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

Special needs can't be met in a mainstream environment. It's not rocket science but we aren't allowed to say this because it's not pc.

Ex teacher. Where are the unions? Surely this should be a priority for them?

Collating evidence, supporting staff, raising this in the media, lobbying government. Teaching is one of the most heavily unionised professions - what are they doing for their ‘dues’?

@Redlocks28

Completely agree. We had to spend almost £20 000 on a new phonics scheme, resources and books last year. Part way through implementation, we had an inspection by the locality lead ( the LA inspector) They picked up the fact that we hadn't yet replaced the phonics display material we used. The sounds were in the same order but the associated " illustrations" for each sound were slightly different - think something akin to s represented by a green snake in the old scheme and an orange snake in the new! Phonics failed! So another £2000 replacing display posters around the school!

@spanieleyes my dc12 would have coloured them all in orange for £50 😂

I thought this was one of the reasons for strike action? Underfunding?

Why would your dyspraxic child be in a specialist school for ASD children who are non verbal? I don’t think that’s what anyone is suggesting. Unless she’s non-verbal too?
And is she even autistic as well as dyspraxic?

The context for this discussion about inclusion was about kids who are spitting, biting and kicking etc in mainstream.

As you correctly pointed out, the alternative environment you describe would meet your childs needs even less. She has found a happy medium being in a mainstream school but with a 1:1 and is ticking along fine.

FWIW I have dyspraxia, wasn’t diagnosed until uni, as i went to school back in the 90s where I was just moaned at for having messy handwriting and constantly losing things and daydreaming and being “lazy” .

Despite all those differences and difficulties I had far more in common with the children in the mainstream schools I attended, in terms of intellectual and social capability - I went on to study law at university and have traveled the world solo - than the kids At the special school across the road. It’s a no-brainer.

According to you your child is not disruptive or dangerous to other students so I don’t see the relevance?

But the Scandinavian model you describe does seem interesting and worth looking into.

Lots of special needs can be met in a mainstream environment. Some with minimal support, some with significant support. I've seen children who are blind or, deaf or have cerebal palsy, down sydrome, asd be fine in mainstream with the right support. They hsve thrived, their class hasnt been impacted. The key is support..

Some children need specialist provision. Its not non pc to say so. People are literally protesting in the streets to increase specialist provision and lobbying government. Schools are brgging for it, parents are begging.

In my experience, I think it is a factor. Every single one of our pupils with medical needs (a variety of them including, bowel issues, PEG-feeding, physical weakness so that a walker and hoist is needed, seizures, VI difficulties) were born prematurely or had significant difficulties during pregnancy/birth. It is likely that many wouldn’t survived 30/40 years ago when pp are saying things like, ‘pupils like this weren’t in mainstream when I was at school, where have they all come from?!’

Of course, not every prem child will have SEND.

Do any teachers have insight into just why these sorts of special needs are so much more prevalent now? I worked in a mainstream primary a decade ago and was shocked by how much support so many small children need (not including those with SEN, just behavioural/emotional issues).

There is an established link between older parents and autism. (I had DS at 40 and DH was the same age - he is autistic).

Anyone know how you become besties with people in government? I could really do with all that magic funding they can find for their mates is all.

Just I've got an amazing idea about re- introducing specialised schools which specialise in one area rather than best fit (high achieving or able to cope with mainstream curriculum but ASD is top of priority list), making all class sizes smaller (20 children max), building schools with lots of extra space and nooks, adding sensory rooms and spaces. There is more but it's already a long post.

I'd also like to get rid of the bullshittery that is the getting better value in SEND initiative.

Of course we would need a miracle to staff it as I would want to be able to offer part time for staff (2 or 3 days a week), have over staffed classrooms, have much longer break times (1/2 hours and full 1hr 15 mins lunch) so children can actually decompress a bit at break and not shovel their lunch down in 5 minutes.

However I don't think I would be unusual in over promising a pipe dream to the govt. I'd only have to do even half of it and it would be considered a resounding success by the government.

It is pretty undisputed that many babies survive now who would not before. Prem babies, babies to older parents on average, medicine to stop miscarriages. All of these are more likely to have ld or sen needs. Also the dreadful state of maternity care means birth injuries or trauma may be more likely, deprivation of oxygen at birth etc. This is not a judgement, just a reason. Also the case that we used to institutionalise non verbal children or hide at home, thankfully not anymore.

Some additional needs are well catered for and inclusion- by which I mean decent inclusion rather than separate provision in a mainstream- can and does work. We have had children with complete sight loss using braille, children with total hearing impairment, children with ASD, ADHD, severe medical needs, Cerebal palsy, Down's all who were able to access the curriculum ( to a greater or lesser extent) and mainstream provision could be adapted and amended as necessary to meet their needs. But we find that SOME needs in particular are harder to manage, the children can't cope and the staff can't either. But there is nowhere else suitable to ensure they can achieve their full potential so they are left to struggle along in mainstream- we have had a couple of children where it has been agreed specialist provision is preferable, who were still waiting 12 months later.
It is not just the teachers who are struggling to cope, the children- both those with additional needs and those without, are struggling too.

