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

Teachers can only strike about pay.

Why?

I agree. Also the other children who are getting bitten, slapped, punched and spat on. Sorry but that is unacceptable. I don't understand how it is allowed. My nephew got a broken nose from another student throwing a chair at him. The answer....but he has special needs. The child terrorised the staff and the other children every day. I know it is not the child's fault in any way, shape or form but I cannot understand parents who willingly sent their children into school knowing they are a danger to others. No child should have to go into school and endure that. What about the children who are attacked? They just have to sit there and take it because...well special needs. No violent child should be in a classroom setting.

Yes and yes. You are right. Inclusion is basically ‘we shut down the specialist schools, so failed everyone’.

Because he deserves an education as much as someone without send.

Because once you have an EHCP with a school named you have to send a child in for education by law.

Because you don't expect a LA to name a MS school for a child with severe send.

Because you don't get a wage being at home all day and they need money.

Lots of reasons.

The main one being why should a child be denied an education because the government authorities have fucked up and badly funded education for too long?

Many many threads pointing this out at the time and still people don't get it.

If teachers could strike about other things schools and education would be fucked. That's probably why they can't!

The current Reception cohort at our school have a much higher number of children who need extra support. So much so that I would say that the children with typical development are very much in the minority this year.

Some of the children already have a diagnosis but little or no extra funding. Others have parents who are very much in denial that their children have any additional needs - even when the child is hitting, kicking and biting staff as well as other children.

We've already had chairs thrown and tables tipped over, and children injured by objects thrown at their heads. The number of children with little or no speech & language is in double digits.

How on earth do we support all of the above as well as provide a decent education - and all with no extra funding and minimal staff?

I cannot understand parents who willingly sent their children into school knowing they are a danger to others. No child should have to go into school and endure that. What about the children who are attacked? They just have to sit there and take it because...well special needs. No violent child should be in a classroom setting

It's not the parents fault. We are told that our children need to be in an education setting. In fact we are pursued and hectored over it, yet the provision is entirely unsuitable. The system is to blame not the parents or children who have as much right to an education as any other child.

I was harassed over my child's absence record yet the day OFSTED came I got a quiet phone call asking me to keep him off that day. On advice from right here on MN I said "no problem but can you please put that request in writing..." they went very quiet and told me it was just a thought and not to worry. We've no choice but to send them in unless we remove to home educate which I was able to do, most parents can't though.

No child should be injured in school because of another child.
No child's education should be stalled and interrupted because of another child.
No child should be terrified to go to school for fear of being attacked.
No teacher should have to be hit, spat at and have equipment broken, classes stopped and evacuated.
Sorry but no.

No child should be injured in school because of another child.
No child's education should be stalled and interrupted because of another child.
No child should be terrified to go to school for fear of being attacked.
No teacher should have to be hit, spat at and have equipment broken, classes stopped and evacuated.
Sorry but no.

Did you read my post? They make us send them. What's your solution?

But he's not getting an education. He's just getting very stressed and attacking other children and teachers.

What happens if you don't send them?

What would happen beyond hectoring if you kept a violent child home from school?

The strikes were also partly about school funding- legally unions can't say that, but it was a major factor for a lot of teachers chosing to strike, and one of the reasons people wanted specifically a fully funded pay rise.

School funding cuts are, IMO, a major reason inclusion isn't working.

No society can do that, is the answer, so you don't. And as those children are the future adults, the problem will only get worse.

To the pp who said why do those parents send their kids to school. Many reasons. They live with them 24/7 and are at breaking point, the next option is residential school which LAs really don't want to fund, or a child in the care system which guess what, will send them to school. Depending on area and how accessible special school places are, they need to be in mainstream to show that mainstream can't meet need for the LA to start the ehcp and special school process. There is very little respite or social care support, what do you think would happen to these families with no time out. It is not the families fault there is an inadequate school system, nor that their child is disabled. I am speaking as the parent of a severely autistic child. Non verbal, in nappies, violent and challenging behaviour, extreme sleep disorder. Absolutely relentless issues and challenges, 1:1 at all times even at home. He went into special school after having to defer him for a year so we were lucky, he would not have coped in mainstream for one second. In the position of no special school places available we would have had to go through the hoops of sending him to mainstream for him to struggle, and the teachers to struggle, for him to eventually access a suitable placement. It's ridiculous, and unfair, and incredibly stressful for everyone involved, but what else do you want the parents to do? It. Will. Break. Them. I cannot even explain how hard it is, it's unimaginable unless you're in that position. And in case anyone is interested, I had him at 27 years old, full term, no family history, no know reason. Just one of those things.

No child should be injured in school because of another child.
No child's education should be stalled and interrupted because of another child.
No child should be terrified to go to school for fear of being attacked.
No teacher should have to be hit, spat at and have equipment broken, classes stopped and evacuated.
Sorry but no.

Who said they should. It's the LAs who name the school on echps. It's not the parents. Why should they deny their child an education because the LA are fuck ups?

And if you don't send your child to the completely unsuitable school and remove them you then are out of the system and get nothing.

It's the system not the kids or their parents.

And it's not always just the pupils with send who are the violent ones.

My ds who is disabled ended up unable to attend due to anxiety after being bullied (which included a knife being pulled on him in class). He wasn't the problem but he was placed in an unsuitable school who couldn't meet need and was left vulnerable and suicidal.

It's not a 4/5/6 yo fault that the adults concerned decide that when function at 1-2 years old they should attend MS school because it's cheaper. They are also being failed.

Plus the care system is even more expensive than properly funding a suitable education place.

I'm asking why though? As in, if there is such a rule why do teachers tolerate it?

Anyway, the point was that you can't expect the public to know what's actually going on in schools, and therefore sympathize, when they're only told that the reason for, say, strikes, is pay. And possibly overwork. They're not hearing about the state of children unless they personally know social workers, teachers etc who are dealing with it. Partly because it's worsened really quite rapidly.

What would happen beyond hectoring if you kept a violent child home from school?

www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence

The same as happens to any other child with unauthorised absence. Hope you find this helpful.

I am a TA. I would say it’s the mainstream that’s the problem.
We have 5 children with special needs in my class and there are 2 LSAs. Everyone suffers - the teachers, the TAs, the children with special needs the children without special needs who have their learning disrupted every single day.
We need more specialist schools with better spaces, equipment, staffing levels specifically trained teachers and LSAs and resources.

There are multiple studies that show that children of older parents have a much higher risk of having issues such as autism and ADHD. With people seemingly having kids much later than before,this issue is not going away.

I can't remember what the term is ( some Latin thing) but when trying to decide a fair system you need to imagine that you are up in heaven about to be born into the world and there is. 25% chance of being either the child with sen. Parents of child with sen, nt child in class. Parents of nt child in class
. Now design a system bases on the fact that you could be any one of the four of these.

I don't have the answers but I do know the current system isn't working for anyone.

Has anyone ever been convicted for keeping their child at home to prevent them from attacking other children and teachers?