA’s line. Parents had to pay for independent professional reports, as it was the only way to get the truth about what their child needed. Parents, who didn’t qualify for legal aid, but couldn’t afford the professional reports, were often stuck between a rock and a hard place with rubbish paperwork from the school and the LA’s professionals. I’d suggest they apply for DLA or work as a dinner lady for a year, just to afford an independent educational psychologist’s report.

As for those of you, with children suffering due to violent children now, I’d write to the board of governors and the head of children’s services that they have a duty to safeguard your child and what are they going to do about it? All behaviour is communication and the violent child’s needs are clearly not being met, but that is not your child’s problem. Parents are frequently subject to emotional blackmail in schools - don’t fall for it! Saying a violent child has 1:1 all the time, except break times is lunacy - many children with SEN need the 1:1 most at unstructured times like break/lunch!

Parents see this - it’s statutory guidance, so must be followed. Even the first few pages talk about the school’s duty in child protection from child on child abuse:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1181955/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2023.pdf