To think something has gone wrong in schools? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz0m2x30p4eo

[RebelBabybel]

From the BBC : school exclusions have doubled in the last 10 years.

I’ve worked in schools for 30 years : KS1/Early Years.

When I first started I was expected to do : hand written, detailed plans. Assessments. Handwritten reports. I had no TA. I had a blackboard. Children had books. I had to be firm with behaviour, schools had very clear behaviour policies in place, and the head would have an overview, was visible, check classes, be the ‘go to’ person if anything was difficult to manage.

Over the years, particularly in the Early Years things have changed massively.
My latest role has involved a manager who is mostly on the computer and rarely interacts with the children. No planning, no assessment. Resources are put out, but there is an ethos that it’s ‘wrong’ to show the children how to use them. Therefore children don’t use jigsaws as puzzles, they take the pieces out and transport them round the classroom. A doctors role play is set up, but with no input as to what the resources are there are for or how to role play ‘being a doctor’.

There is an expectation, a ‘box’ of what constitutes ‘normal’ behaviour : even with very young children. Any child who is outside this box, is often labelled ‘I think they’ve got autism, I think they’ve got ADHD’ without a formal assessment. These children - rather than getting to know them, or putting clear strategies in place, are quickly labelled as difficult : and fall into a stereotype that causes a negative cycle. There seems to be little ‘fault’ addressed to the teaching style, and the ‘fault??’ is centred on the child, I’d also argue that it is NOT a fault. It’s called being a child.

Children seem to be very readily excluded from schools without the adults fully questioning their teaching style and whether that might be at fault.

To be completely honest, teaching was far easier 30 years ago. Children were better behaved, and there was far better, stronger support from senior management. It felt more like a team, rather than:

an SLT who are in meetings, on a computer, off to conferences, in the staff room, pushing ‘new’ initiatives and criticising their staff.

Also this. Local Authorities deliberately break the law and deny children their legal right to education in order to save money. They are losing 98% of tribunals for EHCPs so it's quite clear that they are denying them to children that they know should have one: that is far above the level that could possibly result from genuine error

And this is because councils are going bankrupt over the costs. It's not just to 'save money', it's because they don't have it.

In the meantime everyone else is paying shedloads of council tax and wondering where it is all going because public services like libraries are closing down, potholes aren't being filled and bin collections are being reduced.

Something drastic needs to happen about SEN funding because the current system is failing everyone.

I do wonder if we’ve created an us and them mentality over the years.

The rise of SENCO’s, labels for children, plus the EHCP process leads to a siphoning off of the ‘difficult’ children.

Schools want to shine with their results and reputation.
Children with needs are met with negativity from schools and other parents. And it creates a downward spiral.
I think my DC has been more ‘accepted’ because he is fine academically and otherwise quiet and well behaved,

But it absolutely shouldn’t be this way.
30 years ago, we differentiated for children - but there wasn’t this clear segregation in the class of : those are the ‘insert label here’ ones.

They were considered a child worthy of education in a school as much as any other child.

My comment stands

I’ll also give another example.

A friend of mine teaches a specific activity in a school.
A child with additional needs Mum asked if her DC could join the activity.
School staff said : she won’t be able to do it.
Friend researched possible adaptations.

Child now joins the activity and enjoys it.

To me that just illustrates the enormous difference a positive, let’s try, can do attitude makes. Yet : my friend was in the minority opinion in the school.

And yet 30 years ago there were 12k perm ex children compared to the numbers today. You don't seem to grasp the concept that your experience isn't universally valid or backed by actual numbers or statistics.

Your initial premise is wrong. I actually bothered to research and post the numbers on here and you've ignored that post and keep banging on about the good old days.

You're in a crappy school. Move jobs and you'll probably find what you need.

This is true, but being more likely to diagnose won't, on it's own, have changed things in schools. If these kids still existed 30 years ago, but undiagnosed (I was one of them!), why is it causing issues in the classroom now we know why they're struggling?

Yes, odd, isn't it?

benefitstaxcredithelp

Children today are digital natives and to them it is kind of pointless to learn facts to regurgitate for an exam to then be able to look it up again in a split second. I’m not saying all learning is pointless in school today but certainly the way we measure it has to be modernised. I’d go as far to say this information accessibility is partly what is disengaging young people.