I work in a role where I see a lot of babies and very young children. I work in a deprived area. I would say that my colleagues and I can predict exactly who a lot of these children will be from their first few months. I am aware of families where mum has 3-4 children under school age, none of whom have any additional provision and don't go to nursery, who are strapped into chairs all day, often baby recliners well past the age of 1. They are fed baby food well into toddlerhood. They sit in front of the TV all day with their mum with zero social interaction. Their health visitors are aware but they have not got enough funding so they don't meet the threshold for intervention. Occasionally one of the dads will be violent so we all hope that that will mean that something gets done but mum just says she won't let that dad in again so nothing happens. And then we become aware that that dad has been in again and we contact SS but they don't do anything. Every one of those children will be disruptive and difficult at school. They will all get an ASD and ADHD diagnosis but they are probably being misdiagnosed and it's probably developmental trauma (and there is great evidence for really good intervention to help these children later on but it's way more expensive than this country will ever pay - proper 1:1 psychology) but they'll get labelled and medicated inappropriately...
And I know lots and lots and lots of families like this.
I know reception staff who told me they were having to teach their children to chew because they'd had baby food since birth.
I don't know the answer but I know that additional very early years provision would help. Scandinavia gets so much good press but a tiny minority of Scandinavian parents are SAHPs - they all have great parental leave and then they go back to work with fantastic nursery provision. I think we need more of that and better finding for good early years support of all types.
(Of course this is not the only reason for children not coping in MS schools. There are loads of children with needs that are genetic and nothing to do with environment. But I've been working for 25 years in this sector and the number of inadequate parents has increased very very significantly and the amount of help for them has decreased very very significantly).

Also, a lot of our school infrastructure is not suited to 30+ kids in a classroom. The classrooms are just not really big enough. I remember one year I had a class of 23 instead of 30. The amount of extra space we had was amazing. That extra table of 6 wasn't needed so tables could be more spaced out, the book corner bigger, more space to move about so it seemed less hectic. The drop in noise level was dramatic.

I'm a senior teaching assistant in a secondary school. I am seeing my colleagues both teachers and tas leave in droves

There is not enough support in schools. We have kids who should not be in mainstream with their needs but we are told they can't go elsewhere. But we don't have enough tas to be with them

Having had a prem baby at 28 weeks 35 years ago , I could understand some medical problems possibly ( although my son had none) but a lot of what we are talking about are behaviour problems and violence . So I am not sure that is totally the answer .

The proportion of children with special needs has been increasing for a long time. As far as I'm aware it's everywhere in western countries. Beyond that I don't know. The statistics will be undercounted because it's not in any government's interest to count them all. And I doubt there's any reliable data on the proportion of students who are simply disruptive, disrespectful and aggressive. Anecdotes would be more reliable.

This shows similar increases, and problems, in Ireland, France and Germany. The increases couldn't possibly just reflect population growth, and in none of those countries is the state keeping up with the increased demand:

No school for thousands of children with disabilities in France - EASPD

Schooling of young disabled people in France | Statista

Govt report shows big rise in amount of children with special needs in primary schools (irishexaminer.com)

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

'Boys were more likely to have problems such as aggression while girls suffered difficulties such as anxiety. Overall, babies born moderately prematurely were almost twice as likely to have emotional and/or behavioural problems as those born at full term (40 weeks).'

Premature babies are much more likely to develop behavioural problems, says study | The Independent | The Independent

It couldn't possibly be the total answer, though, or anywhere close. The numbers are too small.

Then they should make it clearer what the underfunding is for ? Or is now not PC to say inclusion is not working ?

we do in our county have a school with a separate site for SEN and my nephew had to be taken out of mainstream to attend the other section for the safety of other children . It was obvious he never should have gone to mainstream but it was still a fight to get him moved .

parents and teachers should get together and lobby . And if it means an extra amount on tax then so be it .

This is why I gave up my teaching career before it barely started. Still teach, but adults now, more pay and 1/4 the amount of stress. Plus WFH mostly. And they wonder why so many teachers are leaving the profession.

I don't think anyone on government will make moves to give us adequate staffing and resources until a child gets seriously hurt. And even then the school staff will be blamed.
No one at local authority level seems to be the least bit interested in staff being assaulted. It is always turned into how could we have handled things differently....maybe I could grow extra arms and legs, make some of them really long so I can reach all corners of my class in one go.

Several of the pupils at our school were born at 20-25 weeks. The medical needs that are coming with these children are so high need, they are virtually health care assistants-changing nappies, PEG feeding, walkers/hoists etc.

Violence or SEMH problems are impossible to manage when those health needs are thrown into the mainstream mix.

They'd care if you all sued them. Money talks. But it seems none of you do. You just suffer and leave.

PP is right about a lot of children who are violent have home issues rather than SEN.

I worked in a class where 60% of kids had SEN the violence children did not have SEN they were either ignored at home or were spoilt and could do no wrong. Blamed school. Blamed fathers. Blamed SS.

No one could speak up and say ‘actually your parenting sucks’

These kids then go on to high school where the behaviour continues and they get labeled as trouble makers, get excluded -

Even a y5 beat up a staff member was allowed back to the same school - parents can’t walk further or afford a bus to get them to the PRU - so get out back in and they parents know this.

Funny how these kids are always in school because the parents can’t cope with them.