A lot children don't progress "digitally" beyond search engines and games.
Most will just give you the first thing that they find, just a swift copy, paste and done with no critique or thought behind it.
With AI its even worse as the just type in the question and hand in what they get back.

I'm sorry but this is missing the point spectacularly and looking at past schooling with rose tinted glasses. When's the last time you taught?

It's easy to differentiate for one child with additional needs in a class of 24. It's far from easy in a class of 34 when there's 10 children with additional needs.

"This is true, but being more likely to diagnose won't, on its own, have changed things in schools. If these kids still existed 30 years ago, but undiagnosed (I was one of them!), why is it causing issues in the classroom now we know why they're struggling?" @ThoughtfulSchooldays

I have a small class of 22. In that class I have two highly dyslexic who must use a laptop to write or I can't read their writing. I have two EAL (of which one I suspect is autistic but undiagnosed). I have three with life threatening conditions where they could need an ambulance and be blue lighted to hospital, so their health needs have to be met. They obviously have gaps in their knowledge due to absence related to their conditions. I have a GRT child who also has significant gaps. I have three with diagnosed with ADHD, one is medicated, but meds in short supply so not consistent. I have one child with C&L needs.

I ensure I adapt my classroom as much as possible (task management board, wobble cushions, brain breaks, dyslexia font for displays, coloured paper, seating plan, Zones of emotion...I could keep going!). I buy biscuits for those that need a snack but don't have one. I buy cups for those that don't have drinks bottles.

Two thirds of my class are currently working behind age related expectations. I've had this class since Sept. I feel the pressure from Govt and Ofsted who want more children to leave primary at expected level. I cannot work miracles, I can only try my best, but the pressure on teachers to get children to these levels on a curriculum that isn't suited to all is tough even on the good days. And the bad days, well that's when stuff happens outside of my control where a child is in distress over things at home, or friendships and can become verbally and physically abusive. And that's another day that can set back learning not just for that child but also the class that witness the abuse and need time to settle after.

1.7% per 10000 in 90’s to 4.3% per 10000 most recent data??

I’m just following the reports that exclusions are at an all time high. And relating to my experience.

And I think rose tinted specs are better than the black, negative, nothing can be done, doom specs worn by a lot of educators.

There are more children living in what is defined as poverty but there is so much more to consume and SM makes it easy to see so many people feel hard done by.

There were always kids dragged up, still are but there is the rise of people wanting their children to like them all the time and be their mate. I grew up-in an abusive situation with beatings with a garden cane. I do not agree with physical punishment at all but I see plenty of people never saying no. Children need boundaries.

DH and I retired recently from higher education so they have all been filtered. Though obviously many are still exceptionally bright they seem more of a homogenous mass, influenced by SM. Critical thinking has been replaced by echo chambers online. It’s dumbing down the entire nation across all social classes. I see it on here with people vilifying the left or right wing press and anyone who reads whatever they disapprove of is to be hated, cancelled or whatever.

I like MN because there are people with views across what appears to be the entire political spectrum. It used to be very left wing, there has been a definite move to the right of late but not as much as people think.

I don't agree. No one is saying nothing can be done. School staff are trying their hardest to think of creative ways to help all children every day.

There's lots that can be done. Better funding, smaller class sizes, early intervention for children with additional needs.

Yes, people are definitely saying that there are things that can be done.

It's just they don't agree with the OP's assertion that what is needed is 'firmer boundaries'.

My point is not that all kids have good digital skills, my point is that their motivation for memorising vast amounts of information for a test has been compromised by the digital world we now live in.

My point is not that kids today all have good digital skills, my point is that their motivation to memorise large amounts of information has been compromised by the digital world we now live in.

Because now they've got a valid excuse.

Meh, I'm a maths teacher and the existence of calculators hasn't killed off the need to be numerate quite yet.

The idea that you don't need to know anything because you can google it is an incredibly stupid one. How do you get anything done if you have to google everything? How does your brain make links between various pieces of knowledge if they are all stored on separate Wikipedia pages? How can you be creative if you have no starting point, nothing to draw inspiration from, a brain that is a blank?

If you don't fill your brain with useful information, it will fill itself with shite. How many of us can still remember advertising jingles from when we were kids? Our brains want to learn and store vast amounts of information.